In 2019 we were first introduced to EyeMail, an Atlanta-based technology business that makes emails significantly more engaging for customers and potential clients. Today on the Small Business Show, we’re in the studio with Lisa Jones, the Founder and Chief EyeMail Officer of EyeMail.Â
Since we last spoke to Jones, she’s received many accolades, including a Stevie Award for Innovator of the Year and Delta Air Lines Catalyst of the Year award for her impact on digital email strategy. She was also named one of the 10 Most Disruptive Women Leaders to Watch in 2022, and most recently, was a 2022 Microsoft Finalist for Diverse Supplier of the Year and Woman of the Year in Technology.
Transcription:
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Lisa, thank you so much for taking the time out of obviously your very busy schedule to join us on our little show here. Thank you so much.
Lisa Jones:
It is my pleasure. As I mentioned, I am beyond thrilled to be here, so thank you for inviting me to be here.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Good. We got so many great comments last time you and I met. It’s going on I think like three and a half years now.
Lisa Jones:
Yes, three and a half years.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
We were down at Tech Village, which is where you’re headquartered. At the time, you’re like, “Listen, stick with me. I’m telling you, watch my story. I’m going to be on the front of Forbes Magazine. I’m going to be in that magazine.” Lo and behold, you’ve made that happen. Congratulations!
Lisa Jones:
Thank you so much. Well, I am in the magazine. I’m still working on the cover.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
You’ll be there. You’ll be there. Sure. By the way, not many people can say they’re in the magazine, so that in and of itself is huge. Wow! For some of the people that maybe didn’t get a chance to watch our last segment together, give us a little idea or give us the elevator pitch of what your company is all about, because I think it’s really cool.
Lisa Jones:
Sure. We at EyeMail, we believe that your messages deserve to be seen, heard, and felt. When we think about the fact that on any given day we receive 120 emails or more, yet 73% remain unread, the question becomes, how do we stand out from the inbox clutter to build our brands? And that’s where EyeMail comes in. We’re a patent pending marketing technology that enables video up to a full 60 seconds to automatically play in the email inbox to increase engagement and to increase conversions.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, I bet. That’s so cool. You click it on and the video starts playing right in it.
Lisa Jones:
As soon as you open up the email, which is now the EyeMail, it’s going to start playing on mute because you don’t want it to be disruptive. But when you’re ready to engage the sound, then you are in the full storytelling experience.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That is fantastic.
Lisa Jones:
Thank you.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
I know right now small business owners and entrepreneurs and salespeople are thinking, “Wow, that would be a great way for me to get my message across in 60 seconds or less,” to your point, because so many emails are not opened or maybe they’re not responded to as well. That really sets you apart from any other email that you’re receiving, right?
Lisa Jones:
It is a competitive differentiator. We’re all looking for competitive differentiators in the market. No one wants to receive a boring static message. I mean, think about how many messages we receive that we ignore or delete. The goal is for any business, we’re all looking to connect. It’s all about human connection, but how do you transpire that in the inbox? EyeMail is the conduit for that. We’re so excited. I started this journey long ago, but I love my own enthusiasm of how excited I get to talk about it because it’s a passion to help other businesses, small, medium, and enterprise, to continue to grow.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Of course, and that’s exactly what this does. People don’t even want to take phone calls anymore. I don’t. I’m like, “Why are you calling me? How come you’re not sending me an email? Maybe a text message if I know you well enough, but certainly send me an email. We’ll communicate that way.” You know what I mean? So many people want to keep it like that, right? I have no problem with that because then I can read when it’s at my leisure and I got time to do it. A phone call might be more disruptive. There’s also a lot of waste on phone calls, right? I’d rather read an email.
Lisa Jones:
It’s true, but a lot of people will say, Jim, that email is dead. It’s not that email is dead, email is here to stay.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh yeah, of course. Of course.
Lisa Jones:
The problem is people are not engaged. People are looking for a reason to be engaged. Some people will say, “You should drive people to a call to action.” We disagree with that at EyeMail. We believe that people should be inspired. We all should be inspired to take a next step for a call to action.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. While people may say email is dead, EyeMail is replacing it.
Lisa Jones:
Well, I don’t want to say… Because I love email. It’s not replacing it. It’s for those key strategic…
Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s enhancing it.
Lisa Jones:
It’s enhancing it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. That’s making it much more fun and interesting.
