#158 - Journey Through the Chaos and Thrills of Startup Life with Jess Cervellon

Ever wonder what it's like to leap from corporate America into the exhilarating but often chaotic world of startups? Join us as we sit down with Jess Cervellon, the fourth employee at Feastables, MrBeast Candy Company! We explore the freedom and the trials of startups, and how it contrasts with the structured corporate world. Jess gives us an insider's view of the day-to-day of working in a startup, sharing the funny mishaps that come with the territory, as well as the thrill that comes from wearing multiple hats and making real change.

If you're in the midst of a career transition, or even contemplating one, this episode will inspire you. We delve into the importance of challenging yourself and continuously learning new skills for career growth. Jess and I share our own experiences about transitioning roles in a startup environment and the flexibility it offers. We also break down the concept of customer experience, articulating its role in businesses using the analogy of planning a birthday party. Believe us, it's not as simple as it sounds!

This episode also underlines the pivotal role of communities and networking in business. Jess and I discuss how we navigated the challenges of nurturing communities. We emphasize how these communities can provide support, networking opportunities, and even valuable feedback for businesses. Plus, Jess shares her expertise on improving customer experiences by mapping customer journeys and eliminating friction points. So, are you ready to take a thrilling journey through the world of startups, communities, and customer experience? Let's get started!

How to Reach Jess:
Website: https://jesscervellon.com/ 
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-cervellon/

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/

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Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hey, we got a special guest here. We have Jess Cervillon. She's the fourth employee at Feast of Oles and she's changing the game and customer service. Jess, how are we doing today?

Speaker 2: 1:10

I am good. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1: 1:13

How does it feel to be part of such a fast moving startups throughout your career, Because I know you've been part of five different startups. How's that experience? Because most people always want to go the safe route, go with the big job, go with the safety and you are just flying by.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Yeah, well, I like to think that and say that I'm a little bit of a psychopath. I'm going to be honest with you. I enjoy startups, like I've done corporate America. I've done those things before and I've worked the latter and have done all of that. But I have found and this is before the startup world I just found that it was always really hard for people to take me seriously or for me to get the next promotion because there was all this bureaucracy that I had to go through. And I'm not I mean truthfully, I'm not your average gal, like I'm authentic and I'm going to tell you how I see it and I might drop an F-bomb here and there. And then I entered the startup world. I had an opportunity to enter a startup world and I worked it out. Oh, go ahead.

Speaker 1: 2:31

What is a startup? Just to give the audience perspective?

Speaker 2: 2:34

Yeah, so a startup is like exactly what you would think it is. Sorry, it's exactly what you would think it is. Like it's a startup company. It's like maybe somebody has an idea and then they started the company and then all of a sudden you're bringing in people to scale the company to the next level, so it could be anywhere from like bootstrapped. Bootstrapped means like somebody started that company with their own money. There could be seed stage, which is like you're getting like the initial investment to start your company, then there's series A and there's series B and continue on and that's all like funding a startup.

Speaker 2: 3:13

Right, and I preferably because I'm this type of psychopath like I like seed stage startups. Like I like like where it's like you don't got enough money. You want your ideas have to work. You are working like at you know 50 different hats, right, and you're just making it work and you're figuring it out and like. And I think the reason I also really like startups is because I started off by saying this like I've had to, like in the past, work up the corporate ladder and deal with like a lot of bureaucracy, but I've never been somebody who's like this is my position. I'm in a box. I want to try different things. I want to challenge different things. I want to experiment and figure it out, fail, get back up and like yes.

Speaker 2: 3:56

Figure out if it worked or not, and that's why I love like the startup environment.

Speaker 1: 4:01

Yeah, because there's no and I've seen it with a lot of my buddies where the roles aren't, they have roles. But you will start. If you're doing more, you're going to start covering more stuff, and if you're doing well, you're going to start exploring more horizons. And if you bring something to the table now, it's your project in a regard of you know how it goes, it's growing and so we're going to start up to any start.

