Meet Chris Barnes

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chris Barnes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chris below.

Chris, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience was built in the wreckage, not the wins.
It comes from rebuilding a marriage I almost lost, learning to face my own mistakes, and fighting for a business in a small town where nothing is handed to you.
It comes from being a dad trying to make up for moments I cannot get back.
And honestly, it comes from God refusing to let me stay the man I used to be.

My resilience is simple. I got knocked down, and I chose to get back up again and again.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I create.
That is the simplest way I can say it.

I run Vision Studios Kentucky and BrandBuilt, and I built Lions And Kings Lifestyle from the same place I rebuilt my life. My work is visual media, branding, storytelling, and helping people and businesses show the world who they really are. But at the heart of it, what I do is take the real moments in someone’s story and make them seen.

What feels most special to me is that nothing I create is peel and stick. It is not generic. It is not “good enough.” I build things with intention, whether it is a commercial for a small business, a brand identity for a blue collar company, or a devotional for someone who feels like they are barely holding on.

Every project has a heartbeat.
Every brand has a story.
My job is to honor that.

I am also an author. My devotional series, Everyday Angels Not Sunday Prophets, is still under construction, but it is built for the misfits, the ashamed, the rebuilding, and the ones who think God forgot their name. It is raw, gritty, and honest. It speaks to the parts of people most devotionals avoid.

As for what is new, BrandBuilt is expanding into full brand packages that include content creation, merch, marketing, and storytelling all wrapped into one. Lions And Kings Lifestyle is becoming a resilience brand with limited apparel drops tied to themes of rebuilding and purpose. And Vision Studios continues to grow into both commercial work and fine art.

Everything I do comes from the life I am living.
Messy. Imperfect. Redemption in progress.
But real.

If people see anything in my work, I hope it is that.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Learning how to get back up.
Not in a motivational poster way. I mean learning how to get up after you fail publicly, privately, loudly, and quietly. Learning how to face the mess you made and still choose to rebuild. That muscle changed my life more than anything else.
Advice: Let life hit you. Let it teach you. Stop running from every hard thing. You grow when you stay in the fire long enough to learn why you were there.

2. Seeing people as people.
My work changed the day I stopped trying to “impress” clients and started trying to understand them. When you hear someone’s story, you can create something that feels like them, not something that just looks good.
Advice: Listen more than you speak. Ask questions that go deeper than business. You cannot tell a story you do not take time to learn.

3. Knowing myself.
Not the polished version. The real version. The one with flaws, guilt, gifts, calling, and responsibility. Once I understood who I actually was, my brand got clearer, my work got stronger, and my life stopped feeling like I was performing for everyone else.
Advice: Sit with yourself. Be honest about what you are good at and what you avoid. Your brand and your purpose grow when you quit pretending and start owning who you are.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Yes. I am always open to partnering, but not with just anyone. I want to work with people who actually care about what they are building. People who show up. People who take pride in their craft, their business, and their story.

I work best with small business owners, creators, and leaders who want their brand to feel real, not recycled. Folks who are not afraid of honest storytelling, gritty visuals, or doing things the right way instead of the easy way.

I am also open to collaborating with other artists, writers, and creators who are building from a place of purpose, not ego. If your work has heart, I am interested.

The simplest way to connect with me is through Vision Studios Kentucky. Email is usually easiest: [email protected]
.
If you reach out, tell me who you are, what you do, and what story you want to tell. If it fits, we will build something solid together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.visionstudioskentucky.com
• Facebook: visionstudioskentucky