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Ever wondered how mastering customer education can lead to skyrocketing revenue? Listen in as we sit down with Greg Rose of Intellum, who takes us on his extraordinary journey from running a record label to pioneering the field of customer education. You'll learn the magic of Education Qualified Leads (EQLs) and how they can turbocharge your conversion rates. Greg also shares invaluable leadership gems from his memorable Pulse talk, "Everything I Learned About Leadership I Learned from Fred Rogers and My Dad," blending personal anecdotes with professional wisdom.

We also talk about:

• 00:00 - Driving revenue through education
• 02:26 - Music and customer education
• 06:59 - Leadership lessons from Fred Rogers
• 07:59 - Brain science in sales
• 11:05 - The problem with sales handoffs
• 17:42 - Balancing micro-learning and mastery
• 19:08 - Two pillars of education strategy
• 27:18 - Challenges in measuring ROI
• 30:13 - Forrester’s findings on customer education
• 32:35 - The importance of strategic planning
• 36:59 - Defining an education qualified lead
• 40:10 - Impact of the pandemic on education
• 44:11 - Strategies for measuring impact
• 46:17 - Building relationships for data access
• 47:16 - Benefits of education moving to marketing
• 49:02 - Avoiding mistakes in education strategy
• 50:56 - The importance of reach and frequency

Enjoy! I know I sure did...

Shoutouts:

• Andrew DeBell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdebell/
• Jay Nathan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynathan/
• Dee Kapila: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deekapila/

Books:

• Creative Act by Rick Rubin: https://amzn.to/3WvCDBL
• Leadership Revolution by Lori Hazan: https://amzn.to/4bS2zvR

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This episode was edited and sponsored by Lifetime Value Media, a media production company founded by my good friend and fellow CS veteran Dillon Young. Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs of CS and Post-Sales professionals. Lifetime Value is offering select services at a deeply discounted rate for a limited time. Navigate to lifetimevaluemedia.com to learn more.

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Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

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Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

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This week, we are pleased to bring you a conversation with Rod Cherkas, a SaaS veteran, consultant, author of two books on customer success, and vocal contributor to the CS community.

Rod and Alex discuss his past at Marketo and Gainsight (among others), his newly released book REACH, as well as where he sees the CS profession heading.

Chapters:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:18 - Rod’s Background and Path to CS
00:02:42 - Journey from Product to Customer Focus
00:03:45 - Intuit’s Customer-Centric Approach
00:04:27 - Applying Experience Design Principles
00:05:02 - Hello CCO
00:07:00 - Developing Executive-Level Skills
00:09:08 - Practical Impact of REACH Framework
00:10:29 - Importance of Marketing Playbooks
00:11:16 - Commercial Focus in CS Teams
00:13:03 - Learning from Digital Marketing
00:15:45 - Embracing Digital and AI in CS
00:16:15 - Prioritizing Accounts with Growth Potential

Enjoy! I know I sure did...

Rod's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodcherkas/
Rod's Website: https://hellocco.com
Rod's Books:
- CCO Playbook: https://amzn.to/3y44XBS
- REACH: https://amzn.to/3Wn5wAm

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This episode was edited and sponsored by Lifetime Value Media, a media production company founded by my good friend and fellow CS veteran Dillon Young. Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs of CS and Post-Sales professionals. Lifetime Value is offering select services at a deeply discounted rate for a limited time. Navigate to lifetimevaluemedia.com to learn more.

+++++++++++++++++

Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

+++++++++++++++++

Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Send us a Text Message.

In this solo episode, we tackle two primary topics:

• Imposter Syndrome specific to Digital CS and how to combat it
• Building Customer Health Scores without the benefit of product Telemetry

Along the way, I also share a few news items and resources with you.

Enjoy! I know I sure did...

Resources:

• Virtual Scale & Digital Meetup Survey Link
  
  
• Latest Digital CX Articles
  • Hubspot
  • ChurnZero
• Everyday AI
  • 5 Simple Ways to use Generative AI Every Day
• DCS Connect Slack Community
  
  
• Digital Customer Success book
  
  
• Health Scores without Telemetry post

Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

+++++++++++++++++

Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Send us a Text Message.

