When did you say ”THAT’S IT! I’VE HAD IT!”? Time to Disrupt and Interrupt with host Karla Jo. Every week KJ interviews professionals who are disrupting their industries and altering economic networks that have been antiquated with bull-headed predecessors holding up the progress. KJ delves into uncovering more from industry rebels and innovators that you didn’t know you needed in your life.
Episodes
Thursday Jan 05, 2023
Thursday Jan 05, 2023
Belle Walker has spent her career helping companies build and optimize their teams. Belle leverages her background as an engineer into a problem-solving approach that helps leaders assemble the right team for their organizations’ needs. She calls her approach “from friction to function.”
Key Takeaways:
- Staffing a company is like building a bus: You need the right vehicle with the right mix of passengers sitting in the right places.
- Look at companies like an engineer would: Define the problem, assess the materials at hand, and figure out what obstacles and limits are part of the big picture. Then, make a plan around those facts.
- Building a team requires honesty: You have to be truthful about what you want, what resources you have, and what you’re unwilling to change.
- Taking companies from friction to function means removing obstacles that prevent workers from doing their best work.
- A leader is a person who motivates and inspires those around them. A manager who can’t achieve that can’t succeed.
- It’s not enough to promote from within. Leaders should create opportunities for newly appointed managers to grow and learn their new roles.
- Fast-growing companies should think strategically about how to structure teams: They need to make sure middle managers have a clear sense of their role, and leaders should have a clear sense of their managers’ strengths and goals.
- The best time to bring in Belle is when the company has crossed an “invisible threshold” before it starts to sprawl and get disorganized.
- When she’s not fixing businesses, Belle enjoys running Disney half marathons. She’s excited for her 6-month-old baby to cheer her on at the next one.
Quote of the Show (6:00):
“In a perfect world, if you could have any talents at any talent mix, what is the bus that you would design that you would build? How would you lay out those seats in a way that works best for your industry right now, for your company, right now for your product? And then you look at the individuals that you have that you really want to empower and enable.”
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellekwalker/
Company Website: https://belleviewconsulting.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
The grandson of a British missionary in Zambia, David Kamwana, was inspired to invent and engineer by his grandfather’s workshop. He had the tools to do everything at the workshop - from fixing his car to wiring his house.
After graduating from John Brown University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, David noticed how many students were crippled by debt but still lacked the skills to take on more than an entry-level job. He also noticed that job descriptions often fail to truly represent the requirements of a position.
After several years as a Corporate Engineer, David co-founded OneCrate with the vision of streamlining the job search process for businesses and job seekers. Phase one is to build a digitized database of job descriptions and resumes to allow AI algorithms to help with job matching. Phase two is to use the growing database to help businesses, students, job seekers, and educators map out clear career paths using real and relevant data.
Key takeaways:
- Most resumes and job descriptions are created in Word documents or PDFs and, except when and where actively posted, are out of the market and out of the flow. It’s only when a candidate actively looks for a job, and a company posts the job description that they might match up.
- There could be an outstanding candidate ready and interested but not visible to a company because the candidate has not seen the job posting. OneCrate looks to bridge that gap.
- Job boards like Indeed have started the process and provide more aim. However, there are still a lot of details on both resumes and job descriptions that are not formatted in an AI-friendly way. OneCrate improves the process with smart digital resumes and totally digitized job descriptions.
- Eventually, this digitized data will facilitate interesting predictive models that can help businesses, job seekers, and students making choices about their career paths.
- Just improving job matching is a significant step forward, but the future potential of digitizing this data is to streamline the education and training processes so that students step into the workforce with the precise skills and abilities needed by the companies who hire them.
- Companies who use OneCrate have access to a relevant, easy-to-update org chart that can be viewed and updated. Employees can contribute to their job descriptions, helping them be more accurate and robust.