Speaker 2: 4:28

Yeah, so I worked. So prior to the startups, I my first startup, I worked at a company. This is the corporate world and this is like going to be literally the most Non creative name but I worked for a company called corporate traveler and I like the best way to describe it is I was like an account manager, I like handled like travel for corporations right and I and that's like more corporate, like lots of like levels and this and that.

Speaker 1: 4:58

How do you work through it?

Speaker 2: 4:59

And then one day I had this opportunity and I had this opportunity to work at a company called Travel Bank and it was the first startup and people were like I remember like accepting the job and people at my like the corporate traveler being like are you sure you want to do that? Like you know, we have it so good, we're making all this commission, like we're doing Presidents Club and like all these things. And I was like no, I'm going to leave LA and I'm going to move to San Francisco. I technically moved back to San Francisco because it just felt right and I started this company called Travel Bank and like what they do is like it's best to categorize them in like FinTech, because they were like travel tech as well as expenses. So like you're like still in that kind of like corporate travel realm right. And I just remember I mean we'll get into this.

Speaker 2: 5:51

But like I remember like the first day walking in and being like like expecting like a book and a manual to be like here you go, man, this is how you do all the things. And I remember like my old boss like handing me my laptop and it was like still in a box and she's like cool, good luck, go set it up, and never in my life have I set up a MacBook for a good job. Like I know, this is like really like silly right, and it's like these little things right, like where you're just like there's no manual to like figuring it out, there's no like onboarding of, like okay, we're going to do this and this and this.

Speaker 2: 6:23

And like you're going to check these boxes.

Speaker 1: 6:25

It was very the wild, wild west.

Speaker 2: 6:27

The wild, wild west. And I'll tell you a really funny story, and this is why I brought up the MacBook. I've never at the time, like I had never worked in a company where it was like, oh, I had like my own thing. And then I had to like go and like do. And this is a really funny story. And I had the day of my first day at Travel Bank. I set up my MacBook and I didn't, for some reason, understand AirPlay.

Speaker 2: 6:50

And then AirPlayed my entire text messages to the engineers in the back, to their TV in the back, and I was like texting with my girlfriend. She was like asking me how my job was and she goes oh yeah, how's your job? And I was like, oh, it's really good, there's a bunch of hotties here. And it was all the engineers in the back and like the engineers were like slacking, message me because I also didn't know how to use Slack at the time Like I'm this old, okay, and they're like Jess, jess, jess, Like stop talking. And they finally had to like walk up to me and they're like Jess, your text messages are AirPlaying in the back and we can see all of your messages. So, anyway, that's a random story that has nothing to do with startups, but I'm just going to tell you how green I was in that timeframe of my life.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Yes, yes, I understand, and that that's, I think, a really good thing for the audience to realize is that when an opportunity does come your way and you don't know the answers and you don't know the way to handle it, sometimes you just have to say yes and figuring it out. And I think that was a great example, because this is coming from Miss Customer Experience and we're sitting there listening to how the experience could have been a little better.

Speaker 2: 8:05

Yeah, like it's really so. Like that was my first startup of like literally on-boarding myself, literally on-boarding myself, just figuring it out as I go, right, and I mean it was wild. Like that was a wild time, like I didn't know what I was doing. Like I was like, even in the customer experience realm, like the support realm of things right, community building, all these things like I was just like literally just figuring it out. I only had known here's the book on how you do the things and you check the box and you do the things right. And then my entire tenure there I was just like experimenting, like, yeah, right, let's see if this works and see if clients like this experience. Or let's build out this chatbot and see if we can like automate this or do these things right.

Speaker 1: 8:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:51

And then. So that's like when I like started in startups and then like, and then I transitioned into several other different types. I worked at a cybersecurity ed tech company. I worked at a company doing health tech. I ventured into a lot of just random different types of tech and then found my.

Speaker 2: 9:18

But this is all B2B, right, and so just for the audience, b2b is business to business. So I was like worked on the SaaS side software as a service, sorry and like worked on the software side and selling two companies for like to roll out to their company, right. And then going back to your point about like having an opportunity, so one day I was working at like a health tech company and I don't want to like name names on those, but like I worked at a health tech company and I was like looking for a new career, career path and I almost took a company like another health tech company. I was almost going to go into it. I actually like to be honest with you like burned a bridge because I accepted the role and then like and then declined it for this other one, and then I all of a sudden had an opportunity to work in B2C.

