Molly Claire 00:05

Alright, coaches, this is such a fun episode to bring you because not only is this going to be so fantastic for you as a coach building your business and how you can make the sales process easier for you, but also I get to have here one of my dear friends and colleagues Kris Jones. Welcome, Kris. 

Kris Jones 01:02

Ah, thank you, Molly. I am so thrilled to be here with you today. What a joy. 

Molly Claire 01:08

It's so funny because this is how Kris and I first met. You had someone that you were working with reach out to me to connect us for you to be on my podcast. And then fast forward to this moment, Kris and I are in a mastermind together, we've done an offer together and we have such a great friendship of support for each other. So it's just, it's so awesome.And you know, for all of you listening, I think that's like, that's one of the greatest things I think about building a business that is so meaningful and purposeful and heart-driven is that we end up connecting with amazing people that we are so aligned with. And just what a treat, what a treat. 

Kris Jones 01:50

It's really, truly. 

Molly Claire 01:52

So let's talk about it. Kris is here because she has a new book and I can say without reservation that any of you listening, if you want clients and you want to have it be easier for you to get those clients, I think everyone listening should buy this book, but we're going to talk more about what's in it. So Kris, tell my audience who you are, what you do, and a little about this book. 

Kris Jones 02:20

Okay, so I am Kris, I live in Portland, Oregon. I love helping client-based businesses get more clients on autopilot so they can really focus on the work they love. What I've noticed after 23 years of being in this industry is that when you are self-employed, you became self-employed because you really love the work that you do. What you didn't sign up for is becoming a part-time marketer and generating content and all the stuff and the effort that it takes to keep your pipeline full and to keep clients really coming to you and attracting those right clients rather than chasing after the right clients or attracting wrong fit clients, which doesn't feel good either.So my approach is very much a less is more approach. I really believe in using storytelling as your main strategy to authentically connect with those right clients and get them trusting you, liking you, connecting with you and having you be the obvious choice to work with. By telling the right story, all of that happens and you're not even there because it's all on your website. And the idea is really that your website is the central hub for all your marketing. So I don't believe that you need to be everywhere. I believe you pick a couple of platforms, maybe you enjoy podcast interviews, maybe you enjoy social media. If you don't wanna be on social media, don't be on social media. You don't have to do that. Pick a couple of things that you really love. It might be email marketing, podcast, guesting, and those are your two things that you do. And then you point, everything you do points to your website. It is the center of your marketing universe and you can confidently point people there knowing it truly represents you and your uniqueness and it gets those potential clients excited to work with you and turns them into paying clients. So your website really should do all that heavy lifting for you. And the beauty of that is you get to focus on the things that you really enjoy and the work that really fills you up. 

Molly Claire 04:59

I love it. And I know, you know, Kris is going to tell you more about her book From Click to Client, which I love. And the thing that stood out to me as you were talking is you said that you become the obvious choice for your clients. And all of you listening, think about that.How great, I was going to say, would it be? How great will it be when you can send someone to your website? And the story that is there is so powerful and so connecting that they know you are the obvious, easy, no brainer choice for them. I mean, isn't that what we, that's like a dream, right? That's what we all want. And it's, it is a reality. It can be a reality. I've had this experience. I know you and I have worked together and it's like when you have the right formula that understands the psychology of human beings, right? It means that people read and they feel it, they see it, they know it, and they say yes. 

Kris Jones 06:09

Yeah. And it's truly psychology. There are all kinds of neurochemicals that get released when somebody reads your story. The bonding hormone, the dopamine comes out when they're envisioning their success, trust is built, but it's truly psychology, which is why storytelling is so powerful. It's very easy to get caught up in trendy marketing tactics. Storytelling is what we're wired for because it's been around since the beginning of time. And we've always, as humans, gathered around the fire and shared stories. That's how we connect. That's how we learn. And so that's why as somebody who's been doing this work as long as I have, that's why I love stories so much is because it's timeless. It's truly timeless. 

