Today we’d like to introduce you to Kronda Adair.
Hi Kronda, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m a writer who became a developer who became a marketer, and now I help businesses map and fix what’s happening behind the scenes.
I got here sideways. In 2006 I was a project manager at a tiny direct mail startup. One day our contract web developer walked into a meeting in a jaunty little cap, with his laptop, and walked out again. I realized he probably made a lot more money than I did and could work from wherever he wanted. I went straight back to my desk and started researching community colleges. I didn’t become a developer because I loved code. Learning it was hard for me. I did it for freedom, because I knew I wanted to build a business and this was a skill I could build one around.
I eventually earned my degree in web design and interactive media from the Art Institute of Portland, graduating in 2011. I went from an internship into a job building Drupal sites, and I learned a lot there. Then I got fired for “culture fit.” I was mad for about 15 minutes, and then I figured it was time to hang out my shingle. In January 2013, I started Karvel Digital.
I made the classic developer mistake of building $500 brochure websites that didn’t do much for anyone. My first client wanted 40 hours a week, which sounded suspiciously like the job I’d just left. I knew she wasn’t a great client, but she was my first, so I said yes and gave myself a plan to replace her. It took eight months. That taught me you can say yes to the wrong thing for a while as long as you keep your eyes on where you’re going.
The bigger lesson was that a website is just the front door. Clients didn’t know how to use theirs, didn’t keep it updated, and sometimes got hacked. Handing over a site wasn’t helping their business, so I started studying marketing and spent years learning from some of the best in the field. That’s where the writer in me finally had a job.
The more time I spent on the front door, the more I noticed that what actually held businesses back was the mess behind it: undocumented processes, disconnected tools, and teams running on tribal knowledge. Today, Karvel Digital is a systems strategy and process mapping consultancy. I use a framework I built called C.L.E.A.R. (Clarify, Liberate, Elevate, Automate, Repeat) to help teams get their processes out of their heads and onto a map before they automate anything. I’m also the #1 user of Puzzle, a revolutionary process mapping software. I’m an authorized Puzzle instructor, hosting Puzzle 101 workshops in the official Puzzle community every two weeks.
My drive comes from the women who raised me. My grandmother was a welder, a nurse, and a real estate agent, and she raised seven children mostly on her own. My mom raised my sister and me mostly on her own too, and built a career around giving kids a love of reading. The library she worked in is now named after her. I’m a Black gay woman building a business in one of the whitest big cities in the country, persevering through all the ups and downs. I don’t take any of it for granted, and I don’t have much patience for excuses, mine included.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
During one of the darkest periods of my business, a mentor told me that, among ultra successful business owners, they don’t take you seriously until you’ve ‘cycled,’ meaning you lost everything and then earned it back.
I’ve taken on bad clients, taken jobs I wasn’t ready for (and failed spectacularly), dealt with unfair charge backs and clients who undervalued the work I did even though it was excellent.
These things are just the price of admission for running your own business. It’s not for the weak.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Karvel Digital is a systems strategy and process mapping consultancy based in Portland. In plain English, I make the invisible parts of a business visible, then help fix them before anybody automates anything.
Most businesses run on vibes and hustle. How a client gets onboarded, how an invoice goes out, what happens when a new lead comes in: all of it lives in somebody’s head or in six disconnected tools nobody fully understands. That works until someone goes on vacation, quits, or the business starts to grow. My line is “you can’t delegate chaos.” You can’t hand off, or automate, a process nobody has written down.
What I’m known for is process mapping and the framework I built around it, C.L.E.A.R.: Clarify, Liberate, Elevate, Automate, Repeat. Get the process out of people’s heads, free up time, get your data in order, automate what’s left, and keep reviewing so the whole thing doesn’t rot. Automation is fourth on purpose. I’ll always tell you to map before you build.
There are a few ways to work with me.
Puzzle Jump Start is a 90-minute session where we map one process together.
Backend Blueprint is a two-month done-for-you engagement where I fix and build the systems behind your business.
Automation Club is a membership community with coworking and office hours for people who want to build their own systems with support.
I also teach. I’m an authorized instructor for Puzzle, the process mapping software I use every day, I’m ranked the number one Puzzle user in the world, and I run a YouTube channel called Puzzle Process Pros.
What sets me apart is that I came up as a writer, then a developer, then a marketer, so I see a business’s systems from all three sides: how it communicates, how it’s built, and how it makes money. I’m also results-oriented to a fault. I don’t ask what’s easy or free, I ask what will actually get you the outcome you want. And I run my own business on the same systems I sell, so I’m never recommending something I haven’t lived through.
What I’m most proud of is building a brand that’s direct, practical, and free of hustle-culture nonsense, one that helps people do the unglamorous work that makes growth sustainable.
If I could leave readers with one thing: you don’t have to be big to have good systems. Pick one thing you do every week and write down every step. You’ll find something to fix. And make your decisions the way my favorite phrase (and the name of my podcast) says, begin as you mean to go on. Think about the business you want in two, three or five years, not just next month.
What matters most to you?
Helping overwhelmed business owners get their time and sanity back because too many businesses end up as prisons for the business owner instead of a vehicle to support your life.
Being truthful about what it takes to do that, because people deserve to know what they’re getting into.
Slowing down to speed up. Taking the time to build a solid foundation so that things don’t crumble when it gets busy.
Petting all the dogs, because, duh.
Pricing:
- Backend Blueprint – $6000 for the first 2 months then $2000/month (cancel anytime)
- Puzzle Jump Start – 90 Minute Mapping Session $500 – $1000
Contact Info:
- Website: https://karveldigital.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/karveldigital
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/karveldigital
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krondaadair
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KarvelDigital/videos
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/@puzzleprocesspro