Eric Mistry (Strategy & Shared Services Operations Manager at Contentsquare) has a very unique background and set of skills in education that afford him a fascinating perspective on the customer experience. Eric joins Alex to discuss the evolving use of AI in the workplace, the importance of connecting cross-functional dots, and the future of customer education and digital customer success.

Topics in this Episode:

• 03:00 - From swim coach to software
• 05:19 - Higher education and academic technologist
• 06:59 - Joining Heap and instructional design
• 10:26 - Connecting the dots in scaling functions
• 12:26 - Data management during mergers
• 15:15 - Adapting with a growth mindset
• 19:49 - Practical use of AI in the workplace
• 31:45 - Future of customer education and AI
• 39:54 - Enhancing automation with AI

Enjoy! I know I sure did...

Eric's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmistry/

Resources:

• Meco App for collating newsletters
• Tim Ferriss Show
• Range by David Epstein
• Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
• Imaginable by Jane McGonigal
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Shoutouts:

• Joe Ryan (Customer Education Weekly)
• Shannon Howard

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This episode was edited and sponsored by Lifetime Value Media, a media production company founded by my good friend and fellow CS veteran Dillon Young. Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs of CS and Post-Sales professionals. Lifetime Value is offering select services at a deeply discounted rate for a limited time. Navigate to lifetimevaluemedia.com to learn more.

+++++++++++++++++

Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

+++++++++++++++++

Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Send us a Text Message.

Aaron Thompson (Chief Revenue Officer of SuccessCOACHING and Founder of Red Slacks) has dedicated his professional life to helping companies and CS professionals. He and Alex delve into the importance of leveraging digital technologies and data to enhance customer experience, and explore the benefits of transitioning from high touch to tech touch interactions.

Topics:

• 02:40 - The origin of the Red Slacks
• 07:44 - Aaron’s journey into customer success
• 12:28 - Importance of hospitality experience in CS
• 17:14 - Digital customer experience definition
• 19:33 - Leveraging data in digital strategies
• 26:50 - Rethinking the traditional QBR
• 34:37 - B2B learns from direct-to-consumer strategies
• 36:34 - Effective tools in digital CS
• 40:20 - The missing piece in customer success platforms

Enjoy! I know I sure did...

Aaron's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/athomps/
Red Slacks: https://redslacks.com/
SuccessCOACHING: https://successcoaching.co/

Resources:
- 4Rocks by Sean Albertson
- Revenue Operations by Stephen Diorio and Chris Hummel

Shoutouts:

• Simon Kriss: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonkriss/
• Percy Rose: https://www.linkedin.com/in/percyrose/
• Mickey Powell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeypowell/

+++++++++++++++++

This episode was edited by Lifetime Value Media, a media production company founded by my good friend and fellow CS veteran Dillon Young. Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs of CS and Post-Sales professionals. Lifetime Value is offering select services at a deeply discounted rate for a limited time. Navigate to lifetimevaluemedia.com to learn more.

+++++++++++++++++

Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

+++++++++++++++++

Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Send us a Text Message.

Preetam Jinka and Arun Balakrishnan, co-founders of FunnelStory, join the podcast to discuss how we’re just scratching the surface with AI and machine learning. They chat with Alex about how FunnelStory is revolutionizing customer success strategies, enabling teams to predict churn, optimize user engagement, and drive revenue growth through data-driven insights.

Additionally, Arun & Preetam share their own insights on A.I. and how Product teams best work with Customer Success.

Chapters:
04:35 - Arun's background in cybersecurity and product managemen
05:25 - How Preetam got started in AI and data engineering
14:00 - The difference between AI and machine learning
18:10 - Some practical applications of AI in customer success
21:14 - An overview of the FunnelStory platform
24:26 - Predictive and prescriptive elements
27:46 - Product telemetry and customer insights
30:26 - Collaboration between product and customer success teams
33:11 - Innovative uses of predictive analytics in customer engagement
38:19 - Discovering hidden metrics through data analysis
39:16 - Leveraging AI and ML for pattern recognition in CS

Enjoy! I know I sure did...