Molly Claire 07:07

Yeah. And you know, something that I have the, you know, privilege of knowing about you, Kris, because I know you at a personal level is it's really so exciting for you to be able to connect with people who are offering such important services. And for you to be able to plug in what you do and help them to have more clients, to help more people. And it's just a beautiful thing.And I want to mention that because I know typically those of you listening, my audience is full of coaches who are very heart-centered, purpose-driven, and things like, you know, sales, a lot of times they don't like these words, right? Or this idea of, oh, well, we're using psychology in order to manipulate or convince people to sign up, but it's not that at all. It's really, it's really, and this is where I want Kris to tell you more about the actual process in the book, but it's really about capturing what it is that your potential clients need to know and understand in order to see that you can help them, which our clients need help to figure that out.

Kris Jones 08:22

If you are the right fit, then you are the obvious choice. I mean, it's in what you're really selling, which when you use story, you really don't have to sell, but what you're really selling is a transformation. They're going from somebody that they were into a new version of who they're going to become, and they do that because you're helping them solve a very big problem. People pay money to solve problems, and this is why you're doing the work that you do.You're creating this transformation, and so it's not manipulating people. It's truly repelling the ones that are not the right fit and attracting the ones that are the right fit. If they don't work with you and they want to solve this problem, they're very likely not to be able to solve the problem because we often can't solve these problems on our own. If we could, they wouldn't be out and about on the internet or asking their network for somebody that does what you do. 

Molly Claire 09:31

Yeah. So, okay, Kris, tell us about the concept that you're teaching in the book, because I know one thing that Kris and I were talking about before recording is this book is such an awesome opportunity for you, because it means, you know, Kris, you were saying these are, I'm just kind of summarizing your words, but people can learn about this method that you're going to be talking about, and they don't have to completely do it themselves. And they also don't necessarily have to spend thousands of dollars to do it. This is really a chance to give people the support to work through this process you're talking about with the support of your book. 

Kris Jones 10:09

Yes. There's a thing that I call the bottle effect, which really is just the fact that when we're self-employed, we are inside of a bottle. And when we're trying to talk about our own business, we're inside that bottle, stuck in there. And we're trying to read the label of that bottle that can only be read from the outside of the bottle. And that's what I want all the coaches listening today to really understand and let yourself off the hook.Writing for your own business is hard because of the bottle effect. It's not hard because you're not a great writer. You are a great writer. This is not a writing problem. It's a perspective problem. And that's why I do the work that I do. I get to look at your business with fresh eyes, and I get to analyze your process and your uniqueness. And there are things that are going on in your business that you don't think are any big deal. But when I look at your business with fresh eyes, I can really identify those golden nuggets of that golden thread in your business and bring that to the surface and highlight those things that do make you the obvious choice. So the book solves that problem because if you want to work with me one on one, great. It's right around a $5,000 investment. Not everybody has that kind of a budget. And yet trying to do it alone is like beating your head against the wall. It feels really impossible. So the book is a beautiful hybrid where you don't have to go it alone. You have a structure, you have a proven methodology, and you have me as a guide to guide you through my process. So you get all the benefits of mining for gold, which we'll get into really uncovering your own story and upleveling your website. So it can be your most powerful client attraction tool without having to work with me one on one. 

Molly Claire 12:16

Yeah, I love it. And let's talk about mining for gold because that's like step one in this, right? 

Kris Jones 12:24

Yes, step one is mining for gold. And that just means that your story is not created, it's not invented. Your story is really inside your heart and it's inside your head. And it's my job to ask you the right questions to really pull the story out of you. It's step one in the process. And it's the most essential step in the process because if we don't go through the mining for gold process, we can't do all the other steps. It's absolutely fundamental. 

