Interview With Actress Kelly Lester The Singing CEO
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THE SINGING CEO: KELLY LESTER
MERGING A PROFITABLE COMPANY WITH A SUCCESSFUL ACTING CAREER
A famous face of stage, TV and film, Kelly Lester has been praised for her singing as Doris Day, can be seen dispensing lunch advice on daytime TV shows across America and has worked with some of Hollywood’s finest as a supporting player in films. However the busy performer, mother to three and wife of popular cult actor Loren Lester (famous in his own right as voice artist behind characters in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as well as over 200 episodes of various live-action TV shows) also manages to find time to add Company CEO to her ever expanding CV. 'This really wasn't a business idea from the get-go' recalls Kelly Lester, CEO of Easy Lunch Boxes, 'it was just a way of getting a boring chore out of the way, but it seems to have a universal appeal, people of all ages are now using our boxes, they're just so convenient'. |
Many parents can relate to a flustered and
panicked morning assembling packed lunches for their children before the school
bus arrives. Kelly Lester, a mother of three girls of varying ages was feeling
it more than most when finally she decided she had had enough. 'It was bad
enough I have to spend time thinking about what I was going to make them all
for lunch and then doing that' explains the Californian, 'so then spending time
trying to fit it all in to the boxes was just too much, I didn't have time to
be doing puzzles!' The only other option seemed to be paying for school
lunches. 'I don't know what they are like over in the UK, but the school
lunches here are not very healthy, I just didn't want my kids eating them'.
Feeling frustrated, Kelly eventually found a solution to her problem. 'In a store somewhere I actually found some lunch boxes that did the job and I was so pleased with them, but they turned out only to be a temporary measure as they broke easily'. While most would have given up at this point, Kelly, who had previously run and sold a crafts business in 2006, is not easily deterred. Instead, this was her Eureka moment. 'Necessity is the mother of all invention, as the saying goes. So I identified a need for the kind of lunch box where you can just sort of toss it all in'. Her new business, Easy Lunch Boxes, was born. |
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The product soon grew into a company, and success quickly overtook all of her expectations. 'Due to it being such a niche product, it turned out we didn't really have any competition. We get them made in China and have to put in an order a good three or four months in advance, we just constantly re-invest our profit into the company' explains Kelly. Ironically, the success of Easy Lunch Boxes also became a couple of its first problems.'The busiest period for our business is, understandably, just before the kids return to school in September, and due to the unexpected overwhelming demand for our boxes we have managed to run out of product before the season on two occasions!'
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Even before they were listed on Amazon, Easy
Lunch Boxes had accumulated a loyal following of customers. 'It was all really
just word of mouth, we had no advertising budget but bloggers were giving us
reviews. We got inundated with blogger review requests! By the time we were on
Amazon we already had a strong customer base.' In fact, so strong was this
customer base that it wasn't long before Kelly found her product in the number
one slot for lunch box sales on the world's leading online retailer. 'We never
dreamed of trying to get to number one' admits Kelly, 'in fact I didn't even
realise we were for a long while. I completely missed the Amazon rating at
first, it was only when I was on the phone with a guy from their customer
services about something else and he told me to scroll down my screen to see it
that I found out!'
A large part of her success also lies in social media, her Facebook page alone having gained over 180,000 likes and being featured at number 2 in SocialMediaExaminer.com's list of Top Ten Small Business Facebook Pages. But even this has not been part of an overall master plan. 'When I started I had a personal Facebook page but not much else, I didn't really know Twitter. I didn't know anything about social media, I hadn't even heard of the term', confesses the biggest online seller of lunch boxes. 'So eventually I started following blogs about social media and taught myself. I studied it and then implemented it, just emulating other businesses. When Pinterest came along it just blew up, our social media has been growing exponentially ever since. Google is my teacher, and it has never let me down'.
Suprisingly, Kelly, the author of the cookbook Cooking with Trader Joe's, who also presents a series of videos where she dishes out advice from a kitchen, doesn't even enjoy cooking. 'I'm not a huge fan of spending time in the kitchen' confesses Kelly, 'I'd rather be in and out of there as quickly as possible. I have other creative outlets so I don't feel compelled to be in there much'.
