How to Answer the Question, "What do you do?"

Crush the Rush Podcast, with Holly Haynes and Kris Jones

Speaker 1 (00:05):

Hi, I'm Holly, your host of the Crush the Rush podcast, and I'm going to teach you in just a few minutes every week how to build a full-time business on a part-time schedule. Together I built a six plus figure income business while working full-time in a little under two years and have since retired myself and my husband from the corporate world. Each week I'm going to be sharing tips and tricks on how you can do the same, and more importantly, create a schedule that works for you and your business. I started my first coaching business when my twins were just 18 months old, and while I was excited to start something new that I was passionate about, I was overwhelmed with how to make progress in such small pockets of time. The methods of working three to four hours a day and blocks of time didn't work, quite frankly because I didn't have it. So my mission is to share how you can put together your own business strategy and plan that works for you without giving up on your goals and still focusing on your priorities. I can't wait to help you grow your business and more importantly, celebrate that. Well-deserved time off. Let's get to the show. 

Speaker 1 (01:10):

Before we start this week's episode, I want to get back to the roots of why I started this podcast and that is to help you design your dream schedule, the schedule that's going to allow you to do everything you love and more without feeling the burnout, the overwhelm, and wondering why the heck you started your business in the first place. Hence is a name Crush the Rush. So how do you actually do that? Well, I truly believe that you can build your dream business on a part-time schedule. And how you do that is you prioritize what you really want, which I know you've heard before, but you have a daily routine that supports that. That's really, really simple. So instead of me just telling you that it worked, I actually created what I call our CEO Week framework. You can go to holly bri haynes.com/ceo week or dmm me CO week to download the exact schedule that you can follow to get more done in a day without overworking. 

Speaker 1 (02:14):

I'm talking down to the day and the hour of what to do and when to get your time back and see growth in your business. That's less than 10 hours a week. The best part is it is a hundred percent free and I am behind the scenes answering all your questions with daily prompts and action steps. This challenge will give you the focus and action you need to have a massive impact on your revenue and your schedule, while also creating the freedom and the automations that work when you don't or you don't want to. And I have the receipts to prove it. We've had over 3000 people take this challenge in the last two years, and that doesn't include all of you that have come back to take it a second, a third, a fourth, and a fifth time because you didn't start your business to work all the time. All you need to do is go to holly marie haynes.com/ceo week or dmm me CEO week to create your CEO Week schedule. This is an easy yes, it is free and a thousand percent guarantee you're going to see some improvement on day one. I will see you inside. 

Speaker 2 (03:24):

On this episode of the Crush the Rush podcast, we are answering the question, you all want to know the answer to what to do when somebody says, what do you do? And to do that, I have brought in Kris Jones, who is a StoryBrand guide and founder of Red Door Designs, mentored by the StoryBrand founder Donald Miller himself. And with over 20 years of experience and clients such as Nike under her belt, Kris has been able to achieve incredible transformations for her clients, including increasing revenue by 300% and charging and scaling from 30 K to 300 k months. I'm telling you this framework is one that you want to learn. Kris believes that story is the most effective way to grow your business, and she's extremely passionate about helping self-employed women like you and I get website copied that sells so they can multiply their revenue and focus on what they do best. Inside this episode, we're going to talk about why it's important to share your story just in case you need a reminder, the exact framework of how to create your tagline and tell your story, and even some copywriting tips so that your website does the work for you while you sleep. This is an episode you don't want to miss. 

Speaker 3 (04:42):

Hi Kris. Welcome to the Crush the Rush podcast. It's so nice to have you today. 

Speaker 4 (04:48):

I am so happy to be here, Holly. Thank you. 

Speaker 3 (04:51):

Yes, and we are digging into all things storytelling, but we were sort of chatting before. It's with a little bit of a twist to answer a question that I think we all struggle with. But before we sort of get into all the nuts and bolts of that, I would love for you to tell your story because it is such an amazing one and you have such an amazing background where you're bringing all this goodness to us today. So tell us a little bit about you and what you do. 

Speaker 4 (05:17):

Ah, thank you so much. So my name's Kris. I run a business called Red Door Designs in Portland, Oregon. I've been doing this work for 20 years under the umbrella of Red Door Design. So I founded it, gosh, 21 years ago now, which is crazy to think about. And yeah, I started out my career really heavily focused on graphic design and visual storytelling. And over the years what I learned was that unless you have the verbal story down pat and very clearly and very concisely, no graphic design is going to work for you unless you've got the storytelling as the foundation. So you've got clear and simple words to communicate what you do. That's really the key. So I really shifted my focus to be all about the words, all about the words that you use. What I found with my clients was time and time again, I would say, okay, you come up with the copy and then we'll kick off this design project after you've done that. 

Speaker 4 (06:25):

And they would be like, well, what do you want? How do I do that? And I'm like, oh, you've got this. You can do it. We're going to start the project on this date and you've got it. And then the date would get moved back, the date would get moved back. And so I just really recognized that the biggest challenge and the biggest headache and the biggest pain point for all my clients was the copywriting piece. So I just made it my mission to figure out how to do this in a simple way. So it wasn't so frustrating. And the reality is I understand the frustration and the headache of it because I've dealt with it myself for my own business. And so it was driven by this desire to help my clients, but it fundamentally helped me as well. And so I think one of my gifts is just around simplification and making things ridiculously simple. And I love that I get to do it with copywriting because people feel like it's such a hard thing to do. So it's great when people understand that there's a rhyme and a reason and there's a formula behind it, and there's all kinds of ways to be creative within the formula. But once you know the formula, you don't have to procrastinate with your copy anymore. It actually becomes fun because you know what to say and what people respond to. And a lot of it is about simple psychology. 

Speaker 3 (08:04):

Yeah, I love that. And I think we can all relate to the story of, Hey, it's time to write that sales page. If you're like me, you put it off to the weekend or the last possible date, and then you look at it and you're like, there's so much text. What the heck do I say? So I want to jump into a couple of just tactical tips, but can you just reiterate for us, I know we've all heard it, but why is it really important to tell a good story? 

Speaker 4 (08:32):

It is critical as somebody who is self-employed and wanting your business to grow and wanting to make money, it's critical to be telling stories for a lot of different reasons, but the most important reasons are because we're humans and we are wired for story. We've been sitting around the fireside from the beginning of time telling stories to each other, so we're really wired for them. The other thing is our brains find stories a hundred percent irresistible. We cannot help but be pulled in when we hear the beginning of a story. Our brains can't help but engage. And so if you use story in your business, how powerful is that? And then the third reason is because stories are 22 times more memorable than just facts. So a big part of being a business owner is about becoming memorable and helping people remember you. If you're in a crowded industry especially. And I mean, let's be honest, most industries are very crowded. So how do you stand out? How do you be memorable? You do it through storytelling. 

Speaker 3 (09:49):

Yeah, I love that. I think that's really important and I love a good fact because I feel like that's like, okay, I need to learn how to tell a story, but then how do I actually do that? And I know you mentioned that you're known for keeping it simple and really helping give us a framework for what that looks like. So if you were going to sit down and we were talking before, really answer the question when question your neighbor or someone in the elevator asks you, Kris, what do you do? How do you create the story that answers that question? 

Speaker 4 (10:19):

Well, the answer to that question is keep it really short and concise, number one, and you've got to create what people might call a tagline or a one-liner. Either way, it is the shortest type of story you can tell, and I'm going to walk you through how to do that. But the people that I work with often, they'll say, when people ask me what I do, I cringe, I freeze. I either go into way too much detail or I just skimm over it with a two word answer, and then we move on to something else. And so what I want for you is to not get stuck in that conundrum, and the process is actually beautifully simple. And so I'm just going to walk you through it here, but I don't want you to feel like you have to write all this down because this whole process is part of my freebie. 

