Jace Benson - Jace.pro & ServiceNow

I connected with Jace Benson early on in my ServiceNow recruitment career in 2021, and may have sent a couple messages to him during that time about new opportunities - but it wasn't until Knowledge 2024 when I got to meet him in person.

Jace is super talented, and from my eyes is someone that a lot of people look up to in the ServiceNow space. From his technical skillsets to his branding and blogging, Jace has been providing value to the ServiceNow space for a minute - so for this blog, let's dive into Jace Benson and his story.

How did you get into ServiceNow and what has your journey been like?

-

A: My journey into ServiceNow started in 2005 when I applied for a helpdesk position at a hospital system without really understanding what a helpdesk was. After starting the job, I realized that I was already doing tasks that were similar to what a service desk would do. A few months later, we transitioned to using ServiceNow, and I was asked to do the catalog build for it, despite not having any professional software development experience. I had previous coding experience with DHTML, HTML, JavaScript, and PHP, so I was excited to take on this new challenge. As I became more involved in the ServiceNow community, I started sharing my knowledge and experiences through posts and questions on the community forum. I also started my own blog to document my notes and share helpful information with others. Over the years, I have continued to engage with the ServiceNow community, participate in user groups, and contribute to the development of the platform. It has been a rewarding journey of learning, sharing, and helping others.

How did you get into ServiceNow and what has your dream been like?

"Who wants to work on the catalog?" Deb (my boss) asked. I raised my hand and got off a call I had just taken. I thought I'd love to try it out! Little did I know, it changed everything.  This was back in 2007 and I had just been taking calls on a system called Touchpaper which was awful it would crash every 3rd or 4th call.  It ran locally on a machine and you couldn't report on it unless you put in development requests to the administrator.  When I applied to work on the helpdesk a little over a year earlier, I had put down PHP, HTML and JavaScript down.  I was excited to try out something new and I was eager to learn the next few days.  I was told that I would get some help from the resources at ServiceNow after change management was released.  That's what we bought ServiceNow for.  Sure enough, I got some time with a very talented individual named Brad Hicks.   I think only got a few hours with him.  I remember pouring over a Excel spreadsheet that we had where list the cost centers to departments and figuring how to import that.  Even back then we had import sets.  It was amazing to import that data into ServiceNow and be able to report on it immediately.  

After that my job changed I was half time on the help desk half time doing development on ServiceNow as I struggled through problems I was taking notes on my own tiddlywiki that I had found on the Internet that I could save locally on my computer and then posting questions on the community back then which was a lot smaller. I would try to answer questions on the community when they came up.  Things really got interesting when I started going to the community events the local user groups they called them back then now known as a ServiceNow user groups.  You see the first event I went to was showing how to use this new thing called "Workflow".  It had really confused me.  Bow Ruggeri had come to my work to do a lab and we had a number of local Minnesota businesses over as well.  My mind was blown 🤯.  I later volunteered to the customer organizer, Susan for the local user group in whatever way they would let me.  Susan later left the customer to work for Fruition Partners and asked me to join her.  I had some interviews and was offered nearly 1.5 times more than I was making on the help desk.  I lept.  

Working for a partner back in 2011, was huge.  I got to see and solve problems for more than 20 customers.  At the time I didn't know it, but it would again change everything.  Because I worked on so many different customers instances and worked on so many different problems it just gave me that much more experience I never would have gotten working at one customer.  However after a few short years I'd tire of the travel and managing my time split among 10 or more clients in a single week.  This whole time I've been attending and contributing to the community.  I left Fruition for Expedia and realized how little I was being paid when they offed me 1.5 time my current salary.  

ServiceNow had also been moving off their Django community site to Jive around this time and I did some work to archive what I wanted, but that pushed me to start my own blog somewhere else.  I bought jacebenson.com and servicenow.work and started posting on servicenow.work.

-

How long have you been running your personal brand?

-

A: This site came across my screen at some point and I took it to heart.  https://jace.pro/post/2020-06-15-own-your-content/ In 2015 was when I started blogging on servicenow.work, that domain however had to be taken down shortly because I got a cease and assist from ServiceNow. So I moved over to jacebenson.com and continued to blog there.  I really liked the idea of a shorter domain and eventually I found jace.pro, jace.com was available but only through reseller and for six figures which was not what I was going to spend for it.  As I mentioned above with the community changing and the cease and desist it felt right to have a place I could post whatever I wanted.  

-

Were there any key factors in your startup, and what are they?

-

A: tryaiinabox.com's key factors are simple.

1. Cost efficiency, there's no reason that these AI solutions need the cost double digit percent increase on your annual contract value.

2. Control, you have total control of the system because it's entirely hosted within your infrastructure.  No need to worry about someone training your data on a new data set to release all the other customers.  

3. A clear set of features for a fixed price.  

Don't misunderstand I think there's a lot of work that can be done with this tool but with this kind of pricing model a line needs to be drawn in a sand.

-

What is the mission and vision for your content?

-

A: My North Star for my content is so I can find it later the fact that helps others is amazing and I'm glad that it does it was not its visual attendant but what that means that I'm so glad it does help others and others have found it useful.

-

What is your brand specializing in?

-

A: I'm building TryAIinABox.com to deliver practical, self-hosted AI solutions tailored for ServiceNow customers. The goal is to give them control, privacy, and scalability without the usual headaches. Beyond that, I've always been about sharing knowledge, connecting with the community, and finding real-world tech solutions that make a difference. It’s all about making AI work for businesses in ways that actually matter.

-

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself when you first started?

-

A: The advice I would give myself is to start sooner and not to let fear hold me back. I would tell myself to just start creating and sharing content, find something I'm passionate about, and keep learning and trying new things. I would also emphasize the importance of networking and building connections with others in the industry.

-

What advice or tips do you have for upcoming entrepreneurs?

-

A: My advice for upcoming entrepreneurs is to find a special topic or niche that they are passionate about and want to tackle. It's important to find a community of like-minded individuals who can support and help them succeed in their future plans. Additionally, identifying the target audience and customers is crucial in entrepreneurship, as they are the ones who will ultimately determine the success of the business. It is important to focus on providing value to customers and building relationships with them.

-

Why did you start your business?

-

A: The initial reason for starting my business is to gain more financial freedom.  

-

What do you like most about being in the ServiceNow community?

-

A: I enjoy helping people in the ServiceNow community. Being able to answer questions and provide valuable information to others is rewarding and makes my day. It's great when I can quickly provide someone with the answer they're looking for and help them in their ServiceNow journey.

-

What type of impact do you want to make in the ServiceNow industry and in your career as a whole?

-

A: I have ambitions to create a competitor to ServiceNow, but currently I am focused on owning my future and being excited about the work I do. I also want to bring others along with me and provide valuable services and tools to businesses. Additionally, I'm open to advertising opportunities and collaboration with others in order to grow and add value to the ServiceNow industry.  

Whether it's ServiceNow, blogging, video content or even podcasts, Jace has been there and done that. We appreciate his time for this blog, as well as the value and he has been providing to the ServiceNow space over the years.

-

I think my favorite quote out of this interview is "The advice I would give myself is to start sooner and not to let fear hold me back."

-

Early on before starting Mod570, I always had doubts and fear of failing. But the innate inside of me kept telling me to move forward and push for what I wanted. I resonate with Jace a ton when it comes to this quote and it's always a fulfilling seeing others go through what you have, pushing to become better and coming out on top.

-

Are you a ServiceNow Creator? Send us a message today on LinkedIn or email - we'd love to showcase your story.