An Inspired Chat with Jess Haney

Jess Haney shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Good morning Jess, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
My emergency fund! It’s arguably one of the least sexy or fun things to do with your money, but finally hitting my goal and putting the amount of money in there that I needed to felt so great. It wasn’t something that I had ever prioritized before but I’m so glad that I finally did. I truly didn’t expect it to take so much weight off my shoulders but that was such a nice side effect.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Jess Haney, founder and head strategist at Open Loop Studio — a lifecycle email agency that specializes in free trial onboarding sequences for B2B SaaS companies. We are obsessed with crafting free trial onboarding experiences that properly welcome users to a new app, guide them step-by-step through their onboarding journey so that they fall in love with the software, and upgrade to a paid account at the end of their trial. Once the free trial onboarding is up and running, we turn our efforts and focus on other areas of the lifecycle that need work, like paid plan onboarding, plan upgrades and downgrades, and even price increases.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
I worked as a server at a high-end golf course and we did a lot of weddings. My boss at the time, Amanda Jerome, was so particular in how she liked everything done — and I mean EVERYTHING. There wasn’t a single part of service that she didn’t have a say in; every piece on the table had an exact place, every dish was served in a specific way, every “thank you” was responded to with “my pleasure,” (not, “you’re welcome” and definitely not “no problem.”) It was the first time I had experienced what it was like to do my job in such a particular and intentional way, and to be surrounded by others doing the same, and the way that it elevated the entire experience was really incredible. She taught me to set the bar high and to be intentional in your work, and I’ve carried that lesson with me for the last 18 years.

What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
I was at a place where I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, and I applied for a coding bootcamp — if I remember correctly, it was a 12-week intensive-style program where you are in classes full-time Monday to Friday for those 12 weeks and you come out on the other side with some sort of credentials (and job opportunities, ideally.) I applied, did the in-person assessment and passed that, and so I was invited to apply to the full program. Before the full program took place, you had to complete a pre-course program. I spent several days trying to work through the pre-program and it was like learning a whole new language, and I have literally never struggled so hard when trying to learn something. I would log onto the help forum to see if anyone had the same questions as me, and I couldn’t even understand the questions that people were asking. I was SO out of my depth, and it was the first time in my life I had felt like that. I spent a few more days trying to work through the pre-program, and when I looked at how far I had got vs how much was left, I knew this was not the path for me. The onboarding said that the pre-program should take 15-20 hours TOTAL and the ~10% I got through took me that much time. I ended up changing my mind on the program and withdrew my application, and I have zero doubt in my mind that it was the best call.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
There are more and more AI Customer Interview tools that are popping up that essentially let you “interview” customers without *actually* talking to customers.

These tools cannot replace talking to your customers and to think that you can improve your tool and grow without talking to your real customers is so naive. Nothing can replace talking to people. Yes, it’s more expensive and time consuming but it’s 100% worth it in the end.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days. 
There are certain days where I am “tap dancing” level excited for work:
– When I get to present a new strategy to a client and see the relief on their face, and the excitement of “this is going to make such a huge difference”
– When I get to do a live training — either for a marketing team teaching them about lifecycle strategies, or for small business owners teaching them about copywriting and email marketing in general
– When a new sequence gets built out and it’s ready to go live
Working in marketing isn’t always super exciting and flashy, but those days are really great. Some cool stuff does sneak up on you, like getting a report that a sequence is converting really well or that the test you tried beat the control, and that’s fun too because you never know when you’re going to get that kind of information (and you never know that what you did is going to work at all — that’s marketing, baby!) I definitely tap dance at my desk on those days.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://openloopstudio.co
• Instagram: @openloopstudio.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesshaneycopy/

Image Credits
Marie Scholz