In the Spotlight: Tiffany Janssen

​This marketing manager from Bluestone Federal Credit Union is using her talents to help others with their financial struggles using the “people helping people” philosophy. 

by Shawn Marie Brummer, Communications Specialist 

Tiffany Janssen grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, where she lived with her parents and older brother. Her mother was an emergency room and psych/addictions nurse, and her father was a salesman. Like many families, her parents struggled financially, and Tiffany witnessed how their credit union was there to help them out.

As a child, she was involved in multiple sports, including soccer, tennis, gymnastics, and taekwondo. She did art classes, and participated in debate, Toastmasters, school newspapers, yearbook, and Earth Group. In her words, she “loved learning; didn’t love school.” She received good grades and took evening and summer classes so she could graduate early.
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Following her high school graduation, she attended Western Iowa Tech and later transferred to Morningside College in Sioux City where she received her bachelor’s degree in English. For a time, she worked as a salesperson with Lauder brands in makeup and skincare, then in commercial sales for Ford, before moving into account management and advertising sales in media.
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Tiffany first became a member of Bluestone FCU about 13 years ago when she moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At that time, she was working in advertising as a marketing account representative for clients in radio, digital, and newspaper, building campaigns and schedules for a variety of clients. It was also during this time that she met two important professional mentors: Leigh Anglin and Don Jacobs. Leigh was a brilliant creator for an ad agency, a talented writer who taught her how to edit her ideas. Through Leigh, Tiffany met Don Jacobs, who she describes as, “a crash course for a master’s in advertising.”   
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When the COVID pandemic hit, Tiffany witnessed firsthand the financial struggles of friends and local businesses. “It brought back memories of growing up in a household where money was treated as something you couldn’t count on,” she shared. “My earliest memories are of my mom and dad fighting over bills, my mom crying at the kitchen counter while paying bills, negotiating to pay the mechanic with food instead of money, all of the struggles I had worked hard to avoid. When I saw that my credit union was looking for a marketing manager, I jumped at the chance to be part of something that could help folks with those same financial struggles,” she explained.

In September of 2020, Tiffany began her career with Bluestone FCU as the marketing manager. In her role, she creates marketing materials, maintains the website and mobile app, manages social media, plans member events, helps facilitate member reward programs, and runs promotions. With the assistance of the other half of Bluestone’s marketing team, People and Culture Specialist, Tommy Hansen, they also work on community outreach, employee engagement, and corporate partnerships.

During her first year with Bluestone, they ran two new promotions on auto and home equity loans that became two of the largest promotions Bluestone had ever run. “It felt great to make an impact for Bluestone really quickly and to know our members were getting really amazing deals too,” she stated.

More recently, for the 2023-2024 Sioux Falls Stampede season, the credit union began a program called Bluestone’s Cooperative Culture. For this promotion, Bluestone sponsored 15 different area non-profits, allowing them each a designated night at a home game, which allowed them to set up a table to interact with fans, in addition to PA announcements about their organization, and social media posts from both the credit union and the Stampede.
The program has proven to be extremely successful and is expected to be a flagship program for some time.  

“I love working in finance because it’s an area of many folks’ lives where they don’t feel well-educated, and I have an ability to speak plainly with them,” Tiffany expounded. “I love working in the credit union side of finance because we’re the ‘good guys.’ There’s a different response you get as a marketing manger of a credit union, telling someone about a product or service that you offer, than you’d get if you worked in a bank. I can get someone to listen to me without trying to sell them anything, and that’s what I do. I tell people about the things we offer that will benefit them,” she concluded.

Besides her work at the credit union, Tiffany shares her talents with other organizations, including Sales & Marketing Executives (SME) Sioux Falls. She previously served on the board of SiouxperCon, a local comic and fan convention, and has volunteered for years at events such as Saturday in the Park, Sioux Falls Pride, and Innoskate. For the past two years, she has been mentoring a student through LSS, while she also makes time to volunteer for city cleanups, serving at the Banquet, and for a few select political activities.  

In her personal life, Tiffany is married to her husband, Dave, with whom she will soon celebrate a 24th anniversary. They have one 13-year-old daughter, Elliot, along with two dogs, Chopper and Harry, and one rat, named Gurgles.  

In her free time, Tiffany explores her “fantasy” obsession, which usually involves dragging her family to Renaissance Faires. She also enjoys listening to audiobooks while she crafts and cooks, and as a family, they are often out riding bikes or hiking trails, attending concerts, or traveling to new places. Last summer, they went to Italy for 12 days, and the year before, they checked New Orleans off their “to do” list.  
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One memorable trip she experienced some time ago was to Daytona Speedway for an endurance race, where she was on a (never aired) reality show. It was called “Dream Job,” and she was there to work in the pit. While the production company ran into issues with filming, she did get to experience a full day at Universal Studios riding rollercoasters – which is another thing she loves! 

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