Speaker 2: 10:12

So that's business to customer, or in other words like B2C direct to consumer, e-com right and it was the first time I ever had this opportunity to work in like E-com and I and that's at the company I'm at now is Feastables right, and I mean talk about taking a risk, right, like talk about startup world right. Like I literally walked into working at this company, knew nothing about E-com, nothing.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Okay, like.

Speaker 2: 10:41

I had to figure it out Like. I like talked to, like now I have friends in the space and like have like had a lot of resources and people who have like really like you know, revived with me and helped me, but I like knew nothing about E-com. But what I did know was I knew startups and I knew customer support right, and I also knew customer experience and we'll get into like what that difference is. And I knew that I had to make a dope customer experience for this E-com brand that's coming onto the market, because there was a YouTube influencer that was behind this E-com brand, so it had to like this brand had to exemplify, like Mr Beast, and I basically took like the risk of like all the common startup world that I knew of, like working in B2B, and said like fuck it, sorry.

Speaker 1: 11:38

So you're good.

Speaker 2: 11:39

Okay, good, and said like I'm gonna go and take a risk and like go and try to work in E-com and like figure it out. And I mean that brings me to now.

Speaker 1: 11:48

And that's the biggest thing is that realizing that, regardless of what it is, there's a growth period. There's a period where we do prove to ourselves and we do look at these different options and to get on a project of the magnitude of like what it's become Feast of. All this is doing incredible numbers. Mr Beast just passed 200 million people on YouTube. Like it's insane the volume. He talked about it where he literally will walk into a Walmart and he slammed it in about 25 seconds and he Walmart in America and like we're talking with Jess, the person who's running the customer experience for that and it's just like what's that been like, what's the like, what's been the transition period of doing something a little bit different? Like how do you think about taking on challenges? Because there's a lot of people who try to stay in their zone and they don't realize what they do and how beneficial. Like how what you do right now can transfer into another area.

Speaker 2: 12:55

Yeah, I mean the thing is is that I think like I started out of this off by saying like, okay, like I'm a psychopath, like I really like to take risks, but I also think that I am. I'm just like somebody. You know I went to art school. Well, the audience just know I went to art school, but, like, even getting to art school and graduating art school was like a triumph, my friends. Okay, like it was like I'm not somebody who, like takes a traditional path right.

Speaker 2: 13:23

And so what's always been really important to me in my career is that I want to build. I want to build like a sustainable career, but I also want to try on different things, like constantly try on different things, and like take risks, because if you're not taking risks, you're not trying on different things, you're never challenging yourself to then build your skills to do other things. And so it's like even though it's like I found this expertise and like customer experience, even from like the transition into Feastables, I have now also shape shifted myself into like a marketer too, like I'm not just doing like customer support, I'm just doing community building, I'm also doing retention marketing and life cycle marketing, right.

Speaker 1: 14:02

And so like, and I think that's what's really important in like answering your question, though, is that I think like yeah, no, absolutely, because I think it's important that we find out different ways to kind of grow ourselves in different areas, and that can change in a lot of different ways and people want the conventional. Let me take one step at a time. Let me go from this role to get a promotion to get a promotion. But in the real world there's many different paths, there's many different ways of fostering this and flowing in different areas, because there's so many different things going on in the world and it's how do we make the most out of our experience?

Speaker 2: 14:48

I mean, I mean like listen, I don't think it's for everybody, like, straight up, I don't think this is for everybody. I don't think, like some people like really like just being on the same path and like doing the same thing and that's and that's absolutely okay, right, but like for me, I want to try on different things, I want to do different, different things because I want to challenge myself every day. I want to be different every single day. I wouldn't say different, I just want to like just do different stuff and like upscale myself and like I don't, and I even think like when I'm 60, I'm going to be the same way, like so today it's like I work at festivals and I didn't know like what I didn't know when I first started, right, what I did know, what I really knew about, was like how do I build customer support departments and how do I build community, and I and I also knew how to like use tech to automate as much as possible, and then that's that was like the one of me establishing, like, the customer experience department, and then, as I started like learning more and more about the customers, then I started building out different pathways for those customers to like interact right and all in turn of doing all of these things.

