Stories That Sell with StoryBrand Copywriter Kris Jones

Success Genius Podcast with Neill Williams

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I'm Neil Williams, and this is a Success Genius podcast. Welcome to episode 270. In today's show, I'm joined by one of my very beloved entrepreneur friends, StoryBrand, copywriter Chris Jones. Chris has been on the podcast before, but today we're talking about something a little bit different. We're talking [00:02:00] about stories that sell.

How once you find your story, it can be used to create a clear message across all of your marketing platforms, and even better, Chris talks to us about how you can simplify your marketing so that you don't feel like you have to be everywhere all the time. All you need to do is choose one to two platforms.

Really make sure that you have a clear message on those platforms. Please enjoy this episode with Chris Jones. Chris, welcome to the podcast. Hello, my friend. How are you? Oh my gosh. I'm very excited to have you here today. We are gonna be talking about all the amazing things you've been doing. 

Kris: Yes. Yeah, I'm fair.

I'm thrilled to be here and all our conversations are always so fruitful and energizing to me, so I'm excited. 

Neill: Yeah. I, you are not, this is not the first time you've been on the podcast, but it's been a while. Would you mind just telling everybody who you are and what you do? 

Kris: Yep. My name is Chris Jones. I [00:03:00] have a boutique firm marketing firm called Red Door stories@reddoorstories.com.

Everything about me can be found there. I really love helping my clients craft a signature story that they can use in every area of their marketing. They don't have to be constantly generating content. They have one story. It. It's a powerful story that connects with their ideal clients. It helps build their business and they can focus on the work that they love and not have to become a part-time marketer on the slide.

And 

Neill: I would guess that 99% of the people listening are shouting Hell yes to that. At least the coaches. I don't know about somebody in the other groups of entrepreneurs. I think some folks really do enjoy the marketing and that's great. But I think a lot of coaches, again, this is generalization, a lot of coaches.

Just love to coach and I like, I would just love it to just like clients just appeared and I didn't have to do all that like marketing work. 

Kris: The marketing can be very time consuming. Mm-hmm. [00:04:00] Especially if you believe that you need to be everywhere all the time, which is like fundamentally this belief in marketing, which is not true.

It's not actually the most efficient and effective way to grow your business. So it's a big relief for those folks and also. Most of the coaches that I work with really dread selling. They don't wanna, just, like you said, they want their clients to magically appear. And if you don't enjoy selling, storytelling is a really effective way to get new clients without feeling like you're having to sell.

Neill: Yeah, and I think that's true for the coaches. I know lots of entrepreneurs that don't like selling, not whether they're coaches or not, it just doesn't feel like it feels achy for a lot of people. So before we hit record, you were talking about something with that is near and dear to my heart, which is simplification more effective, but less explain to me or would you mind sharing what the audience, your, like the universe and the planets example you [00:05:00] work and.

This. Oh, true. And I love the way that you talk about it. 

Kris: Yeah. So the way that I work with my clients, we craft your signature story and initially where that story will live is on your website. That's the first place we integrate your story. And what I recommend my clients do is really. Think about their website as the center of their marketing universe.

Your website is the sun. Everything points back to the sun. And then you've got multiple planets circling around the sun, right? You've got Earth and Venus and all the other planets, and each of those planets represents a marketing activity, a way for you to show up and be visible, and that can be there.

There are fundamentally about eight. Different ways that you can do that. So eight different planets, and it could be email marketing, could be one planet, or showing up on YouTube videos could be [00:06:00] another planet. In-person marketing, in-person networking events could be another planet, and social media is another planet.

There's like all these things that we feel like we have to do in order to. Keep the engine of our business running. And I think social media is probably the thing that can drain the most time and energy from people. And it's this sense that you've got a homework assignment that is perpetual and it never ends, and people just believe that there's no escaping it.

It's just part of being an entrepreneur. And the way I like to think about storytelling and websites is that. If your website is the center of your marketing universe, pick two planets that you really enjoy. For me, I enjoy guesting on podcasts. That's one of my planets. I also enjoy email marketing, so that's my other planet now that all the other planets.

I have literally forgotten about. I don't [00:07:00] care about them. I don't have the bandwidth, I don't enjoy those activities. I don't do them. And it's so liberating and people really wonder like, how do you do this without social media? I figured out how to turn my Instagram grid into a really powerful sales page, and once I got that set up with 15.

Really strategic posts. Those 15 posts work together to essentially let people know who I am, what I do, how I can help them, and that they point people back to the website. So I've, I haven't posted on my Instagram grid in well over a year, and I'm perfectly happy and content with that. And then I continue to nurture those two planets that I really enjoy.

The podcasting and email marketing and anything I do on those planets just points people back to the website. And because I have a very compelling story on my website, I can have the peace of mind just knowing I [00:08:00] just send people there knowing that it's gonna be doing the job of selling. For me, I believe your website should act as your top sales employee.