Molly Claire 13:09

And then I think we are trying to create it or invent it or something. And then that's just like a lot of spinning. And, you know, I love this idea and not just idea, but I've experienced what it's like to have your help in, in pulling out that story that's there. So that's step one is the mining for gold. 

Kris Jones 13:30

The step one is the mining for gold and it's like what comes out is really, you know, it's getting all that stuff that's inside you out, right? It's like getting it onto paper, getting it onto a document and then we ruthlessly refine it. So we get rid of all the noise.

Molly Claire 13:53

I just want to interrupt really quick. Is that step two? The refining is step two. 

Kris Jones 13:57

So the four steps are mine, refine, design, and then sign new clients. So those are the four steps. Step two is refine. And that's where you really, you take that gold that we've excavated and you polish it and you refine it and you edit out the noise and you really start to craft and formulate the structure of your story. So it's the phase where we start to put the puzzle pieces together of your story and the flow of it and really it begins to take shape. 

Molly Claire 14:38

Mm-hmm. 

Kris Jones 14:39

And in the book, there's a template, like a tool that you can download and use so you're not, you know, you're not winging it. I'm truly supporting you through every step. 

Molly Claire 14:51

Yeah. You know, and as you were talking about, well, I want to talk about both of these steps really quickly. And then I want to hear about step three. But when you were talking about mining for gold and pulling out what is already there, I know this was my experience in doing this process with you, but I'm curious if you see this as common. I would imagine that it is, that a lot of times that gold that you're extracting, I don't see it as a big deal. I don't even notice what it is because it just seems very normal to me. But you, from the outside and the process you use, you're actually helping your clients. And like, you know, for example, those of you coaches listening, this book can help you to see something in you that's so phenomenal and unique and fantastic, but you don't recognize it as that because it seems normal. Is there any truth to that? You're nodding your head on the right. 

Kris Jones 15:50

No. I think that's one of the biggest benefits of the process is that by asking specific questions, the right questions that really pull that information out of you, you begin to be able to see your business with a fresh perspective.And it's so common that we do our work and we think that we do it like everybody else and we think we don't have like a signature process. I have yet to meet a client that doesn't have a signature process. They just don't know it yet, right? We go through the details and it's there. We just have to really define it. 

Molly Claire 16:33

Yes, I love that kind of articulating that we already do something, we already have this thing that we do, we just haven't seen it clearly. 

Kris Jones 16:42

Yeah, we're just we're so close to our own business. We truly are. That bottle metaphor is so powerful because just nobody is immune to that. We're all inside our own bottle. We're all brilliant, but we're so close to ourselves that we can't really identify or even articulate that brilliance. And you know, this is really a big thing that happened with Andrea, who is also part of our mastermind and she went through my process. I mean, she knew she provided a really incredible transformation for her clients, but she didn't when she'd get on sales calls and when she should talk about our work, she would fumble around because she didn't really have the words to truly articulate what she did. And the most powerful transformation that happened is that she really began to understand the power of her work and she was able to confidently communicate that and that confidence changed everything for business. She went from 20% close rate to a 95% close rate. So basically, for every 10 calls she got on, she got nine and a half clients is kind of wild. Yeah, yeah. 

Molly Claire 18:03

It really is. Okay. So, I wanted to ask you about the mining and then the refining, you know, when you were talking about that, it's like, I just had this thought come to me. My opinion personally is that that is part of your superpower is I feel that you have a gift for being able to see the ways to refine and sort and move things around that it just I don't know if it's in part your inherent gifts, your experience, all of it. That's really where the magic is that comes from you in this. 

Kris Jones 18:42

I really am a Less is More person. I believe in every area of my life, but it is a really powerful thing to apply to story because in this day and age, we're just inundated with information and what a gift to take the time to simplify your messaging. So when people come to your website, they're not overwhelmed. They actually get to take a deep breath because they're calm and they can move through your story and digest what you're saying because you're not bombarding them with more information and long paragraphs of text.And so it is really important. I mean, all the steps are very important, but the editing down is very important because if you don't do that, people aren't going to take the time to actually read a long website. They scan your website so it actually needs to be written in a way that a scanner can digest the information. 