Lisa Jones:
Absolutely.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
You were recently recognized as a finalist for Women of the Year in Technology for Women in Technology Organization. You were finalists along with the VP at Home Depot and a scientist at Georgia Tech. What was that experience like? That’s pretty impressive.
Lisa Jones:
Thank you. Thank you so much. It recently just happened actually. It’s one of the cornerstones of my journey as a founder and a CEO. Thinking about the world class organization of the Home Depot, I mean, we’re talking about over 500,000 employees. I mean, the thought leadership of the senior leadership of the VP of technology there, Angie Brown. And then Mary Beth from Georgia Tech, I mean, she’s a scientist working on key developments in the marketplace.
And then to think EyeMail, the three of us, you got a VP at a corporate, you have a scientist, and you have an entrepreneur, so between the three of us, we represent the three top global thought leaders for technology. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget, and they are absolutely amazing.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, no question about it. Let’s go back a little bit. I know because some of the people that are watching us right now saying, “Wow! Her story is just incredible.” How did you come up with the idea? Were you sitting around on your email one day going, “There’s got to be a better way to do email.” So many ideas are started that way.
Lisa Jones:
It’s true. In my case, sometimes life tragedies will happen that will help you to redefine what do you want to do with the remainder of your life or your journey? In my case, I’m originally from Alabama. One morning I was headed into the office and I received a phone call from my sister that advised me that our mother had passed away at home alone at the age of 61. I remember the impact. I know, right? I remember the impact that moment in time had on me. When I went to my mother’s services, it was a graveside service, and I was going to speak at her funeral. I wasn’t on the agenda, but it was in my heart. When the time came, it just didn’t happen that way.
I remember from my recollection, Jim, that her services lasted seven minutes and people were going back to their cars. But in my mind I was thinking, is this what life comes down to, is seven minutes? It’s more than that. People should be celebrated. The prayer that I made to my mother was that when I come back to Atlanta, I want to start a company that’s going to be global, inspiring, to create a legacy, but primarily to make up for those seven minutes of time. When I came back to Atlanta, I thought about, well, what kind of business could I start? I thought about, in one communication, my life changed. I said, “You know what? Maybe I’ll start a communications business.”
I started thinking, you have to step outside of your box and think about different things. I said, “Well, how do we communicate verbally, nonverbally, in writing? What else do we do?” We email people. Well, who do we email? Internal, external stakeholders, customers. In one click, you’re anywhere in the world. You don’t have inventory. What I did, Jim, I signed up for 150 different brands’ emails from anything you can imagine, globally to small, midsize, everything. 150.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right, like newsletters, things like that.
Lisa Jones:
Newsletters, anything you can imagine. There was a commonality that I found. The commonality was that I was not inspired, that I didn’t feel special, that everything was static or a link or a lot of paragraphs and texts. I said, “What if email could have a personality? What if email could be brought to life?” And with that, EyeMail was born.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That is so fantastic. From there, you decide, all right, we’re going to figure out a way to do this. And then along comes maybe some investors or people that believe in you.
Lisa Jones:
Well, actually EyeMail has been bootstrapped since day one.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s great.
Lisa Jones:
Since day one.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Which is tough to do.
Lisa Jones:
It’s tough to do. I mean, there’s a lot of nights.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Especially when you’re in technology because that could be very expensive, right?
Lisa Jones:
Absolutely. By me, my background, I started at NASA. I have a business background. I faced a lot of opposition when I started that said, “Lisa, you’re a female.” What does that have to do with anything? That’s an advantage too. What does that have to do with anything? That’s a dumb idea. I’m one of these people when there’s a challenge, I will rise to the occasion until I can’t rise anymore.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Heard that from so many entrepreneurs.
Lisa Jones:
Yes. Like that Rocky Balboa saying. I just kept going and I interviewed a lot of teams for technical. That’s how we were able to build a global team of diverse talent.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That is fantastic. Now it’s a global company, right?
Lisa Jones:
Yes.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
How many different countries are you in?
Lisa Jones:
Seven.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Seven different countries.
Lisa Jones:
Seven.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh my gosh, that’s incredible.
Lisa Jones:
We have team members that are in Canada, in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, the UK, and Africa. We’re continuing to grow our footprint. This is such an exciting time.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh my gosh, that is so cool. Lo and behold, you say, “I’m busy as heck. I’m working 19 hours a day. Maybe this is a good time to go back to school and get an MBA at Harvard.”