Speaker 2: 15:55

Like in my tenure here is that I have then become a marketer. Now, you know, it's like I mean I'm just I'm just doing different things and challenging myself every day and like, and again going back to also the startup stuff and landing this plane is like. This is why I like working at startups, because you can try on different things and you can challenge yourself in different ways every single day 100%.

Speaker 1: 16:22

And let's get into, like what you discussed a little bit with customer service, customer experience community. So when most people think customer service, like I know, it comes to my head it's the person answering the phone, like when you call them for an issue. How is customer experience different than that? Like what is it? Because I think most I know everyone who's listening has experienced it and they might go. They might walk into an area and go, wow, that was an amazing experience. So they might go to a show and be like that was amazing. They don't understand the pieces that brought them to that experience, where they're like oh, that was cool, like I like how they did that and that and that and the putting it together yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:06

Yeah, think about it like I. You know, think about it like like a birthday party, right.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Yes.

Speaker 2: 17:14

You like okay, so we have our birthdays. This is like the event day, right, we have our birthdays. And then we're like okay, I want to get a cake, but I want to build this. I want this to be a really pretty cake and I want it to be really creative. Whatever, right, like, I want it to be fun. I want it to exemplify like my birthday, right, yeah, so you go to the baker and you go get the cake and you're described to the baker what it is that you want on the cake, and then they go and like build that cake for you.

Speaker 2: 17:42

So that's a piece of your birthday party, right? You got this beautiful cake and then you're like oh, I want to have a party, maybe it's like I don't know on your porch and I want to invite all of my friends. So then you go and, like, you create an invite and your invite is, like you know, says it's just his birthday and it's in colors and it's just as I don't know, I'm gonna make this age up, but 13, 13 birthday, okay. And then you're like okay, I send out my invites to the people and the people are gonna come. So now I want to go and like dude, I want my friends to come to my birthday party and I want them to have this really dope experience. I already have my cake, I already have my invites. Now I want to like center my birthday party on like decorations and games and all the stuff and that's an experience for my birthday party, right?

Speaker 2: 18:30

Yes so then they come to the party, they celebrate, they like have an experience. Maybe it's some balloons, maybe it's this thing, right, and it's all this experience that I'm creating for them. And then they end that party by saying like, oh, jess, like this was like a dope birthday party. Happy birthday to you, this was so great, I had so much fun. And then they go home, they just had an experience. Everything from, like the birthday cake to the invites to the party is all an experience.

Speaker 2: 18:55

And if you take like that analogy and you put it into, like whether you're a B2B company, a B2C company, and you're saying, like here's my website, I want to go to my website and I want to have like a simple user experience for my customer to understand what my service is, that I'm selling, or my software or whatever it is, or my product, and every piece of that website is designed or there's copy to like you know, so you understand like what it is that you're selling, right, and then I've ordered that product or I've ordered that software and then, after I've like purchased it, now there's an whole experience after post purchase of like do I have support for using your software, do I have support like order, support for, like the product that I have just purchased, right? What's the email that was sent out to me? Is it designed, is it branded? Is it a part of like? Do I see this, this email, as like Edward's consulting is like in his colors, like all of these things, right, and you know so it's all. Like, all of these pieces, all of the psychology of like bringing somebody to your site, bringing somebody to your store, is all a part of consumer behavior, which, in turn, your consumer behavior has to turn into you delivering an experience for them. That's what customer experience is. What bring. Okay, great Marketers have brought them in the door, but how do I keep them sticking around?

Speaker 2: 20:19

So then, like the aspects and like the confusion about like, where customer experiences and like people always thinking it's like customer service is like customer support and customer service is only one piece of the pie. That's the part of like people taking care of you after a post purchase or even beforehand, of like having a human connection. But like, there's so many other aspects of it. There's like the community building right. Like you may be finding a product or follow an influencer because of their social media. That's all an experience. You might go to a website and see, like the products or the services that you're selling. That's a digital experience, so customer experience is just like customer support of customer experience is literally just one piece of the pie. There's so many other pieces of the pie that all speak to the consumer or the buyer behavior.