Speaker 4 (11:16):

So later, I'll show you how to do that. It's at clarity with Kris.com, but there's a recording of how to do this if you kind of want to dig deeper into it. So every story that you've ever heard, or every movie that you've ever watched or book you've ever read begins with a hero that has a problem. That's how we begin the answer to that question. And then I'm going to tell you the formula first story, and then I'm going to show you how that translates into answering the question. What do you do? So every story begins with a hero who has a problem. Then about 20 minutes into the movie, that hero meets a guide who has a solution and a plan to solve the problem. And then toward the end of the movie, that hero finds success and avoids failure, but we keeps us engaged is we're not sure if that hero's going to find success or are they going to fail. 

Speaker 4 (12:16):

And so we can't disengage until we know the end of the story. So that's the fundamental formula of storytelling. Now, granted, I have simplified it in a big way, but that's what I love to do. So here's how that translates into answering that question. What do you do? So let's just pretend I was a parenting coach and someone said, Hey, what do you do? I would say, okay, how many toddler moms are overwhelmed because there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done? I helped them change their relationship with time so they can parent with more joy, peace, and connection, and notice how short and sweet that is. But I haven't lost you at any step of the way that is the shortest story ever written right there. But the beauty of it is it contains everything that I just walked you through. 

Speaker 4 (13:17):

So it begins with a hero who has a problem. Many toddler moms feel overwhelmed because there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done. That is a problem. You've identified who your hero is and you've identified the struggle or the problem that they're dealing with. And then part two is you position your service as the solution, and that shows that you are the guide here in this story. So I help them change their relationship with time. That sentence right there shows I am the guide and this is my solution. My solution is I help them change their relationship with time. And then the third part of every story is that hero finds success. And so that's our job as the guide and the story is to show them what success looks like. And in this example I'm sharing so they can parent with more joy, peace, and connection. 

Speaker 4 (14:18):

So I'm going to repeat the whole thing again, just so you can kind of digest it and dissect it. So many toddler moms feel overwhelmed because there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done. I help them change their relationship with time so they can parent with more joy, peace, and connection. How great if you're at a cocktail party or you're at a coffee shop and you asked somebody that question and they answered you in that way, you'd say, oh, tell me more. It would be the beginning of a very rich and fruitful conversation and way more enjoyable for both people, whether they're your ideal client or not. It's just makes socializing way easier. And if they're your ideal client, then they're like, immediately, you've got your stuff together. You know how to solve my problems, sign me up. 

Speaker 3 (15:14):

Yeah, I think anyone listening is like, oh my God, can you please just write that for me? I feel like it's so hard to write it for yourself, but I think another one of the mistakes, at least that I see in that has been interesting as we sort of build out actual written copy and website copy is it's one thing to communicate it in person, but it's another thing to also communicate it on a page. So what are some of the maybe mistakes or lessons learned that you see when somebody's trying to tell their story, let's say on their website or a sales page? 

Speaker 4 (15:47):

Well, I want to tell you a little secret, and this'll let you off the hook in a big way. So good copy is actually conversational copy. So if you feel comfortable saying it out loud, then put it on your website the way that you would say it. I think it's so refreshing to go to a website and feel like you're actually having coffee with the person who wrote that website because they're casual, they're conversational. So I would say don't write any differently than you would speak this to people. That's why this process is so powerful is that you write it and you practice saying it out loud, but they're kind of one and the same. So I would say one of the mistakes that people make, I'm going to say a few mistakes that I see commonly. Number one is just people make their copy too formal. 

Speaker 4 (16:41):

We want to keep it very casual, very conversational. Number two, we unknowingly, this is so common, 99% of the websites on the internet have this issue. We unknowingly position ourselves as the hero of our own story versus the guide. And there's only room for one hero in the story. You are the guide. Your client or your customer is the hero. When you position yourself as the hero in the story, you kick them out. So you've all, I'm sure you can relate to this, where you go to a website and you're like, oh, this person solves the problem that I'm looking to solve. And then you get there and you leave after five to seven seconds. It's because you can't envision yourself in that story. They've positioned themselves as the hero. They kicked you out. You're like, I just don't feel like a connection. I'm going to keep looking. And that's why it's because they haven't pulled you in with a good story. 