Quote of the show: (15:08)
“Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, they already have internship programs that allow you to join their programs out of high school and get into a position that could pay you a quarter of a million dollars a year. They already have that. So we already know that it's possible. So imagine going down that, that path and ask that person, how much did you spend to, to get the skills that you have that are getting you paid quarter million dollars a year? And then you, you know, Compare that with somebody who goes to a four-year computer science program learns a whole bunch of different things and spends $150,000+ to get through the program and then has to start from the bottom and probably still has to be trained by the company that they're gonna work for.”
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kamwana/
Company Website: https://www.onecrate.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Dave Delaney is a speaker, author, podcast host, and leadership consultant. He uses his "Nice Method" to help companies use innovation to transform how they recruit and retain top-level talent.
Too many business leaders get preoccupied with mission success and forget about the people helping them achieve it. Dave reminds leaders that engaging positively with staff will make them happier and make team members want to stick around.
Key takeaways:
- The golden rule still matters: treat others the way you want to be treated.
- There are three keys to successfully leading people:
(1) Lead with acceptance and empathy.
(2) Actively listen.
(3) Don't fear failure.
- Free speech doesn't mean you can say anything you want to your colleagues or subordinates without consequences. Being rude or inappropriate at work will have ramifications for you.
- Keeping employees is more cost-effective than managing turnover. It costs between six and nine months of an employee's salary to replace them if they quit.
- Giving employees consistent recognition, starting with the onboarding process and continuing throughout their tenure, creates a positive workplace culture.
- Leaders should conduct "stay interviews" to find out how employees feel and what would make them happier at work.
- In-person interaction helps build a stronger work culture. Even teams that work remotely should seek out opportunities for in-person events.
- Dave's other passion is entertaining people. He is an experienced improv performer and has recently turned his talents to stand-up comedy.
Quote of the Show (20:52):
"I used to go to all these tech conferences and, or organize my own events to bring people together, and we would meet in person. And once you meet in person, the magic happens. That's when real relationships happen. That's what hugs and high fives and handshakes and human physical human touch, which actually does help scientifically, like solidify relationships. So the same can be said for in the workplace and bringing your team together."
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davedelaney/
Company website: https://futureforth.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play -https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Thursday Nov 17, 2022
Steve is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record for producing breakthrough revenue growth in brutally competitive marketplaces, having successfully helped grow seven startup companies from early stage to going public or being sold, resulting in nearly $5 billion in shareholder value.
Steve's new book, High-Velocity Digital Marketing: Silicon Valley Secrets to Create Breakthrough Revenue in Record Time, talks about how companies can maximize their marketing impact by adjusting their marketing strategy to better address who their customers are and how they make buying decisions.
Key Takeaways:
- Marketing has to focus on who your buyer is, not who you assume it is. Take the time to learn who makes buying decisions about your product.
- Companies need to have a true grasp of their customers' world. Understanding customer problems will help you present your product as the solution.
- Marketing should be bringing potential customers along a path from interest to purchase. Each marketing piece should encourage customers to move to the next step.
- The speed with which customers move along the path is marketing velocity. Faster velocity means faster sales and faster revenue.
- Providing a no-commitment point of entry into your product — like free access to a tool — changes the nature of your relationship with the customer. Your sales approach can be more consultative than persuasive.
- There is no substitute for doing hard work. Marketing and sales can't be automated. It's all about doing the work to get the results you want.
- When he's not helping professionals grow in their careers, Steve enjoys travel, food, wine, and spending time with his young grandchildren.
Quote of the show:
2:24"...what I've found, having led disruption at multiple places is hard work. And to me, the most important ingredient is realizing there's no substitute for hard work. I found that you just have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Today, for example, I was called by a venture capital firm, asking if I felt that there was room in the market for a company on the low end. And it was a very simple question, but really to answer that question fully, there would be so much hard work ahead of them. And what I found is, is that no great achievements are possible or sustained without hard work. And, and hard work is the price you'll pay for the success that you desire to achieve."
