Today we’d like to introduce you to Kris Morgan.
Hi Kris, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve known since I was five years old, after watching Miracle on 34th Street, that I wanted to create the iconic Macy’s window displays on Fifth Avenue. The only catch? I grew up in a small town in Illinois… not exactly the land of retail theatrics.
So the moment I turned 18, I moved to the closest “big city” I had access to – Chicago, and studied Fashion Retail Management with a minor in Visual Merchandising at Columbia College. If that wasn’t enough to shock my parents, I called them the day I graduated and said, “I’m moving to New York City. I got an internship with Armani.” Two suitcases. One dream. Zero backup plan.
I spent the next several years moving nine times across the country chasing opportunities in luxury retail visual, living a life that felt like a mix of grit, glamour, and “The Devil Wears Prada.” It was thrilling, and brutally demanding. I worked full-time while attending college full-time. I worked holidays, weekends, and more consecutive 16-hour days than I could ever count.
One of the most eye-opening moments of my life happened on the floor of the Houston Galleria Mall, when I collapsed, face first, from pure exhaustion. After an ambulance ride and a very humbling ER visit, the diagnosis was simple: sleep deprived, malnourished, pushed beyond human capacity. My body has never had an “off switch,” if there’s a job to do, I’ll figure out how to do it. But that was my first real wake-up call.
Despite the sacrifice, I loved my work. I got to experience different pockets of culture across the U.S., lead teams, transform underperforming stores, and help people grow into potential they didn’t know they had. That part has always been the heartbeat for me, seeing people light up when they realize they can do more than they believed.
But dreams evolve. Priorities shift. And eventually, the universe nudged me (more than once) to reinvent the dream entirely.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth? Not even close, but I’ve learned that the “bumpy roads” are where the real character gets built.
If there’s one moment that completely rerouted my life, it was getting fired, yes, fired, from a job I was actually excelling at. The company asked for “honest feedback,” and I took them literally. I shared my professional opinion the same way I always had.
Turns out, honesty was the wrong answer. Within thirty days, the writing was on the wall.
I left quietly with a severance package and a very loud realization:
Integrity wasn’t just missing; it was optional in that environment.
And here’s the thing: I’ve never been the “smile, nod, keep your mouth shut” type. Not in life, and definitely not in work. Because of that, I was often labeled difficult, challenging, or the classic, not a culture fit. That was the first real crack in my corporate shell. I didn’t walk away from my childhood dream immediately, but one foot was absolutely out the door.
Then COVID hit, and life slowed to a crawl. I started organizing my home… then my family’s… then my friends’. Not as a “business,” but because it felt good and made sense. A friend watched me transform a space one day and said, “You know people pay for this, right?”
I genuinely didn’t.
But that one sentence opened a door, and I walked straight through it.
At first, I was basically doing retail “floorsets” inside people’s homes. That’s what I knew. I’d walk the space, ask a million questions, analyze the pain points, and then redesign it like I was prepping for an executive walkthrough. ROI talk and all. Was it formal? Absolutely not. Was I winging it? Very much yes. Was it working? Shockingly… also yes.
For two years I juggled this accidental side business with my full-time career. Eventually, I ripped the bandaid off and jumped into entrepreneurship with no safety net, no corporate logo behind me, no rulebook — just grit, experience, and a stubborn belief that I could build something better.
Have there been hardships? Plenty. But I don’t treat them like trophies. I grew up playing sports, and sports taught me everything about resilience:
You don’t win the medal on championship day, you win it at every practice when nobody’s watching.
You fail, you recover fast, you stay coachable, you keep moving.
Mental toughness before everything.
That mindset carried me through every setback, and it’s what shapes the work I do today, helping women create homes that feel as elevated, functional, and purpose-driven as the rest of their lives.
Looking back, the funny part is this:
Every “against the grain” moment I went through, being the underdog, the misfit, the one who wouldn’t stay quiet, was actually preparing me for entrepreneurship.
I guess I was never meant to fit the mold.
I was meant to build my own.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I run SimplifiedxKris, a home-organizing and styling studio that blends my 20-plus years in luxury retail visual merchandising with a passion for creating spaces that actually make people’s lives easier. I serve clients in both Dallas–Fort Worth and Chicago, and the heart of my work is simple:
I help busy, high-achieving women design homes that feel as elevated, intentional, and effortless as the rest of their lives.
What I’m known for is taking a retail-level process, the same one used to transform underperforming stores, and applying it to real homes. It’s part design, part psychology, part strategy, and part “let’s figure out what’s really going on here.” I don’t just make things look pretty. I build systems that function, flow, and hold up in actual daily life.