Molly Claire 19:48

It's like what's coming to my mind is we clean it up, we have what's most important so that everything that's there has a purpose and it does it well and we don't have any of the excess. 

Kris Jones 20:00

Yes, every word is guilty until proven innocence, so we really, we really, we're ruthless about this. Yeah, and in the book, there are examples, I show you exactly how to edit, edit it down.Yeah, you're not, you know, if you're, if you're scattered or overwhelmed and having a hard time, you know, editing it down, it just, it degrades the trust that could potentially be built between you and the visitor on your website. Like, if you're not clear about what you do, if you haven't really taken the time to clarify your story and streamline it, then somebody that comes to your website isn't going to have the same level of respect that they would if you did. 

Molly Claire 20:53

I mean, this is a little bit of a side note or tangent. But when I'm training my master coaches to be able to be the most powerful, the most effective, right to the deepest and best work with their clients, the first thing we talk about is building that sense of trust, right, that trust and safety and that report, it absolutely has to be there. Because no matter how many other great skills I, you know, equip my coaches with, and no matter how great I develop them, if they can't establish and have that trust first and foremost, it's not going to do much good.And really, that's what I hear you saying here, right? Like, part of the refining process and having this really like less is more powerful page is actually doing that first step of building some trust and some confidence between client and consultant or coach or or whoever is.

Kris Jones 21:42

Yes. Yes. 100%. I like to think of your website like a first 5 or 10 minute coffee date. So if you're going to sit down with somebody new, you're going to sit, you're going to take the time to really connect with them first. So create that connection, build that trust between you, then you can open up and start sharing.But what happens so often on coaching websites in particular is we get excited about what we do and the way we solve our clients problem that they land on the website and we start talking immediately about how we can help and what our offer is and how to solve their problem. But when you think back to like a coffee date, it's like sitting down to a coffee date and saying I can solve your problem and this is how I do it. And they're like, wait a minute, we haven't even taken the time to understand if I'm having that problem number one. And so there's really a time and a place to talk about yourself and the way you solve the problem. But we really want to just like a coffee date, we want them to come to our website, we want to take the time to connect with them and really build that trust and let them know that they matter, their struggles matter, their success matters more than we do in our wonderful way of solving their problems. So we have to take that time those first few minutes to truly establish the connection first because people don't work with the best of the best, they work with the person they feel the most connected with. And that's what story has the power to do that connection, that trust. Yeah. 

Molly Claire 23:33

Yeah, so I want to just take a moment those coaches that are listening, and you maybe don't like sales, you don't like marketing, you're uncomfortable with it, you just want to coach, you know that you are good with your clients. I want you to take note of this, that the people that you want to work with, right, that we want to work with are people that we feel connected with. So those of you listening that are great with your clients, you're already great with connection, with being real with caring. And that is really what you need in order to convert clients.So that's a little bit of a side note, but very much related as well to what Kris is saying. Okay, Kris, so I feel like I could talk to you all day long, but I want to hit on these, I want to touch on these last couple of steps. And I am really excited. Of course, we're doing this interview ahead of time before the book is available. But when this is airing, if you're listening to this, the book is available. So Kris is going to tell you where you can get it. So I'm really excited for everyone to be able to get their hands on it and dive into it. So but in just this last couple of minutes, tell us about those next two steps and how they can really make a difference for someone listening. 