It should really feel like you have a sales person on your team that's doing that, selling for you and the strategic byproduct. Is that a term that you use? I feel like maybe I learned that term from you and I'm, and I think give you, every time I use it, is that you, once you have the words to talk about what you do, you.

Feel a lot more confident about what you do. You're reminded about the importance of the work you do and the problem that you solve. And so the gift of this is that when you show up on, on discovery calls or sales calls, you show up with more confidence. Not only that, you've got the words to talk about what you do in a narrative structure.

So using story on these calls allows you to not have to sell. You're simply having a conversation. But you're guiding the [00:09:00] conversation through a narrative and people, it feels better for you 'cause you're not selling. It certainly feels better for the person on the other end of the call because they're not being sold to.

They're just really getting to self identify, do I wanna solve the problem that you're gonna help me solve, and am I ready to do that? The other thing that happens is strategic. Byproduct. Number two is the discovery calls are, or the sales calls get cut in half. You're not spending your time educating people, selling people.

Your website's doing all that, they're just excited to get on a call and book with you and potentially work together. 

Neill: Yeah, and I would guess, I don't know if you have any data on this or not, but just as you were talking, I was thinking, oh, and probably you have better qualified folks on the call because they know why they booked the call.

They're interested, they want your help. 

Kris: Yeah. The gift of story. You [00:10:00] can think of it as like a filtration device story. What it does when you tell a very clear and compelling story is it allows you to filter in the clarity and filter out the noise and the clutter. And when you do that, people come to your page.

It feels good. It really resonates with those right fit clients and. The strategic byproduct. Number three is that it repels wrong fit clients. They literally will not get on the phone with you because they know very clearly this isn't, this problem isn't resonating with me. I don't, this isn't, this isn't a problem I wanna solve.

And so people get a little bit afraid when they hear that. I don't wanna repel anybody, but. When our marketing is clear, we are, it's a benefit to us to repel the wrong fit clients. We're not on the phone with people who aren't ready to invest, who are out of our kind [00:11:00] of sweet spot of the type of people we really wanna work with, and the type of clients that energize us and that are thrilled and and thrilled at the opportunity to work with us.

Totally. 

Neill: I love all of this so much because. It's the epitome of simplification. The doing less, but being more effective in that. That's one reason why I just, I love what you do so much. I'm, you've just helped so many people. I'm wondering if you can give us some examples. 'cause this sound all like.

Beautiful and amazing. But I am wondering if we could get, like, maybe, I don't want you to reveal clients if you can't of course, protect all of that, but just some examples of, okay, this is what a website might look like, but once you have a story, this is what it could look like. 

Kris: Yes. Yes, absolutely. So for example, I worked with a client, she was a coach.

Her name was, her name's Mickey. And she was amazing. She does incredible work. She helps moms who are divorced, [00:12:00] co-parent. With confidence, clarity, and calm. That's how do you navigate that relationship with your ex, have to co-parent with them. How do you do that in a way that doesn't hijack your emotions or Often what our clients more struggle with is they're, they get so triggered and they get so frustrated by the co-parent that it actually.

Bleeds into their time with their kids. They're distracted and it's, it's difficult. These are real problems and your children can really sense that energy in you as well. So she does incredible work for her clients. When I initially met with her, she told me, she said, oh, I just pretend like I don't have a website.

I just send people, I just send people to my LinkedIn or I'll, I just, I. Pretend I don't have one because it's number one. Like she said, I'm ashamed of it. I don't want people to go there. And number two, it just didn't [00:13:00] properly reflect who she was and the powerful work that she did. And so why would you want to send somebody there?

It's doesn't represent you well. She had. On her homepage, when you landed on her page, it was a picture of her and she had a headline. Hi, I am Mickey. I'm a certified life coach, and a little bit about herself, and I completely understand why this happens, right? We as coaches or any entrepreneur, any service provider.

We're like, okay, I'm in business. I, I need to sign up. I need to get on Wix. Or Squarespace or what, whatever. The builder, which I'm a huge fan of those builders by the way, but they're very easy and they're, they're just simple. So of course you're gonna get on one of those. You're gonna choose a pretty template, and you're just gonna fill in the blanks according to the way that they guide you.

The downside of that is you are letting them, you're following their lead. As far as the template that they gave you, and I'm sure it's [00:14:00] pretty, but it's not strategic and what I call those types of websites are brochure websites. They're, they look pretty, they're all about you, but they honestly, they sit, they're like a bump on a log and a year goes by with your new website and you reflect back on the year and you go, huh, I got, I might have a.

I worked with a couple clients, but they came to me. They did not come to me from my website. They came to me 'cause I met somebody out in the real world or something like that. They're confused. Why isn't this working? I like the website's pretty, I follow the template. But what happens when you have a brochure website instead of an effective strategic website is that the brochure website encourages you to be the hero of your own story.