Speaker 1: 21:10

Yes, yeah, and I think that's an awesome explanation of it, because, when you think about it, when people like it's me related to it is because I had Tim Klee, surpassed a person who was on the podcast and he was like Jordan, do you know your customer experience? And I'm like what's a customer experience? And then I speak with Jess and I'm like where are we at? But what I realized was is that people will go to an ad, then they'll go to your website, then they'll investigate your website, then they'll decide if they like you and then they'll decide if they want to talk with you.

Speaker 1: 21:42

And this can relate to someone who even doesn't have a customer experience. But it's like yo, you invite a friend over to your house. Your experience is from the phone call that you call them. Hey, come over to them parking their car wherever they parked it to.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Coming up to your house to are you a no shoes household or are you wearing your shoes and do whatever? Do we make up? Is it messy? Is it clean? And that's all customer experience you get there. Is there food? Are there drinks? Are there that? Because you foster this idea of hospitality and a lot of people just want to generalize it as like hospitality, like you're a great host. You're a great host to the, to the customers who are coming to your website as well. So it's a very different perspective and I don't think it's spoken on enough, and that's why I really want to have Jess on, because she's speaking about something that's super passionate to her and makes her authentic, and not that many people are talking like a lot of it's behind closed doors, from what I found, or I'm not in the space, I don't know, but it's an. It's an interesting area.

Speaker 2: 22:47

Yeah, yeah. I mean I think that like people do talk about it, like people talk about it, like, if you think about like B2B, right, like you have like customer success managers, you have like customer support, you even have product managers, you have all these people that are like kind of like managing, but a lot of the time, a lot of the time, I feel like they miss the big picture of what's actually occurring and they just go oh, I'm the customer.

Speaker 1: 23:10

So like they don't realize the bigger picture, as you explained it, where it's a blueprint, and I was like, wow, jess, you opened my mind, like I understand it now.

Speaker 2: 23:19

Yeah, yeah, no, I mean exactly, and like, and I think that's like the one thing. So for me, I also is just like being a leader in this space. And I don't mean like thought leader, I mean like leading people is like and go and honestly, like even going back to like what we were first talking about, right, like it's like I'm on this mission to like want to tell, like want to explain to people like what customer experience is, because I think that there's a lot of opportunities in this role. Like I get it. Like sometimes people get into customer service and they're like, ok, cool, like I'm just here because this is like my gateway to do other things.

Speaker 2: 23:54

But if you broaden like the horizon in, like even if you're just one individual in customer experience right, and you broaden your horizons to think like, oh, I'm not just customer support, I'm not just customer service, and like I'm thinking about it from, like, an experiential point of view of my customer, then like your horizons are so much broader, right, like I said, I said this. Like I started as a customer success person or a support person, right, but now I'm a marketer, like. I mean like, yes, I'm VP of CX at festivals, but like I also do a lot of fractional work for, like, other individuals, like where I'm like doing influencer marketing, I'm doing like a variety of like email marketing, like all these other things. Like the opportunities are pretty endless if this is like where you start, you know, and then you and like there are career paths in CX that you can take to, like, take you to other aspects.

Speaker 1: 24:48

Yeah, and I think it's important to realize that, no matter where you are, what you're doing, your job right now or whatever you're working on, is a stepping stone and all your experiences become stepping stones. And like, the places you travel are stepping stones because, like with Edwards consulting, it's more of a holistic life approach where there's mental health, physical health, community, social and spirituality and relationships. So we have all of these areas of life and we stack these experiences and that's why it's always tough when people sit there and they go oh, I'm a whatever accountant, doctor, lawyer, etc. And it's like, no, you probably have more than one role, you probably do more than one thing. You could be a friend, you could be a dad, you could be a mom, you could be whatever. But like there's more roles to us.