Kris Jones 24:50

Yes, absolutely. So we've gone through the mind process. We've gone through the refined process and the importance of those. Step three is design. And that's really taking your story now that your story is compelling. It's streamlined. That's really taking that and, and putting your story into your website builder and beginning to add design elements that really bring the story to life visually. Our brains process images so much faster than they read words. So we really want to use that in our favor and use images that are really aligned with the story and bring it to life. Because, you know, when you're on line, you've got words and you've got design and what happens so often is we either invest in our words or we invest in a beautiful design, but we don't really make sure that they're both working together in tandem, in alignment, in concert together. And when you have both of these things congruent and telling the same story, both visually and with the words, that's when you really bubble up to the top of the internet and you do not have to be a brilliant designer to implement the principles that I'm sharing in the book. They're very tangible and they're very simple and they will make your website look like it was designed by a professional. One of the things I talk about is typography and just simple, simple things that you can apply to your website with your typography, with your fonts, aka your fonts, font sizing, font styles, font choices. Like just making changes in that area can really elevate your design photography. Like I mentioned, super important and I show you exactly how to use photography and choose the right photography. Both photography that represents your clients, but also your own headshots and what really works as far as photos of yourself. And then the third thing that I talk about is really about the power of white space. Somebody is, you're in a conversation and they're just talking, talking, talking and they're not letting you get a word in edgewise or they're not taking a pause. It's really hard to digest what's going on and it doesn't feel like a conversation. And that's kind of what happens when we fill our websites with, you know, we fill every aspect of our website with either a photo or text. There's no time for our brains to absorb and for us to, for the website to really become dynamic. 

Molly Claire 27:47

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm 

Kris Jones 27:48

Yeah. And then the last step in the process is sign. And this is where you just reap all the rewards of step one, two, and three. You just get to sign new clients, but you've got the story. And not only, you know, I really believe once you do this work, once you have a clear and compelling story on your website, it doesn't just live on your website. It lives, the way you talk about your business in person, on your sales calls, on your social media. Anywhere you show up, this story is going to be repeated. And your, the story that we craft together in the book, it really does work a lot like an accordion. So there are shorter versions of it that might be more like a two sentence, you know, answer to the question, what do you do? Still your story, just a shorter version of it, a longer version might be on your website. And then like maybe a mid-sized version might appear on social media or in a blog post or in a video script. So once you have that foundation, you can really repurpose it in so many ways.So that's a huge relief. Number one, we don't have to keep generating new content. And sign is really fundamentally about converting those clients. So you get on a call with them and they're pretty much pre-sold. They're just needing to get the logistics about what it's like to work with you. And you can echo that same story and the transformation that happens for them. And then they're excited to work with you if they're a great fit client. 

Molly Claire 29:32

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it's really true. I know I've experienced this when I have purchased something, when I have signed up for something and in implementing much of this in my own business, right? Where people are saying, yeah, just send me the link. Just tell me what to do now. I already know this is what I need. I feel it. I see it. I know it. And it's really possible. So I'm so excited that you have put these amazing foundational pieces in this book. Tell my audience, where can they get this book? Tell them the link. Tell them all the things. 

Kris Jones 30:08

So to get the book, all you have to do is go to my website, which is reddoordesigns.com forward slash book. So everything will be there on the book. And then all the resources that I talked about are all free. And there's a link inside the book that you can get to access all those free resources. But everything can be found there also reddoordesigns.com. You can also learn about working with me and all the things that I'm about. 

Molly Claire 30:40

Awesome. 

Kris Jones 30:41

your podcast. Yes, and I have a new podcast.The book is called From Click to Client, and the podcast is also called From Click to Client. And I have incredibly enriching, fun, insightful conversations with fellow entrepreneurs and business owners. And we talk all about how to tell a clear and compelling story that gets you more clients. 

Molly Claire 31:10

Awesome, awesome. Kris, thank you so much for being here. Everyone go check it out. Buy that book immediately. I know there will be some great nuggets in there for each of you. And I know one of the words that I heard Kris say and I've kind of latched on to is foundational pieces. I think these are some foundational things that once you have them, you will be able to, like Kris was saying, utilize these same elements, these same components, the same story in various ways in your business. And I just love that. And I'm just so excited about all of it. So thank you.  All right. I'll talk with you all next week. Have a good one.