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Jenny Calvert 0:00
Hi everybody, and welcome

Josh Schachter 0:09
to this episode of [Un]churned. I’m Josh, I’m the host. We are taking you behind the scenes on stories from the top Customer Success leaders top people in the SAS industry to learn about how they build sticky relationships with customers. And I’m really pleased to be here today with Jenny Calvert. Jenny is the Director of Customer Success from Hunt Club, which is doing some amazing innovative things in the world of recruiting Jenny, thank you so much for being on this episode. Thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here. So, like I tell all of our guests, we want to start out by getting to know, Jenny, the whole concept of our title here unchained is of course, in relationship to the key SAS metric of retention and churn. But also it means getting raw and really understanding and getting to know the person. So let’s start out by learning about you. What’s one thing that might surprise somebody to learn about

Jenny Calvert 1:05
you? I would say that I met a same family adoption really unique. So my mom and my aunt switched places. Wow,

Josh Schachter 1:20
we’re just gonna spend the next 20 minutes talking about that. Forget customer success. Forget SAS. Okay, so what I don’t even know what question to ask is a follow up there, I suppose. Why? What when? Where?

Jenny Calvert 1:32
Yeah, I’m just really lucky to stay in the family. It was kind of a serendipitous thing. My adopted mom couldn’t have kids. My dad got pregnant. Here I am. Yeah. And it’s worked out really, really well. So big advocate for adoption. Stories, successes, things of that nature.

Josh Schachter 1:57
What was your first movie or a favorite movie growing up?

Jenny Calvert 2:02
Land Before Time? Oh, that’s

Josh Schachter 2:04
a good one. That’s a good one has to be. Yeah, that was one of my two. That wasn’t my my very first but it was it was up there. What’s a favorite family dish recipe that you have?

Jenny Calvert 2:15
I feel really weird right now, with my first few questions. Pickle tacos.

Josh Schachter 2:23
Tell me what pickled tacos are.

Jenny Calvert 2:25
So it’s sausage, ground beef, shredded tacos, good ones like Clawson. big thick pickles. And shredded carrots. heated up.

Josh Schachter 2:37
Where’d you learn that? Who is the who’s the secret behind very

Jenny Calvert 2:40
Amal? Yeah, Southside Chicago. No clue. It’s really good, salty. Everybody loves it

Josh Schachter 2:48
makes sense that it would be Chicago thing for sure. And then the last question for you is what’s a cause that you are really passionate about?

Jenny Calvert 2:55
Yeah, I think I have a few. I mentioned family dynamics. And so I’ve helped a lot of friends through Pathways to adoption, fostering and things of that nature. And obviously, with my background, Lane’s itself, you know, is really lucky. When I started my family, it happened. Easy. And I know for a lot of women, that’s not the case. So I help them navigate various options and connecting them with ways to expand their family. Yeah. Thanks. Let’s get into business. All right. No more pickled tacos.

Josh Schachter 3:35
No more pickled tacos, conversation here. Your business is about recruitment. And I want to give you the opportunity to tell everybody about what Hunt Club does, or rather how you do it, because I think that’s really interesting.

Jenny Calvert 3:49
Yeah. Oh, thanks. It’s all around the concept of trusted relationships, and warm introductions. So everything that we do is around the concept of people know, awesome people doing awesome things, then we want to tap them into opportunity, goals, advisors, things of that nature, that are going to change the world. So

Josh Schachter 4:16
you’re just for folks that don’t have any concept of Uncle Bob yet. This is this is a SaaS platform, right? This is a technology company. And how does the mechanism of the mechanics of it work?

Jenny Calvert 4:27
Yeah, so we have two arms. So we have a full service search traditional, that leverages around technology, my function, we aggregate the network, various places, obviously, LinkedIn, email, different integrations. And then we measure strength of relationships and we automate introductions in the software, and then measure the success of those. That’s pretty cool.

Josh Schachter 4:55
Based on knowing who has stronger relationships with whom When I’m looking to hire somebody, it can help me connect. How does So walk me through the journey here? So I’m the hiring manager,

Jenny Calvert 5:08
I have an open wreck.

Josh Schachter 5:10
I’ve got a network of people that may know other people who are good candidates for that open position. Correct? Yeah. And the technology arm of your product of your service does what to get me from point A to point C.

Jenny Calvert 5:27
So you can search within the collective network, to say you have 50,000 contacts. In your extended network, you’re looking for a head of CES for SAS company, you can drill down, create a quick list. Look at the strongest relationships, send a request to say, I am looking for a how to see us. Your contact is perfect for you introduce me. And they can say Yeah, you bet. Or like no, I don’t know them very well. And then our software learns over time. Who’s got the great relationships? Who doesn’t, we can actually follow it all the way through the the sourcing funnel. I love that

Josh Schachter 6:08
idea of your software learning over time, the strength of the relationship, because we all get that, that that email from a friend that sees that you’re connected to somebody else. And hey, I’d love for an introduction. Of course, you don’t actually know that other person, right? You met them? You scan badges at a conference or something? Yeah, your response is like, Oh, I’d actually looked into that person, too. If you find out somebody that knows them.