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevekahan/
Company Website: https://www.insightpartners.com/
To pre-order High-Velocity Digital Marketing: Silicon Valley Secrets to Create Breakthrough Revenue in Record Time: https://www.amazon.com/High-Velocity-Digital-Marketing-Silicon-Breakthrough/dp/1637742169
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play -https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Nov 10, 2022
Thursday Nov 10, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world of B2B sales. Companies had to scramble to shift to digital, and buying the right technology was a race against the clock. In the aftermath, companies are slowing down and reassessing their purchasing process. How can vendors score new sales in this environment?
Josh Bilow has been in B2B sales for decades. He is disrupting the status quo by asking clients to look any the big picture from a new angle.
Key takeaways:
- During COVID-19, companies were pouring money into new software solutions, but they were not the right solutions for the desired outcomes. Now sales professionals and companies are asking, "What's the desired outcome, and can this technology achieve it?"
- To be effective in B2B sales today, you must understand the product, the buyer's goals, and the industry environment as a whole. This guides your conversations with buyers so you can impact their thinking.
- Sales is like coaching. A good B2B sales professional can coach a buyer through the process of outlining outcome goals and company culture to determine the best product fit.
- Companies want to try before they buy. Demos, trials, and hands-on experiences are key to assuaging concerns about new products.
- The fears about the economy are creating instability for employees. Employees worried about looming workforce cuts are extra cautious in making buying decisions because they know a wrong choice could affect their future employment.
- Josh feels like his real job has been raising three kids. That's where he feels he's making the greatest impact.
Quote of the show (14:33):
"Holistic approach is actually very, very relevant here because it's dealing with people that are unsure of their jobs. It's dealing with companies that are unsure of their future that you're selling to, and they can be fired at any moment. They don't wanna misstep. So if they're not believing in what you sell, and they're not kind of, you're not advising them and understanding that impact, like I said before, impact, right? You're not making an impact on them. They're not gonna buy anything from you."
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshbilow/
Company: https://www.redpointglobal.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play -https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Nov 03, 2022
Thursday Nov 03, 2022
Some might say that data is the most valuable asset in business today. Information about customers and their behavior shapes every decision organizations make. Collecting data is relatively easy, but what happens once the data is collected? B2Bs are drowning in data, and processing that data into something useful is hard to do.
Today’s guest, Lars Grønnegaard, has years of experience bringing products to market. He’s watched how companies use data to drive sales and realized that there was a problem: they used the right data incorrectly.
Now he’s shaking up the B2B data market with Dreamdata, a new kind of data analysis company.
Key takeaways
- Old-fashioned sales numbers aren’t enough because 70 to 80% of the buying process happens before buyers even talk to the company. Customers prefer a self-serve model of research before they’re ready to buy. Organizations need to track what happens before the customer reaches out to sales.
- The customer journey from interest to purchase can take up to nine months. Finding out what inspires the journey and what steps customers take is critical data.
- Marketing teams today do the work that sales reps did in the past. They know the product, speak customer interest, and draw customers along with additional interactions.
- Looking at raw numbers isn’t enough to understand customer behavior. You have to apply context to the data to understand what it really means.
- Human analysis is key. Machine learning is a great tool for data analysis if you’re doing a huge number of transactions. AI doesn’t do a good job of understanding organizations that rely on fewer deals with bigger payoffs.
- Dreamdata does the work of analyzing all the key data and returning it to the client in a useful format.
- In addition to data, Lars’ current obsession is making the perfect pizza in his apartment’s wood-fired pizza oven.
Quote of the show:
26:26 "...there are outcomes at the sort of strategic level, which is prioritizing between different marketing disciplines. So, you can move investment from say, different types of paid ads into or maybe organic content. So by demonstrating that actually organic content, even though it takes longer, is also driving revenue. You can reprioritize your budget."
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larsgroennegaard/
Company Website: https://dreamdata.io/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play -https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Oct 27, 2022
Thursday Oct 27, 2022
Denny Bohs discovered project management while working for a small start-up he helped build from two to 5,000 clients. He and the team at Renteez realized that as the rental market explodes, today’s renters expect to pay digitally. However, most property management software targets large property management firms. Many owners are left without an affordable and accessible option.