Preetam's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/preetamjinka/
Arun's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balakrishnanarun/
FunnelStory: https://funnelstory.ai/

+++++++++++++++++

This episode was edited by Lifetime Value Media, a media production company founded by my good friend and fellow CS veteran Dillon Young. Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs of CS and Post-Sales professionals. Lifetime Value is offering select services at a deeply discounted rate for a limited time. Navigate to lifetimevaluemedia.com to learn more.

+++++++++++++++++

Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

+++++++++++++++++

Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Send us a Text Message.

Jay Nathan is the co-founder of GrowthCurve.io, Chief Customer Officer at Churnkey, and one of the most respected voices in the customer success community. He joins Alex as they explore Jay’s early career as a software engineer, the integration of AI with other digital tools, and navigating the economic landscape of SaaS.

Chapters:

• 00:02:28 - Introducing Jay Nathan
• 00:04:44 - A background in software engineering & web development
• 00:08:52 - Institutionalizing customer centricity
• 00:11:05 - Creating a great culture for employees
• 00:13:19 - Customer success and organizational capability
• 00:15:22 - Validating usability through customer interviews
• 00:17:26 - The ABCAI methodology
• 00:19:34 - Driving outcomes with digital
• 00:21:43 - AI in the customer success world
• 00:23:49 - Tailoring technologies for different team structures
• 00:25:54 - The changing economics of SaaS
• 00:30:13 - Human-to-human connections
• 00:32:32 - Managing the customer life cycle
• 00:34:37 - The intersection of company culture and ROI
• 00:36:40 - Automating the business development function
• 00:38:41 - Engaging with customers using marketing tricks

00:40:40 - Shout outs

Enjoy! I know I sure did...

20% off of the Cover Your SaaS course: https://growthcurve.io/products/coveryoursaas?promo=dcs

Jay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynathan/

+++++++++++++++++

This episode was edited by Lifetime Value Media, a media production company founded by my good friend and fellow CS veteran Dillon Young. Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs of CS and Post-Sales professionals. Lifetime Value is offering select services at a deeply discounted rate for a limited time. Navigate to lifetimevaluemedia.com to learn more.

+++++++++++++++++

Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

+++++++++++++++++

Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Send us a Text Message.

In this, my second solo episode - I wanted to spend some time trying to demystify Generative AI for CSMs and CS leaders alike. According to statistics, only 25% of CS workers utilize AI in the workplace on a regular basis, which I think is WAY too low - especially considering how stretched thin most CSMs really are.

So - in this episode, we focus on proper prompting, a few tools that exist out there and a plethora of use-cases for you to dig into:

0:00:00 - Introduction
0:03:55 - Topic introduction. Why GenAI for CSMs
0:08:42 - Why prompting is a fundamental skill to have
0:09:36 - Using the RISEN framework for prompting
0:11:31 - Taking care with proprietary and sensitive information when using Gen AI
0:19:58 - Why it’s a bad idea to just copy and send, without proofreading and personalizing
0:23:01 - Utilizing ChatGPTs memory feature to prevent having to copy/paste your prompts
0:23:55 - Teaching ChatGPT on my tone of voice
0:26:19 - Chaining prompts
0:27:55 - Integrating this into your daily workflow
0:30:21 - ChatGPT vs. Perplexity vs. Google
0:32:42 - Perplexity research use cases for CSMs
0:36:30 - The proliferation of new tools
0:37:19 - AgentCopilot & HeyGen create personalized video for your contacts at scale
0:39:45 - Ariglad analyzes support tickets to create and update knowledge base articles
0:40:48 - Malik automates the creation of decks using your data and insights
0:41:55 - Outro

One link discussed in the show is the DCS Tech Stack on the website: https://digitalcustomersuccess.com/tech-stack/

Enjoy!

Lifetime Value Media
Lifetime Value aims to serve the audio/video content production and editing needs.

Support the Show.

+++++++++++++++++

Like/Subscribe/Review:
If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review.

Website:
For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com.

Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:
This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcsp

Thank you for all of your support!

The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic