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Jillian Hurst
Human-Centered Design + L&D Consultant - GM & Obama Foundation
Professional Background
Jillian Hurst is a dynamic and versatile consultant based in Metro Detroit, recognized for her commitment to enhancing operational excellence within a diverse range of organizational contexts. With a rich tapestry of experience spanning from Fortune 500 companies to community non-profits, government agencies, and small family businesses, Jillian epitomizes the notion of a "Jill of All Trades." Her approach to consulting is characterized by a deep understanding of the cultural and community context, which informs her strategies for promoting diversity and creating inclusive systems.
Jillian's professional journey has allowed her to explore various roles where she has been able to apply her skills in design thinking, human-centered design, and community social impact. She is dedicated to fostering a workplace culture that emphasizes talent development, creativity, and continuous improvement. Furthermore, Jillian's involvement with international affairs reflects her passion for creating meaningful social change on a global scale.
Throughout her career, Jillian has held pivotal roles including her current position as a Design Thinking Consultant at General Motors, where she leverages her expertise to streamline operations and promote innovative practices. Prior to that, she served as an Associate for Network & Partnerships at My Brother's Keeper Alliance under the Obama Foundation, where she played an essential role in building networks that drive community engagement and support youth empowerment.
Jillian's comprehensive background includes being a Senior Consultant at Strategic Community Partners, where she managed various projects focused on community engagement and strategic initiatives aimed at fostering sustainable growth. As the Operations & Production Manager at Bebob Music Inc, she showcased her project management skills and artistic sensibility, ensuring seamless execution of events and creative productions.
Moreover, as a Fellow at Challenge Detroit and a Culture Transformation Fellow at General Motors, Jillian immersed herself in learning, sharing her insights on community transformation and organizational culture. Her early career at DTE Energy saw her undertake several roles in impact and integration, where she contributed to various strategic initiatives and co-op programs, aligning corporate social responsibility with community needs.
Education and Achievements
Jillian's educational background is as impressive as her professional experience. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, Spanish, and Performing Arts Management from the prestigious University of Michigan, where she cultivated her multidimensional perspective on culture and arts, as well as honed her language skills. This diverse array of studies not only equipped her with the knowledge necessary for her consulting career but also fueled her passion for arts administration and cultural engagement.
In addition to her academic accomplishments, Jillian has demonstrated leadership and engagement throughout her educational journey. During her time at the University of Michigan, she was an active member of several organizations, including serving as President and Assistant Music Director for Sirens A Cappella, where she showcased her strong leadership and creative skills.
Jillian's commitment to personal and professional growth is evident in her continuous pursuit of knowledge and skills development, reflecting her belief in the importance of lifelong learning. Her proficiency in various areas like facilitation, public speaking, content development, and strategic planning further distinguishes her as a sought-after consultant in her field.
Notable Achievements
Jillian Hurst is a consummate professional whose career is marked by a series of notable achievements that highlight her dedication to improving workplace culture, operational excellence, and community impact. She has been recognized for her impactful work in promoting diversity within organizations and advocating for inclusive talent strategies that resonate with all levels of workforce engagement.
Her role as a Design Thinking Consultant at General Motors underscores her innovative mindset as she collaborates with cross-functional teams to address complex challenges and enhance organizational effectiveness. Jillian's contributions to the Obama Foundation’s My Brother's Keeper Alliance exemplify her commitment to cultivating community connections and empowering youth, asserting her role as a leader in social impact.
As a Senior Consultant at Strategic Community Partners, she successfully facilitated workshops and initiatives aimed at harnessing the power of community engagement, laying a foundation for sustainable impact in diverse sectors. Jillian's ability to blend creativity with strategic foresight allows her to craft programs that resonate well both culturally and operationally.
Beyond her impressive professional resume, Jillian has also used her platform as a public speaker and facilitator to share her insights and inspire others in the fields of community impact, diversity, and operational excellence. Her skills in creative problem-solving and strategic planning not only benefit her clients but also empower communities, making a lasting difference.
In every engagement Jillian undertakes, she exemplifies passion, commitment, and an unwavering dedication to fostering a culture of inclusivity and excellence. Her journey reflects a deep understanding of the intricate interplay between culture, community, and operational success, making her a valued asset in all her endeavors.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.