Lisa Jones:
Who does that?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Talk to me about that decision. I’m reading this in the notes. I’m like, Lisa did what? What are you talking about? You’re talking about when she was back in school? Now, that’s we’re talking about now. Talk to me about that.
Lisa Jones:
It was interesting. I already had my bachelor’s and my master’s and an advance certification, but then the pandemic hit. When you’re an extrovert and you’re a continual evergreen thought leader, you’re thinking, how am I going to continue to grow and engage and connect with people? It was a lifelong dream that I’ve always wanted to go to Harvard and the opportunity arose for me to be able… During the pandemic, while I’m still working 19 hours a day, give or take, I get accepted.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow, that’s fantastic.
Lisa Jones:
I mean, I can’t even tell you what it means to me to be able to go to Harvard. Yes. The global thought leadership, I have so many new colleagues and friends, lifelong friends from the journey. But then on top of that, Jim, Harvard Business School is an EyeMail mail.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh, no kidding? Oh wow! That makes it even better, right?
Lisa Jones:
That makes it full circle.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, full circle. That is incredible to have a client like that. From that, I would think that investors are beating your door down going, “Let us come in on this. Let us get in on this.” There’s so many private equity companies out there that want to take this thing all the way to Wall Street.
Lisa Jones:
Well, you know what? I think right now what’s happening is because we’re gaining a lot of market traction, as you mentioned the awards, I think it’s just coming out of the shell for them to know about EyeMail. It’s at a pivotal point now of deciding the next step in the journey, but it’s thrilling because it’s watching anything from step one grow up.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s pretty cool. Pretty cool. And not to mention, this is really the future. I mean, to be able to do what you guys do in email is so impressive. I mean, certainly for those of you that are watching right now, this is something you’re going to want to check out if you’re a salesperson, if you are a big company, if you’re a small company, to your point, if you’re a small business owner and you want to make a difference out there among all of your competitors that might be big businesses that you’re competing with, you know who you are, then this might be just the way to do it because it is extremely an impressive product. Check it out.
Lisa Jones:
Thank you.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s easy to get to. What’s next for EyeMail? I mean, it’s such an evolution here. If we were sitting here five years from now, what does the company look like?
Lisa Jones:
The company looks like mass adoption in various industries. When you think about email, it covers any industry. I mean, everyone sends out emails, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, of course.
Lisa Jones:
But it’s us expanding into different markets. We’re going into entertainment. EyeMail is going into luxury products as well.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Great.
Lisa Jones:
And with the software as a service platform, it’s going to be released within the next 30 days, and that allows customers, both emerging, mid-tier, nonprofits, and enterprise, to be able to send out their own EyeMails in minutes.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Very nice. Very nice. And in bulk.
Lisa Jones:
And in bulk.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
A click of the mouse, you can affect 10,000 of your customers with a nice video presentation.
Lisa Jones:
Exactly. Exactly. We launched with Microsoft for Windows 11, which was amazing. And that went out to 30 million viewers at one time. When the team meets a smaller business, we want them to know that we’re here to support them as well, because we all have a need to communicate. I started EyeMail as a department of one at the time to grow, and I understand that it’s important to tell a story and we all deserve that in our lives.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. There’s no question about it. MailChimp sold I think a year or so ago for some $12 billion.
Lisa Jones:
I read that press release at least once a month.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
On the way into work every day. That is going to be me. You better not forget me when you get that $12 billion. I mean, that has the potential, this has the potential to do these kinds of numbers, right? I mean, really if you think about it.
Lisa Jones:
It does. I mean, today some people ask, even at Harvard, they say, “Well, why are people not adopting necessarily as fast to video and email?” Some people are comfortable with email and it’s like black and white television had an evolution to color. You would watch a black and white movie today, but you wouldn’t watch it without sound. It’s an evolution, and that’s going to happen for the future of email.
It’s going to be commonplace. This conversation that we’re having now is history, because it’s going to be commonplace to expect to see that video in email experience. When it delivers, Jim, it’s only 15 kilobytes in size. You don’t have to worry about firewalls or any large files. And that’s been one of the hindrances with people adopting video and email.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you, what is the advice that you have for others that are watching you have this conversation with me going, “Wow! This is such an inspiring story. It really is.” What advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs, maybe female entrepreneurs, that are going, “I got an idea. How come she did it and I’m not doing it,” and sometimes it’s just taking that first step.
Lisa Jones:
Absolutely.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
What advice would you have?
