Meet Chris Meyers | Interior Draftsman & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Meyers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
Everyone wants to sound like a badass and say something like “…any risks we face are a minor obstacle on the path to greatness. Just move past them and you can obtain anything you set your mind to.” I mean, I’d love to believe that’s the truth but we focus so much on what people have, and not what it took to get there.

I believe that risk taking is essential in every part of your life and that risk and fear go hand in hand, most of the time. If you didn’t fear something, even a little bit, how could it pose any sort of risk to you? Removing myself from my figurative soapbox and getting back to the point: risk is essential. It’s not something I was born with, it was definitely a learned behavior. The more risks I took, the more I saw the rewards. Big or small, even if it’s just jumping off of that 10 foot cliff into the water, or ordering a different drink you’ve never tried before. Each time you conquer a fear and/or take a risk, it builds that muscle and I wanted to keep doing it. Joining the military at age 19 – risk to life and limb, but almost 20 yrs later, I’m still seeing the rewards even if it’s just a 10% discount at Starbucks on Veterans Day. Being talked into going skydiving, and eventually getting my skydiving license. I overcame an enormous fear from that accomplishment. Packing what I could into my 2003 Subaru Baja and moving to Colorado – risk to career [and possibly car], but shortly thereafter and several interviews later, I found a freelancing job on Craigslist that turned out to be for one of the most well-connected Interior Designers in the Summit County area. [One of the sketchiest ads I’ve ever replied to, by the way]. That one simple reply directly led me to where I am today, which I think is pretty cool.

Regardless of if I knew I was going to receive some sort of tangible or intangible reward from taking a risk, I did it anyway. Not always. Not recklessly. But more often than not I’d at least try. Because if nothing else, you get to put a story in your back pocket and pull it out when the time is right.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At Christopher John Designs LLC, I offer support to Interior Design and Architecture firms in the form of drafting, 3D Rendering and interior design assistance. Basically, what the creatives have in their heads, I flesh out on paper making it much easier to convey to the client, general contractor and anyone in between who is working on the project.

What I think is really neat is I just sort of fell into this niche. I had no precedent to learn from or people to talk to about it for strict guidance because as far as I knew, it didn’t exist. The more design professionals I reached out to, the more positive feedback I received in the form of, “yeah, I could definitely use you for something.” That felt great and made me want to keep going.

I’m a big proponent of “fake it till you make it” and that was (and probably still is) something I was/am doing. Putting on my decade old dress shoes and “fancy jeans” and walking into a meeting staged in the center of a 12,000 square foot half-built house with stoic interior designers, multi-million dollar investors, seasoned general contractors and builders all who have been doing this for decades in one of the most exclusive areas of Colorado was extremely intimidating. Especially when everyone falls silent and I hear, “this is my draftsman, he’ll be taking measurements and doing all of the drawings and renderings.” Cue slight smile with shaky hand wave followed by the entire room turning back to their tablets and plans, continuing to talk over one another, while I scramble to take notes. Then out comes a question I barely heard followed by another 5 seconds of silence as they all wait for an answer from me. A little nerve wracking to say the least.

So to answer the question: was it easy? More no than yes, especially because there were no guidelines. But I had a great person who I consider a mentor (who I also had to convince I knew what I was doing) and who rarely gave negative feedback. It was always constructive and I always took it seriously.

Overcoming the challenges was rather simple. A lot of late nights and a lot of googling. It’s truly amazing what one can do with the internet at their fingertips. My partner and I remodeled a whole house ourselves just from watching YouTube. Or YouTube University, as we call it.

A big lesson I learned was probably the biggest cliche; I just believed in myself. I believed I could do it. Don’t get me wrong, there was A LOT of I can’t do it, but clearing my head and realizing that if I didn’t do it, it wasn’t going to get done. So again, I at least tried. I heard from someone or something I read, “no feeling is final.” That no matter what, I’m still going to go on living. No matter what happens [to a certain extent], I’ll still wake up tomorrow, I’ll still have the same thoughts and my life will probably not be different in any way. By that I mean if I screwed up in a presentation, I’d probably be the only one thinking about it a week later. Life goes on and I tried very hard not to let screwups hold me back. Even if I got fired from a job. Welp, that sucks, but maybe the next client I get is better and opens even more doors. Maybe they want to pay me more, or pass my name along to other potential clients. Then getting fired from that one job for what’s their face was the best thing ever! What I’m trying to say is that no matter what, there’s always going to be something beyond whatever I’m doing now and that is super exciting.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I moved around a lot when I was trying to figure out where I wanted to be in Colorado. I’ll also start by saying that my ideal time is usually outside of a city, but it’s Colorado and everyone loves the mountains plus if I describe one of my winter camping trips as the best time ever, I might get some eye rolls and/or yawns.

Day 1: Longmont
– Sunrise walk around McIntosh Lake
– Breakfast at Lucile’s (me and my partner’s favorite restaurant where we had our first date!)
– Thrift shopping around main street
– Quarters Barcade for midday refreshments and entertainment.
– Lunch at Summit Tacos
– Brewhop Trolley tour
– Dinner at Rosalee’s Pizza
– Evening show at the Longmont Theater or Live music at Dickens Opera House

Day 2: Mile-Hi, Longmont
– Mile-Hi Skydiving to watch the early morning balloon jumps
– See if they’re up for a tandem jump!
– Hangout and watch people jump out of planes; Mile-Hi has a great community of super supportive and friendly people.
– Lunch in town.
– Fancy venison dinner at my place.
– Ice Cream at Sweet Cow.
– Fire in the backyard with friends.

Day 3: Fort Collins
– Head up 287 and/or 93 for scenic drive
– Best chai outside of India at Everyday Joe’s (sadly closed)
– Main street walk: Little Horse, Bizarre Bazaar, All Sales Vinyl
– Horsetooth hike up to Horsetooth Rock.
– Lory State Park.
– Backcountry camp sites in Lory.

Day 4: Fort Collins
– Boat rental on Horsetooth Reservoir
– Group of 8-10 people, pack snacks and lunch, beers and seltzers in the sun.
– Dinner at The Regional, drinks and Cornhole at Union, maybe hit some breweries to relax on the lawn.
– Crash at friends house nearby.

Day 5: Fort Collins/Boulder
– Bike ride on the fantastic bike paths
– Lunch in town at Yampa Sandwich Co
– Head to Boulder; Pearl Street Mall
– Art Source International to check out the old maps
– Shops on Pearl Street.
– Grab tacos at T/Aco
– Sunset hike in Chautauqua.
– Bohemian Beer Garden for Liter beers and German tapas.
– Billiards and people watch at Sunset Tavern.

Day 6: Ault, CO
– Baker Draw Designated Shooting Area
– Target shooting and exploring the plains
– Steak and veggie lunch cooked on camp stove, car style
– Camp in the plains listening to the coyotes howl.

Day 7: Head West on I-70 to explore
– Stop at Buffalo Overlook to watch the Buffalos.
– Georgetown to explore a typical wild west mining town.
– Lunch at A&K’s or 511 Rose.
– Maybe do a gold mine tour!
– Idaho Springs, Westbound & Down/The Buffalo for dinner.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Elisabeth Reed.
For her endless encouragement and die hard positivity.

Website: https://christopherjohnllc.com

Instagram: @meohmeyers

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-m-78324491/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.meyers.737