Jenny Calvert 6:32
You hook it up. Yeah, I mean, we definitely see customers who use LinkedIn like Twitter, you know, they have 30,000 connections, like you don’t know those people. And that’s where layering in some of the other insights like email, calendar, figuring out like to still show this person, as he actually talked to them. Just a quick accept an invite on LinkedIn. I,

Josh Schachter 6:59
I’ve gone on record, so to speak, not that I’m well enough known or anything to have a record to go on. But I’m going on my own record, my own pedestal, that relationships are the foundation of customer success, the relationships, relationships are the foundation of all successful SAS in the context of what you guys do, but also your role leading a CS team? What’s the value of building your relationships? It sounds like such an obvious question. But give us your perspective.

Jenny Calvert 7:30
Yeah, I think it’s multifaceted. I’m constantly seeking knowledge, and know that it’s not all in books. And so I think for me, it’s been able to connect to people who are really, really strong and experienced, and certain subsets and being able to learn their stories, what worked well, what didn’t, where they failed, where they succeeded. They’ve been able to spin that, and basically make me more efficient, or customers more efficient. It’s like sharing stories and collective insights. And I think that’s just so powerful.

Josh Schachter 8:09
So you’re collecting these stories, and knowledge is power, learning people’s backgrounds, their perspectives, their stories is very powerful. How are you using that power that you’re harnessing? How are you exerting that?

Jenny Calvert 8:22
Yeah, I think it’s sharing back. So again, being able to bring value to a conversation with a customer, pulling a thread from something that may not seem relevant. This is this new spark of idea that leads to so many possibilities. So right now, taking some of the learnings from working with PwC Center of Excellence, pulling that through to some of the founder development programs our VC customers are working to build. What does a great founders program look like? How do you build? How do you think about who? And what’s the value for them to join your program versus any other founder development program? You can tap on all those shared insights that you’ve learned from different people in different backgrounds. Different. Yeah,

Josh Schachter 9:14
not reinventing the wheel, but understanding what their what tips and tricks they can bring to it. So I want to pivot from hunt Club’s focus area, which is on recruiting, on relationships, on learning the stories to self certainly updates focus area, which is on meetings. And when you and I spoke offline, you shared with me something I thought was really interesting, which is, you know, you said internal meetings should have an NPS score. So what exactly do you mean by that?

Jenny Calvert 9:44
Yeah, I’m in a past life. We followed the Entrepreneurial Operating System. There’s a book Gina Whitman traction out there, you can read it, and don’t love the entire framework. I think it’s great. But I love the way At that every meeting is rated. And at the end of it, if you show up and you participate, and you spend your hour, was it worth you being in there? And if the answer is no, then we need to do something with the meeting, right? It needs to be effective, either we don’t have it anymore, or we need to shift. So every single person joining, brings contributes and leaves feeling like it was a valuable use of their time.

Josh Schachter 10:27
So is this what you guys practice at home club? Yeah,

Jenny Calvert 10:31
yep. So every week I have the same agenda. The team knows what I expect them to bring. We talk through issues, not all of them solving one two really important one. So we feel really good about solution I as a, as a team, we go through the metrics, we obviously go through any customer wins, feedback, things that we want to talk about, we share, you know, stories of personal life, and at the end, I say, scale of one to 10. How would you read the meeting? So productive use of time? Do you feel like you got value from being here? Do you think you brought value to the meeting? If it’s a seven or below, we talk about it, that is in and of itself, the issue we need to solve for. And they didn’t share? Why say Hey, I didn’t contribute as much today. I didn’t feel like I needed to be here. That’s important for me to know, why is my team not feel like there’s value in showing up for our weekly team meetings. So it allows me to pivot adjust agendas, also sometimes give them more responsibility. Okay, cool. Next week, you bring updates on the health dashboard. You bring a great key story around this renewal or whatever. It keeps everybody interested bought in and feeling like they really are part of that successful meeting. I’m just

Josh Schachter 11:42
envisioning the boss being like, Okay, you didn’t like it, you do that? And you try leading it next week? You try bringing the agenda doing the work? Yeah, you do it?

Jenny Calvert 11:51
It’s yeah, it’s a little bit like that. Not like that tone. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you don’t want to sit there and be like, This is dumb. If this was my meeting, I would have, it gives them a chance to say this is my meeting I would have, and we can incorporate that into the flow.