My clients often joke that I’m the organizational version of a creative director:
I walk the space, diagnose the friction points, create the story, redesign the layout, build the systems, and then walk them through the transformation like we’re in an executive floor-set meeting. It’s efficient, it’s elevated, and somehow still fun.
What sets me apart?
I don’t approach organizing from a place of perfection, I approach it from a place of understanding.
I’ve lived the exhaustion, the burnout, the constant “go,” the tiny apartments, the back-to-back relocations, the hours spent on the floor of a retail store at 2 a.m. installing new visual displays. I understand chaos because I’ve lived in it.
So when I step into someone’s home, there’s zero judgment. Just curiosity, problem-solving, and a whole lot of “let’s make this feel better.”
One transformations I’ll never forget:
I’ll never forget the moment we wrapped up day one of a major garage transformation. When I first walked into the space, every inch was covered in “stuff,” boxes stacked to the ceiling, furniture from past seasons of life, tools, gear, memories, and more memories. She told me she wanted to fit one car in the garage again. That was the goal.
By the end of the first day, not only could one car fit… two cars could fit, and we carved out a fully functional workshop for her furniture-refinishing business in the third bay. As we walked the space together, she burst into tears. Not from embarrassment or overwhelm, but from relief. From pride. From finally being able to breathe in her own home again.
She said she would have been thrilled if we stopped right there. Thankfully, we still had one more day. And that second day took the entire project from “organized” to transformational, a space that now supports her creativity, her business, her routines, and her peace of mind.
Letting go of once-loved items, confronting the emotional weight of clutter, and choosing what stays and what goes — it’s never easy. But this client did the hard work. She faced it all. And her hug (and those tears of joy) at the end? That’s the part I’ll never forget.
What clients consistently say about working with me:
• They trust me fully in their homes, even when they’re at work.
• They appreciate my communication style and clarity throughout the process.
• They feel seen and heard, not judged.
• They love that I have both an organizing brain and a design eye.
• And that I bring “quiet luxury” into spaces that were once stressful.
What many people don’t expect:
I don’t just work in the pretty areas of the home.
I’m one of the few organizers who also tackles the unfinished spaces; garages, basements, attics, the places most people avoid. There’s nothing more satisfying than turning a forgotten, dreaded area into one of the most functional parts of someone’s home.
In a sentence?
I build spaces that give women back their time, energy, and clarity, with systems that look good, work hard, and evolve with their lives.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that nothing I’ve built was built alone. I’ve had mentors, supporters, colleagues, clients, and complete strangers show up at exactly the right moments; sometimes with advice, sometimes with encouragement, and sometimes with the kind of tough love that makes you level up whether you want to or not. I hope I get to tell each of them one day: We actually did it!
I’ve always been a student of life. I’m the person who asks a hundred questions, not to be annoying, but because I truly believe perception shapes reality. If I can understand how someone sees the world, I can create better outcomes, better systems, better spaces. That curiosity has been my teacher.
My mentors span a wide spectrum:
My mom — the first person to support every “unorthodox” idea I’ve ever had. She never asked me to play small.
My closest friends — the ones who have seen potential in me long before I ever saw it in myself.
Past executives — some supportive, some… let’s say “character-building.” They pushed me to extremes, taught me resilience, taught me life isn’t fair and unknowingly prepared me for entrepreneurship.
Founders and creatives I’ve never met; like Alex Hormozi, Reese Witherspoon, Emma Grede, Mel Robbins, Alex Earle, I could go on… Their stories, frameworks, and honesty have shaped how I think about business, confidence, and possibility.
And then there are my clients, who trust me in their homes, introduce me to their families, and let me into the messy middle of their lives. They’ve taught me more about humanity, grace, and what “home” really means than any textbook ever could.
I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am without every single one of these people, including the many not mentioned here. I’m endlessly grateful for the village that helped build this business, even if they never realized the impact they had.
Pricing:
- Partial Organizing Service – Starting at $115/hr | Typical Investment: $690
- Full Organizing Service – Starting at $135/hr | Typical Investment: $1,350
- Maintenance Membership – $1,600 annually (a $2,160 value) | Limited Spots Available
- Seasonal Styling & Decor – Starting at $125/hr | Typical Investment $750
- Workshops & Community Events – Starting at $350
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.simplifiedxkris.com
- Instagram: instagram,com/simplifiedxkris
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kris-morgan
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@simplifiedXkris
- Other: https://TikTok.com/@simplifiedxkris