Speaker 3 (17:46):

I love this. The next thing that I want to dig into is because so often I will hear, well, I just don't have time to write good copy, or that's not necessarily an income producing activity, which we talk about all the time, but I know one of the things that you teach is being able to tell your story well and incorporate that into your copy. Copy is actually a revenue producing activity. Can you get into that a little bit? 

Speaker 4 (18:12):

Yeah. It's the most powerful way to increase your revenue. It is the most important work that you can do for your business. And the beautiful thing is you do the work once. It doesn't have to take a lot of time, and then it keeps working for you while you're asleep. It acts as kind of like your full-time sales employee that's selling for you 24 7. And when it's done right, people will get on the phone with you and they're ready to hire you. You don't have to spend a bunch of time selling to them because your website copy is doing that for you. So the reality is people do not buy anything from anyone they don't trust and connect with. And I think the most powerful thing that good copywriting does and story good storytelling does, is it creates a deep sense of connection and trust. And so that's why it is so incredibly powerful. People immediately feel connection to you. They feel seen, they feel heard, and they know that you're the best one to solve the problem. 

Speaker 3 (19:22):

Problem. I love that. Okay, so if you're listening and you've convinced us that one, we now have a framework to tell our story, which I still wish that we could magically write that for everyone. You did it so well and now we know the importance. What is one or two tips that you could give somebody to just get started on improving their copy or improving how they tell their story in addition to the framework? 

Speaker 4 (19:46):

The great thing is, I mean, the freebie that I've created really does do all this for you. I have a worksheet. It makes it simple. The process will take about five minutes. All in it is really, really streamlined and simplified, and I hold your hand the whole way. Now, the problem is, and you spoke to this a little bit earlier, is that it's really hard to write for your own business. It's really, really hard and there's a reason for that. So I want to let you guys off the hook yet again. The reason is because of the bottle effect. So when you are your own business, you are so close to it that it's literally trying to read the label of the bottle. When you're inside the bottle, you can't get outside the bottle to read the label. It's physically impossible. And that's why with this, it is so important to work with an expert or work with a guide or work with somebody who can help read that label for you from outside of the bottle. 

Speaker 4 (21:00):

And once you go through my worksheet, you can schedule a call with me and I'll review this with you and we'll totally nail it and get it dialed in. So you can answer that question, what do you do? But the beautiful thing about this is once you've answered that question, then what? Okay, that's great. You can answer the question. Then you take that same copy and you add it to your email signature, you add it to the header of your website, you put it on your LinkedIn profile, you use the formula for your Instagram posts. It's just the gift that keeps on giving. And for the business owners that I work with, and I'm sure your audience can relate to this, there's just so much to do when it comes to managing your business and your family and life and schedules and appointments. So anytime you can learn a framework like this and create your core tagline, a storytelling tagline that you don't have to do over and over again, that's going to work to help you grow your business. That's a no-brainer. Sign me up for that. So I don't know if that answers your question, but 

Speaker 3 (22:17):

Yeah, no, I love that. And I always say once you nail it, it gets so much easier because one of the things that we always teach is put yourself out there. Go network, tell people what you do, share your story. But if you're fumbling over your words, then all that work that you're doing to get on podcasts or speak in groups is not going to be as powerful as it could be. And I think it obviously will help more people that are the right people if they can understand your story. So helpful. I'm so excited to apply the framework myself. So before the end of every episode, we like to do some rapid fire questions, and my first question is, where is your favorite place to holiday? Anytime of year. 

Speaker 4 (23:03):

I would have to say San Diego. I was born in San Diego and I didn't grow up there, but I have a lot of family there and the weather is amazing, and I took my four-year-old son there last year to Legoland, which was mind blowing. So fun. Yeah, 

Speaker 3 (23:24):

That's so fun. Ironically, we actually took our girls to San Diego when they were four. We rented a house and spent a week there and it was really cool. I'm going to change it up. Super curious because I know you've had an amazing corporate background as well. What's the best piece of advice you've been given in your career or something that you remember that helps you along the way best is kind of extreme? 