Josh Schachter 12:07
Yeah, no, as long as it’s genuine in taking their feedback. So but you mentioned it also, you are the team leader. So is it safe to call bullshit that you’re getting? That you’re getting authentic responses from your, from the people that are, you know, working for you?

Jenny Calvert 12:25
I think two things here. I also rate the meeting. So like, I’m not exempt from this practice. And there are definitely weeks where they’re all like eight, nine, great. And I’m like six, or like why I’m like, because I talk too much, right? Like this is a team meeting. And there are things that I want to have a conversation, I want you to dissent, I want to make sure that we’re solving the most important things. I have created space to say like, this was a waste of my time. I’ve created that level of autonomy and transparency. And honestly, like I expect them to talk about what’s going well, and what’s not going well, the last thing I ever want to do is waste time in a meeting.

Josh Schachter 13:06
Have you ever gotten anything below a five? Yeah. What’s the lowest score? You’ve

Jenny Calvert 13:10
gotten? Three? Why did you get a three? Somebody sat there and did not talk. In all fairness, it wasn’t here on club, it was my last life. Somebody who didn’t participate felt like everything we talked about didn’t affect impact, or had anything to do with them. So they were feeling outside in and just said this was a big, fat waste of my time.

Josh Schachter 13:35
Just so I get it correctly, what’s the exact question that you’re asked?

Jenny Calvert 13:39
How would you rate this meeting? On a scale of one to 10? How valuable and I usually have a little like GIF of like somebody dancing. And I’m like 10 being the best meeting you ever attended. Zero being never want to show up for this again?

Josh Schachter 13:56
You have an animated GIF. So this means that you’re doing this in Slack, or what’s what’s the mechanics behind this?

Jenny Calvert 14:02
Yeah, no, I run a same deck. So I just embedded GIF ease into my deck.

Josh Schachter 14:13
So this is during the actual meeting at the end, you go around and people give the score in real time, in front of their peers.

Jenny Calvert 14:25
Yes, open voting, open voting. And you would think it’d be like, the first ones and eight. Next ones and eight, maybe a seven and a half, maybe a nine. All over?

Josh Schachter 14:39
Yeah, you got it. You got to stage that you’re gonna see the first person to anchor it. Hi. When we were in consulting, they would do that we’d be we’d have a like a committee with the executives and we’d be pitching an idea. And I remember the managing directors are like Alright, so here’s how we’re going to sit. The first person at this end is going to be on our team and we when we go around and ask for feedback, they’re gonna You glowing feedback? Because that’s going to anchor the rest of the conversation, all of our clients to give you that, like, oh, wow, look Turoa consulting, but you’re not doing that you’re not, you’re not telling me ice

Jenny Calvert 15:13
anchoring on price and sales, right? Same thing you got to be first. But honestly, we’ve just created a really good environment. To be honest.

Josh Schachter 15:25
What are some of the factors that play into that the environment that you like? Because it’s an environment of safety? Right? That’s effectively what you’re saying, you’ve created a psychological safety. And the ability to be to be candid. And my favorite bucks is radical candor. So you’ve created that that radical candor environment. So what did you do to do that? Like, what are some of the tips

Jenny Calvert 15:45
on a very, some of my managers may say, overly transparent leader, I share a lot of context, maybe one level beyond some of the context, I should share with the knowledge that I know being in the leadership level. But I think it’s really important to say, I trust you with this information, you know, it’s not necessarily information where customers are like to go sharing with all of your best friend and colleagues here. But I think it’s really important for you to understand why we’re driving towards this or why we’re focused on that. And I think it’s the behavior that I have demonstrated with my team creates that, like, hey, I can replicate. You know, I have high expectations. But I’m also human, and I’m very keen, and first to share where I failed. I’ve also shared stories of past life leaders that are great leaders that left me wanting more. And the things that I’ve learned and the ways that, you know, I want to make sure my team feels so they can be awesome and efficient and feel really great about the work they do and show up to do every day. Jamie, this was great.

Josh Schachter 16:53
I really love the strategy you use. I know you said it came from from EOS. I’ve heard a lot about EOS. I’ve never really read the literature myself. But I love the simplicity of it. How would you rate the meeting, and every time you take that reinforced learning and you make the next meeting better, so simple, but I think those are the little things that really, like you said they over the long run, create that culture. And that, that learning and progress in the way that you’re on your team. For those that were were listening, for those that are listening at home. I want to thank Jenny for being on the program. And especially huge thank you because this has been the most difficult interview for me to conduct and probably for a guest to respond to because I’ve been cradling my puppy the entire time who’s been in and out of chewing on toys and barking and causing all kinds of mayhem. But hopefully we’ve been able to cut all that peace out. And Jenny did such an amazing job with your your your discipline, focus and being not getting distracted like I was, you know, by by these curveballs that he was given us. So thank you so much, Jenny. Such a pleasure. Thanks, gosh, absolutely. Have a great day. You too.