And your website is all about you. And of course it's all about you. It's your website. You're like, of course I need to talk about myself, but. When we really take, when we really implement the [00:15:00] strategy behind story, what we learn is that your clients are the hero of your story. They're the central character in your story, and you come into this story, I.

About a third of the way in as the guide, you are the Yoda. They are the Luke Skywalker. And what we did with her website was we changed the language instead of, hi, I'm Mickey. I'm a life coach. We changed the headline to read. I. Co-parent with confidence, clarity, and calm, navigate co-parenting with peace, even if your ex doesn't change at all.

Really powerful. If I'm a parent in this situation, I land on the website and I'm like, whoa, this is about me. She cares about me more than she cares about herself. I am the hero of this story. She is gonna help me overcome my challenges, and then after those words, we put a nice big button that said, schedule a calm [00:16:00] co-parent discovery call.

Or it was like book a book, a calm parent strategy call. Something that really told them very clearly, what do we want them to do next? To take that next step as the guide. It's our job to just very clearly tell them what we want them to do next. We followed it with that call to action, and people all of a sudden were like, they had clarity.

I know what you do. I know what I know how what you do is gonna make my life better and I know what you want me to do next. Being able to answer that. Being able to have visitors answer those questions within five seconds of being on your website shows them respect. It shows them that you respect their time and it shows them that you've taken the time to get really clear about what you do.

I. And immediately they begin to trust you way more than they might another website. And then with the words, instead of having a picture of Mickey looking beautiful, we, which she is, [00:17:00] we have a picture with a mom. Holding two kids and she's kissing one of them on the forehead and it's in an outdoor environment.

They're connected, they're feeling joyful, and even the visuals are positioning the client as the hero of the story. That's one example. And there are endless. Yeah. 

Neill: I, that's such a shift from what it was originally to what the copy was, and that's one of the things that I love about you is you have this superpower ability to pull out the gold nugget from someone.

But I see you do this over and over and over again with so many. People and it's amazing. And part of the reason why I think is you talk about this and you've talked about it in, in some of the communities that I have had to win, that we really are in a fishbowl in our businesses is if you ask me what I did, it's so hard for me to [00:18:00] articulate.

When I do like I will, I like fungal over my words. But you looking in, because I'm in my fishbowl, I can't really see it or articulate it all that well, but you are outside and you're like, oh no, this is what you do. This is the transformation you provide, and you just rattle it on. It's really this, I feel like it's just this superpower.

Then I'm sure it's just because of practice over and over again. But I've seen you do it with all kinds of different coaches and all kinds of different businesses. If someone wanted to get started on this. They're like, oh my gosh, I totally want this kind of website. Where would you like point them?

What's the first most important thing for them to do? 

Kris: I think the simplest way to really implement this for free is to go to my website and download my freebie. It's called How to Write Compelling Copy in five Minutes, and that's, it's a five minute video. It's gonna walk you through the fundamentals or remind you of some of the fundamentals that we even talked about today.

And then it's gonna give you a worksheet [00:19:00] with just three sections on the worksheet, and it's going to get, I'm gonna prompt you. I'm gonna pull that, those gold nuggets out of you. And so they're gonna get out of your brain and onto this document, and then I'm gonna show you how to refine it. Within about 20 minutes, you can really start to shift the lens at which you.

Think about the work you do. Talk about the work you do, and once you change the way, once you change your lens, we'll never talk about your business the same way again. 

Neill: Yeah. We'll put in the, show us the link for everybody to grab that. And I think, tell me what you think about this, Chris. I feel like it's a good thing to just keep revisiting because I feel like.

Us, we as entrepreneurs, I, I said this to someone the other day, they were talking about, I can't remember what I did last week. And I was like, because your week is like one year. For most people it's just so like fast pace and things are happening so quickly and I feel like we evolve very quickly. So maybe even revisiting this.

Absolutely. 

Kris: Yeah. So relevant. [00:20:00] I think whether you're employed, you're an employee, or you are self-employed, we as humans, we're growing and evolving every day, and I think this is the kind of thing that it is a living, breathing thing. What I encourage my clients to do is go through that freebie first. Get that, get all that stuff out of your head and onto paper, get it organized, and then clear away the clutter and have that clear and simple answer.

To what do you do and then print it out and put it on the wall by your computer. The reason that people fumble around with that question or just tense or spit out a two word answer or go with a very long answer, either one's not super effective. Yeah, people that know how to answer that question, they're not coming up with it on the fly.

They've memorized it. They've metabolized it, and once you say it a dozen [00:21:00] times, it flows out very easily. It's not because they are just really quick with their words. They have done the work to get clear, and then they've done the work to actually memorize it. And then once you have it memorized, you can play with it a little bit like depending on the situation.