Speaker 2: 25:41

Yeah, I mean absolutely Like. I kind of like one of the I mean now we're going to get really like meta but like I, one of the things that I have found about myself of like just working in the CX space and then like becoming a leader is that like I am like an empath leader. It's like I really genuinely care about like my director reports and like what they're doing and like where they're going and blah, blah, blah and so like it's not blah, blah, blah but like you know, just summing it up right and so it's like I, you know me as a leader in the C.

Speaker 2: 26:12

Like most people get into CX are because, like, they're usually like an empathetic person or they usually like some sort of heartfelt person to like even want to support the customers on a daily basis, right, and so like in turn, that has, like, that has actually turned me into like a thoughtful leader for like individuals that report to me and like or mentor right, like I have, like several people that like I'm mentoring to like grow them and get them into like the next stage, like the next stage of their career right. And but I find a lot of joy. I don't just like tote myself as like oh, I'm not just some like strategic CX person where I'm not coming up with like a journey path for customers Like I'm also like trying to like help other individuals.

Speaker 2: 26:54

Like you know, career development like or or. Maybe it's not even career development.

Speaker 1: 26:59

Maybe it's like being a big sister to you and like being an empathetic, like listener to you, so you feel like you're supported in, like your personal life too, you know it's like yeah, well, I think you're touching it on a bigger thing, that it's not just when we work with people and this is for everybody like if someone has moments of where they might have a freak out or they might get upset or they might. You have to realize that we're humans first and we're not the role that we say we are. We're humans first, meaning that if you're a manager or a leader of anybody, it's people. You're not managing three customer success managers, no, you're managing three people, which means, oh my God, they have family issues, they have these issues. Like, you have to realize that there's a lot more variables to people than hey, can you please do get this done. It's like, no, they're people and you have to encourage people and show them that there's a path and there's a direction. So I think that's an awesome point that you bring up about leadership.

Speaker 2: 28:01

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think even CS leader or not right. Like I think, just in general, like as leaders, like in leading people, is like we should also take care and not always have it just being about like let's go and like do the strategic thing and then you go and execute it. It's like you also like we are humans and like you need to take like a moment to like think, like okay for an order for a human to be able to like execute, like something right, like a strategic plan, like how was that person feeling, you know?

Speaker 1: 28:31

and it's not about, like.

Speaker 2: 28:32

It's not even about, like you know, putting personal into business. It's also like just humanizing the experience.

Speaker 1: 28:39

Yeah, and I think from that perspective, you're gonna get a lot better results if you treat it like humans, because if we sit there and we go, oh, we want them to buy all of our products Okay great, have fun with that. But like, what are they gonna do to do that? Like, why would they be even interested in that and why would they even think about that? So tell me a little bit about the community building, because community has been a massive pain point for a lot of people in regard to, like, what was going on with COVID isolation. People feel like they're on their own. So how do you think about community building? Cause there's been a lot of research put out that being part of a community I don't know, community of, like, real go-getters and exciting people in your life that are encouraged, you and supportive, can really help with longevity, can help with mental stability, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 29:33

Yeah. So I mean, this actually is like I can tell you like from a business perspective, but I can also tell you like a community that like I'm just trying to build like individually, so like let's just start there, cause it's like a lot more fun. So, you know, I hear you on like you know, people like having a tough time with community and like with community building and all of these aspects of it. And I think that, like me, like just as an individual, like I've always been, like I've always sought out like ways to like build communities in like different aspects right Like during, actually like during like COVID and during like during the summer, where there was like a lot of like movement for like BLM, I like ride motorcycles, and I created a community called like modal mission where it was like rallying rallying for, like you know, other individuals, but also like raising awareness for like other things right and like that and that was like an aspect of like community building, even in like COVID times and like bringing together like-minded individuals, right, and so like.

Speaker 2: 30:41

So what I've like done individually, like in the Ecom world, like the business world now, is I'm actually trying to like bring together individuals, like operators and founders who want to like want to get together, to get together. But maybe it's not like a dinner event, maybe it's like some sort of like experiential like type of thing, right, like, for instance, like last week, I, with one of my homegirls, we put on an all day summit and it was all focused on retention, retention, marketing. But, like, what was really amazing about it is that we brought together a wide variety of operators, founders, both male, female, and also, just, you know, people of color, like just like diverse backgrounds, like everywhere, right, and I think that was like really important to like hold this summit of like such diversity, because what we're constantly seeing in like the business world and like conferences is like it's like it's always kind of like the same people over and over, right, like God, I'm probably gonna get a lot of slack for this, but it's always the same people like over and over. But the feedback that like I got from the event was like not only about like diversity, but also about like the information being shared was so beneficial and thought-based and rated.