A large part of her success also lies in social media, her Facebook page alone having gained over 180,000 likes and being featured at number 2 in SocialMediaExaminer.com's list of Top Ten Small Business Facebook Pages. But even this has not been part of an overall master plan. 'When I started I had a personal Facebook page but not much else, I didn't really know Twitter. I didn't know anything about social media, I hadn't even heard of the term', confesses the biggest online seller of lunch boxes. 'So eventually I started following blogs about social media and taught myself. I studied it and then implemented it, just emulating other businesses. When Pinterest came along it just blew up, our social media has been growing exponentially ever since. Google is my teacher, and it has never let me down'.
Suprisingly, Kelly, the author of the cookbook Cooking with Trader Joe's, who also presents a series of videos where she dishes out advice from a kitchen, doesn't even enjoy cooking. 'I'm not a huge fan of spending time in the kitchen' confesses Kelly, 'I'd rather be in and out of there as quickly as possible. I have other creative outlets so I don't feel compelled to be in there much'.
'Other creative outlets' is putting it mildly.
When she isn't busy being a mother or running a successful company she is
living up to her nickname as 'The Singing CEO', an accomplished singer and
actress who has rubbed shoulders with many an A-list star. One of her more
high-profile performances was short, but a memorable experience. About 7 minutes
in to J.Edgar (2011) you'll find Kelly playing an uptight secretary. 'My
character introduces the two main leads in the film, Leonardo DiCaprio and
Naomi Watts'. But it wasn't being in a film with Leo that she found to be the
most exhilarating aspect of the project, 'it was directed by Clint Eastwood, so
being able to work with him was an amazing experience'.
In fact, given the choice Kelly will always claim to prefer performing over her CEO duties, 'oh, definitely performing, that never gets too boring!' Fortunately, rather than choose between the two, she made herself another option. Not content just with her successful career as a supporting actor in Hollywood, Kelly incorporates her creative talents into her business, where she is always the leading star. In order to help promote the company she not only stars in video clips giving domestic kitchen tips, but also other videos that are quirky, zany and very tongue-in-cheek. 'We made a couple of productainment films, which are essentially an ad selling a product but also entertainment. They cost quite a bit of money, we hired a local production company'. The result is the great looking, professional and funny 'Let's Do Lunch', a 1950s parody talk show presented by the company CEO. 'They were very expensive to produce' explains Kelly, which shows in the lavish set.
In fact, given the choice Kelly will always claim to prefer performing over her CEO duties, 'oh, definitely performing, that never gets too boring!' Fortunately, rather than choose between the two, she made herself another option. Not content just with her successful career as a supporting actor in Hollywood, Kelly incorporates her creative talents into her business, where she is always the leading star. In order to help promote the company she not only stars in video clips giving domestic kitchen tips, but also other videos that are quirky, zany and very tongue-in-cheek. 'We made a couple of productainment films, which are essentially an ad selling a product but also entertainment. They cost quite a bit of money, we hired a local production company'. The result is the great looking, professional and funny 'Let's Do Lunch', a 1950s parody talk show presented by the company CEO. 'They were very expensive to produce' explains Kelly, which shows in the lavish set.
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Keeping production costs down you can find many
other Easy Lunch Boxes videos on Youtube which are made at home with the help
of her family. 'We'll use any medium to get the message out, but since we are a
family of professional actors, all of us, my husband, myself and all three of
our daughters, it is only natural that we are drawn to making these videos. I
think a big part of why they are popular is because people relate to families.
I think other moms are watching them'.
And what is Kelly watching? Right now she has the future of the company in her sights. 'We're looking to go international. We are looking for somebody with experience to sell the distribution rights to'.
Having recently made an appearence in the Nickelodeon hit The Haunted Hathaways, Kelly’s next big-screen project sees her in the role of a doctor in the Eddy Murphy drama Cook, which is released later this year.
And what is Kelly watching? Right now she has the future of the company in her sights. 'We're looking to go international. We are looking for somebody with experience to sell the distribution rights to'.
Having recently made an appearence in the Nickelodeon hit The Haunted Hathaways, Kelly’s next big-screen project sees her in the role of a doctor in the Eddy Murphy drama Cook, which is released later this year.
You can check out Kelly's career on IMDb, keep up with her latest news by visiting her site KellyLester.com and find out more about her business Easy Lunch Boxes on the official site or by following her on Twitter.
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