Lisa Jones:
A lot of great advice for them. I would say you have to find a passion for something that you believe in. You have to have a cause behind that passion, because there are going to be a lot of days that aren’t going to be easy. You need something to lay your head on and to fall back on to know, this is the reason why I started. Like I mentioned in my case, I was honoring the memory of my mother and I wanted to create something globally. Even when I have my bad days or good days, at the end of the day, I go back to the core.
I would say find a passion, a reason behind that. I would say also know that it’s going to require some forms of sacrifice, that you’re going to have to work very hard and stay focused. Do not listen to the naysayers as well.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
There’s no naysayers, aren’t there?
Lisa Jones:
Oh my goodness! They so exist.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wait a minute, naysayers?
Lisa Jones:
Exactly. You have to remove yourself from all of this negative energy and stay around positive people. Find mentors. I would tell anyone something I didn’t learn early in my journey that it’s okay to ask for help. I used to feel that I had to do everything. I have to be competent. I have to do this. No. It’s okay to have various mentors in different sectors to learn from.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, I would agree.
Lisa Jones:
When no one else sees your dream, it’s okay because you see the vision, and you keep going your course no matter what. I would say even when you have a bad day and you’re questioning yourself in the lonely hours of the darkness of the night or day, stay focused and keep going. And have gratitude.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s exactly right.
Lisa Jones:
I had gratitude when I met you at Atlanta Tech Village.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And likewise.
Lisa Jones:
Yes!
Jim Fitzpatrick:
I mean, it’s stories like this that we love because we want to bring these kinds of stories that are so inspirational to our viewers, because you’re talking right now to people out there that are going, “Yeah, I have those dark nights. I’m wondering if I should continue. I’m wondering if I should sign up for that next loan because that’s a big step. What if this thing doesn’t work?” You don’t want to what yourself later though to say, “What if I didn’t do this, where might I be today?”
You’re exactly right. You’re talking to so many entrepreneurs and small business people out there that have those tough times such as you yourself. We all do. I don’t care who you are. If you’re in business any longer than a minute, you’re going to have those moments of doubt or frustration or ready to maybe throw in the towel as they say.
Lisa Jones:
I didn’t even know it was called imposter syndrome until like…
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right, right, exactly.
Lisa Jones:
You and I learned about that a few years ago. I was like, what is it called? Imposter syndrome. But we have to combat that and say that we can achieve. We can keep going. We can believe and live our dream. It’s our dream. It’s no one else’s.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
There’s no question about it. What’s next for you personally? I asked you about your company, but what’s next for you?
Lisa Jones:
Oh, that’s a great question. What’s next for Lisa? I think continual learning.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Maybe Yale after Harvard?
Lisa Jones:
No.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Stanford?
Lisa Jones:
No, I’m done. I’m done. Harvard is the epitome of where I wanted to go. I have my start in Alabama at Alabama Annie. The whole journey has been great. But I would say, what’s next for Lisa? That’s a wonderful question. I love that question. It’s original. What’s next for me is the sky is just the beginning. I am just excited to see what’s going to happen next. I’m excited to see what happens with EyeMail as the chief EyeMail officer to see what happens in the global marketplace. I want to see different countries adopt the technology and for me to be recognized or remembered as a trailblazer and pioneer for women in technology and for video and email.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s great. That’s great. You’re going to be kind of the Steve Jobs of the computer out there. You know what I mean?
Lisa Jones:
Yes, but for video and email.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Or Bill Gates for the operating system.
Lisa Jones:
I love flying with all of those eagles.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Your name would be, “Oh, Lisa Jones brought us the video.”
Lisa Jones:
Lisa S. Jones did that.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Lisa S. Jones, rather. Lisa S. Jones.
Lisa Jones:
I love it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
S stands for successful?
Lisa Jones:
I love it. I’ve adopted that. The S is for successful.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right. Well, the very successful Lisa S. Jones, founder and chief EyeMail officer at a company called EyeMail. Check this company out. You’ve already learned all about the founder. You’re going to want to find out more about the company and it’s offering. It is phenomenal. Check it out. Lisa S., thank you so much for joining me on the show. This has been great to catch up. Really appreciate it.
Lisa Jones:
Thank you so much for having me. Keep up the impactful work as well, Jim.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
My only request is that when you get to that billionaire status that you remember us. You let us interview you again.
Lisa Jones:
Absolutely. I’m going to invite you on the yacht, the entire team, and everyone. We’re going to have the best time.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Send out the jet for us.
Lisa Jones:
Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s a deal. Thank you.