Speaker 2: 32:01

And then the third thing that I also found was that, like people were networking with each other and networking and meeting with each other and like, honestly, I wanna just be a connector of like people Like I don't care, like what your background is, I don't care if, like I don't know, maybe you're an accountant and you, the other person, is a brand founder, right. Like those people can still like benefit and like meet each other and like know each other and network, right, and so what? So my point is of like bringing this up is like what I'm trying to build like is like a community of individuals who are like literally just to connect to each other, just to have a good time together, and it's not just all about like dinner events, it's also about like experiences that they share together. So maybe it's like one day we'll do I don't know like a whole spot thing.

Speaker 2: 32:48

I don't know what it is right, but, like the point is, though, is like building those communities, building communities from like these experience events, is so important, because people like feel like they can get out and like in real life, like whether you're an introvert and extrovert, like you actually feel, like you find a piece that you can actually connect with, and then you, in turn, you get something out of it right, and I think that's like the baseline of, like what I'm trying to build. I don't want to say it's for everybody, but I also think that on the other end of it is like okay if you don't want to do in real life things. Like. The other end of it, too, is like engaging online with individuals, like going on LinkedIn, actually commenting on like people's posts, actually like posting things. I know that's really hard for people, but like, even the simplest things of just engagement will help build community and build conversations with other individuals.

Speaker 1: 33:41

Yes, and I completely agree with the power of community. I actually run a group on Monday nights and it's just. You can see it inside of people when they're like, yes, I finally feel like I'm in a place. And it's even better when you go to these ideas of a unique experience where it's like maybe people are surfing for the first time or they're going to a new country or they're going to the spa and having these different views. And how do you build that on the? How do you think about that in the business sense of like, where people are going about different ways of not just the customer experience, in like a broader capacity?

Speaker 2: 34:23

Yeah, well, I mean. So, I think, from like a business perspective, whether B2B or B2C, I think it's really important to like build like forums or areas where, like, your customers can engage with each other and not be afraid of it, because what happens is even if, like, there could be like something that might be a little bit negative about your product, people are learning from each other, people want to hear about how they're enjoying or not enjoying the product and they want to like problem solve with each other. And I don't think and the reason I bring up like the negative piece of it is because I think people get a little bit scared of like, oh well, if I start this like engagement, like and I don't want to hear anything negative, but if you don't hear anything negative, how are you going to create a feedback loop to improve your product?

Speaker 1: 35:11

Straight up right. Yeah, the best part is, the quicker the feedback loop, the better you can get the product. So you might not even realize that people are having issues until later on and you're like oh what, like you just get. And then you finally had one person who was bold enough to give you feedback and you're like, yeah, that could have been solved a lot quicker, guys, but I didn't even.

Speaker 2: 35:33

No, no, exactly. And it's like and I think that's like so. It's like yes, in your company in general, it's like you should have like certain things like okay, maybe you have your customer success managers, your support staff, like your individuals who are going out and like having conversations with, like your customers, but you're not always going to get authenticity with that Right. It's like what's really important is like if you do create the communities. It's like they not only help like problem solve with each other, but it also creates a feedback loop for you.

Speaker 1: 35:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:59

Plus, creating that back, that like or I wouldn't say background, but I would say like area of like, where people can like go and enjoy their products and like or product services, whatever it is and like talk about. It is like a way for you to build loyalty too, you know? No-transcript yes.