Speaker 4 (23:48):

I think the thing that comes to mind is just a reminder, and I was having actually a conversation about this yesterday in that you don't have to be the absolute best at what you do. You just have to do it in your own way, and nobody can replicate that when you're your own business. You've got to just remind yourself that, I guess this is a way to combat imposter syndrome in that reminding yourself that through your lens and through your experience, that is nobody else can repeat that, and that those natural people that are drawn to you are going to come and they need you. 

Speaker 3 (24:35):

Yeah, I love that. If you had to choose between a good book and a good movie, what would you choose? 

Speaker 4 (24:40):

A hundred percent a good movie and specifically a documentary. I'm like a documentary junkie. I love learning and I love storytelling, and I feel like documentary to me feels like kind of like I am, it's a great leisure activity, but I'm also learning. It feels like productive in a funny way. 

Speaker 3 (25:03):

Yeah, it's like the best of both worlds. That's actually what I would choose as well. Okay. I know that you have this amazing resource waiting for us. Tell us where we can connect with you, learn more, and we'll obviously put all this in the show notes, but where we can download the guide to create our own framework 

Speaker 4 (25:20):

To create your own storytelling tagline, go to clarity with Kris.com, and that's Kris with a K. So clarity with Kris.com. You can go through it. There's a five minute video and it's a whole tool. You've got a worksheet, it does not take long. It's super fun. And then you can get my support on the backend, so it's really valuable. It doesn't cost you a penny. And then my main website is red door designs.com. That's red door designs.com. And this is for people who are not interested in DIY. They want their website copy done and they want it done for them, but they kind of want it to really sound and be aligned with their own voice. So my process is it's a one-on-one done for you slash done with you process that will allow you to have copy that sells for you in 2.5 hours. 

Speaker 3 (26:22):

That's amazing. 

Speaker 4 (26:23):

Yeah, it's great. It's like, I wish I had had this years ago. I 

Speaker 3 (26:29):

Mean, I feel like you just sold me on the 2.5 hours. I'm like, wait, can we talk about this more? We'll have to have a second episode. I'd 

Speaker 4 (26:36):

Love to. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 (26:37):

Yeah. So we'll put all of this in the show notes. If you guys have any questions, go connect with Kris 

Speaker 1 (26:42):

And thank you so much for sharing your story. 

Speaker 4 (26:45):

Thank you for having me. I had a great time. Thanks, Holly. 

Speaker 1 (26:48):

I am so grateful for you and the power of community that this podcast has created. It is just so amazing to be able to connect with all of you over the last couple of years. We've actually had this podcast for almost three full years now, and because of that, I wanted to just get to know you better. So I would love it if you would head over to holly marie haynes.com/chat and tell me what you think of this episode. You can text me voice, message me, send me a video, email me and ask me anything. I'm a real human. And yes, it's me on the other end answering the messages. So I would love to know what did you like about this episode? What would you like to hear more about? Did something resonate with you? Or maybe inside this episode, I gave you a keyword to learn more. If I did, you can just pop this keyword into the chat and this is a way for us to connect and chat more. So just go to holly marie haynes.com/chat and I can't wait to hear from you. 

Speaker 1 (27:53):

Thank you so much for listening to The Crush the Rush podcast this week. If you are looking for more support, more accountability, and more inspiration to build that dream business, join us over@hollymariehaynes.com. That's holly marie haynes.com. And don't forget to take action. Consistency, in my opinion, Trump's talent. Every time. Use these tips and tricks to stay in the game. Oh and pss, do you find these tips helpful as in things that you implement every week? Have you left a review of the show yet or better yet shared with a friend? I would be forever grateful if you helped spread our message and content. Once you have left a review, screenshot it and tag me on Instagram stories so we can celebrate you. Plus, we love sending thank you gifts in Return. Community is everything, and we are so grateful for you.