And then maybe six months will go by or a year, and you'll say it again, but you're. Shifted your work a little bit. Mm-hmm. So you'll naturally shift the way that you speak about it, or you'll have shared it with enough people and you realize that you keep getting the same question over and over, the same follow up question.

And so you figure out how to integrate that into. What you share, but it absolutely, just as humans change and grow over time, your one-liner and your story that you tell will change over time. When you do this work of creating a story for your business, if you know what you [00:22:00] do when you've done it for a handful of years, it's pretty rare that your store, your signature story needs to change very often.

Mm-hmm. It really doesn't need to change May, maybe once every few years unless. You're really pivoting your business, but your one liner, which is that two sentence statement. That answer to the question, what? What do you do? That's something that's a little bit more malleable over time. 

Neill: That makes 

Kris: sense.

Neill: To that end, you also have written a book. Yes. I'm so excited about this. I can't wait to read it. So will you mind sharing with us the title and, yes. Flow into the book and all that. Of course, it's 

Kris: called from Click to Client and it's the subtitle is How to easily create a Story-driven website that turns visitors into clients.

This is a way to essentially go through my process very affordably to work with me right around the 50, $5,500 mark. The book is right around 20 bucks alike for a big [00:23:00] discount. I share everything in there. I keep no secrets. I hold your hand and walk you through my entire process, and that's really step one is what I call mining for gold, which is pulling those golden nuggets out from inside of you.

Your, your story is not something you invent. It's already inside of you. We just need to clear the clutter and identify what those gold nuggets are, and we polish them up and make them beautiful. And then we apply that to your website and get your website really working for you. 

Neill: Amazing. And. Is that available for sale?

Can we get the link for that? And. 

Kris: It's at Red Door designs.com/book. You should be able to actually buy it within the next few weeks, but right now you can get on the wait list, 

Neill: but it's been, this goes live for everybody who's listening. We'll have the link in the show notes, but it should be available when you're listening to this to purchase, which is so far, yes.

Perfect. Very exciting. 

Kris: Yeah. 

Neill: And then if someone's, that's all great. I [00:24:00] love free things and I love low cost things, but honestly, I'd rather just work with crisp. Yeah. Tell me how, or tell our audience how they can work with you. 

Kris: I only work with my clients in one way. I work one-on-one I, it's a done for you offer, and this is not another group program or course.

What entrepreneurs really need is less on their plate and so. Because we're inside of the bottle, trying to write your own story can be very difficult. What you really need is someone that can come in and give you perspective and look at things with fresh eyes, someone who really understands story to really do that work for you.

And so it all begins with me. Digging for gold, mining for gold, and then polishing up those golden nuggets, writing your story for you and the way we ensure that it's really aligned with you and your voice, that we collaborate on a 90 minute collaboration call where [00:25:00] we refine the story and I help you really understand everything that I've written.

And then we apply that to your website and essentially give you the tools, what I call, I give you what I call the brand copy Bible. Which is all the messaging, all the words that you would need for any area of your business, whether it be social media, video script, website, copy, all of that, all of those components are all inside the brand copy Bible that I custom make for you.

I work one-on-one with clients and I only work with two clients at any given time. It's deep work, it's very efficient. It's mind blowing. It's you walk away with so much confidence and clarity, but it's not time intensive on my client's part. It only takes them. The total time investment for them is 2.5 hours.

For me and my team, it's much more than that 'cause we're doing that heavy lifting. But if you want to work with me, you can go to my website, red Door [00:26:00] stories.com. You can schedule a free call with me. I'd be happy to talk with you. Take a look at your website, understand the story that you're currently telling and give you.

Insight and feedback on how to tune your story up, and I'll also walk you through what it would look 

Neill: like to work together. We'll put that link in the shoutouts as well. And I have to say, having worked with you for several years now, it really is amazing and. He said It's so powerful. I hate to keep using that word 'cause it feels overused, but it really is when you sit back and you're like, oh my gosh, that is what I do.

And there's actually a lot of value you in that it really does inspire confidence and it makes it so much easier to talk to people about what you do. I wanna, first of all, just thank you for myself and for all of the coaches that I know that have worked with you. You have made our marketing so much easier and so much more effective.

And I just thank you so much. 'cause it's not like we live in a society right now where [00:27:00] coaches are like doctors and we can put up a shingle and someone's just, oh yeah, they're, I'm gonna go get myself a coach. Right. Not that mainstream yet. So we still have to do the heavy lifting of the marketing and you've just made that so much simpler for us.

Kris: Oh, you're so welcome. It's my joy. 

Neill: Yeah. So amazing to have had you here. Thank you for sharing all of that. Everybody go by the book at the very least. And after you read the books. You're probably gonna decide. I just wanna work with you, but that'll give you a start. Perfect. Thanks Chris.