Speaker 1: 36:20

No, I would completely agree. I think I think when you're more real and you're more honest and people can feel that and it's not like, hey, you're just trying to sell me, to sell me, but you really have my best interest in mind, and like you're looking at improving the product constantly and improving the experience and improving the brand, then, yeah, like that's something I want to get around, that's something I want to be excited about, that's something I want to care about Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 36:47

Yeah, exactly so I think community building and like, like in like those types of levels for like business or just like those are like the three reasons why it's so important. And then, from like a tactical piece of advice, like you know, whether you're a brand or you're a software or service, like I think like very easy ways to like develop that community is like honestly and I know this is going to suck to say Facebook. Facebook is like your first place that you can go to, like build your page, build your page, create like a forum type of thing. Like you can also like give information to your customers about like what your, your services or your product about, and then and then you can also do this on LinkedIn. But it's just like audiences are like just so split. You know it's like Facebook, you're going to get the person. Facebook you're going to get the personal side. Linkedin you're going to get the professional side. I'm trying to bridge the gap and make LinkedIn like a personal place too, because it's like who needs that many forums? Okay?

Speaker 1: 37:43

Yeah, there's too many spots. Yeah too many spots? Absolutely no, no, no. I completely think that's true. I think there's a lot of people who are trying, who are just putting stuff out there and not even gathering feedback, and it's it's important to get that feedback.

Speaker 2: 38:03

Yeah, absolutely so, I think. I think it's just like it's really just good for like feedback perspective, for loyalty building and for like a variety of like other reasons to like just like build your, just to like build your community as a whole 100%.

Speaker 1: 38:23

And so, jess, what would you because we're winding that to the end what would you leave the audience with in the regard of, like, improving their customer experience, whether it's whether it's just their life or whether it's their business, or what do you think someone could do today Like that can really move the needle with experience wise. That, like some idea I've been working on, is basically this thing of where it's outsize returns, where it's a very minor thing, but it moves the needle so much further. So, like it might be something that's like it might be cost a dollar, but it's like a $20 experience, like it makes it a lot better. Is there anything that you have in mind for that?

Speaker 2: 39:04

Yeah, I think like the biggest thing is like weighing out, like what your journeys look like. So, whether that's like on a personal perspective or a business perspective, like, think about it from like experience perspective. Right, even if you're using this for personal or business, think about yourself as the customer. What do my journeys look like for my customer, for myself? So what does my journey look like in my career? Right, like what is what am I doing on a day to day? And like start like journey mapping yourself.

Speaker 2: 39:30

And then, from a business perspective, like, whether your service, whether your software, whether your product, what does my customer's journey look like to get the information about my product? Like journey mapping yourself. So like from everything outside of your website, so like your social channels, your communities you might already have. What does it look like Like for my customer to get information about me and then into your website? Like what does it look like for my customer to like learn about me, to learn about our product, and then make a purchase? And then, like you know, and then after that, like after they've made a purchase, after they've already like have gone through like all of these, like different aspects, like what is that customer's journey? And once you start mapping those things out you'll see a little bit of like where the friction might be.

Speaker 2: 40:16

Yes, yes and it's all about and customer experiences is all about becoming frictionless and seamless as possible.

Speaker 1: 40:23

Yes, and making it as easy as possible so that nobody has to complain, nobody has the thing. It's just like bam, bam, like a really good one. That was really easy for me. That helped a lot was like the Calendly. It's crazy, it's simple. You just put it in. People can book meetings with you and you're like wow, what a genius idea. Like we don't have to go messaging back and forth. They literally the epitome of what it is. To make it really simple. Yeah, no, I enjoyed this, jess. I think you're super cool and I think it's really interesting perspective looking at that customer experience, because I don't think it's talked about enough, I don't think it's discussed enough and I don't think people are really challenging it. So, jess, where can people find more about you and hear about you?

Speaker 2: 41:13

Yeah, so you can find me on my website, jessservioncom. We'll put it in show notes and then on how to spell my last name and then I'm really active on LinkedIn. So just Jess Servion on LinkedIn and if you have me up, write me a message, even if it's like through my website or through LinkedIn, like 90% of the time we'll respond to you. The only reason I say 10% is because sometimes they get a little spammy messages.

Speaker 1: 41:43

Absolutely, we'll make that happen. I'll put all that in the show notes and thank you again. This has been awesome.

Speaker 2: 41:49

Thank you so much.