In addition to creating an easy-to-use, integrated digital rent payment solution, the team at Renteez is adding the option to pay using cryptocurrency. They minted a coin to facilitate the process on the platform. Renters who choose to pay using the renteez coin will have the option to stake their rent payment and earn a return — something previously unheard of in the rental market.
Key takeaways
- The explosion of multi-family and built-to-rent properties combined with the ability to work remotely and the competitive housing market all contribute to a mushrooming rental market.
- The newer generation doesn’t use checks and expects digital payment options.
- Some landlords may own several properties, but many are smaller and independent and don’t have the software and support to manage their investments effectively.
- Many digital platforms like PayPal limit the dollar amount you can send for free. For many landlords, fees eat into profits.
- Many digital platforms also take several days to process the payments as they are transferred onto the platform and then have to be transferred into the landlord’s bank account.
- There are property management software solutions on the market, but many target larger companies or require technical expertise.
- For these and other reasons, there is a pent-up demand for landlords to have a better way to accept payments.
- Landlords with only one or a few properties who can't accept digital forms of payment are missing out.
- Renteez is creating a service that is affordable for landlords, easy to use, fast, and offers all the digital payment options that tenants want.
- In addition to standard payment options, renters can pay with cryptocurrency seamlessly using the platform.
- Renters who choose to use the coin will eventually have the option to stake their rent payment and turn their monthly rent into an investment.
Quote of the show:
11:05 “And if you're a landlord, you shouldn't have to necessarily be technically savvy in order to do what you're doing, right? So, you don't have to be, become like an expert in how all this technology works in order to do this. But some of the services that are out there, you know, they're, they're not very intuitive and people have to try to figure out how this works and it becomes a source of frustration...”
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennybohs/
Company Website: https://www.renteez.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play -https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube - https://youtu.be/pbP9a8YYHJ4
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
Bryan Daugherty, Global Public Policy Director for the Bitcoin Association, is a subject matter expert in blockchain ESG & information security, cybersecurity, commercial blockchain development, and enterprise transformation. He's also a certified cryptocurrency investigator. Bryan is responsible for informing lawmakers of blockchain and noticing technology's latest research and innovation.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about the utility of blockchain and bitcoin. While the media links them to speculative crypto markets, the combination of bitcoin and blockchain has broad implications for data security and improved commercial transaction capabilities.
Key Takeaways:
- Status quo: People misunderstand the purpose of blockchain and assume it's inexorably linked with crypto mining. The focus is on the least important aspect of this technology: the tokens. It's created a mindset that blockchain tokens are a speculative financial instrument.
- The main ingredient for disruption: We can disrupt the status quo by reverting to the initial purpose of blockchain and Bitcoin, according to the original Bitcoin White Paper by Satoshi Nakamoto. It describes an honest network that provides microtransactions and data security. The tokens are a tool to get to the underlying technology: smart contracts, automation, data integrity, data storage, and data analysis.
- Most online users don't realize that all data is vulnerable. It can change and does change. Blockchain systems provide a highly secure, resilient system for data immutability.
- Blockchain systems have stagnated because they haven't been scaled up for mass use. If the technology could reach the kind of transaction processing capacity of companies like Visa, blockchain applications could expand dramatically.
- Environmental concerns about blockchain1 would actually decrease with greater use. It takes the same amount of C02 to process a thousand transactions as it does to process 10 million transactions. The per-transaction energy cost would decrease with increased transactions.
- Using blockchain for transaction processing would provide companies with real-time data about their customers and speed up customer service improvements.
- Creators could use blockchain-empowered social media to retain verifiable, monetizable ownership of their work without a middleman application like Facebook or Youtube.
- Scalable blockchain could be an upgrade to today's internet, allowing direct verification of data, eliminating the middleman, and reducing transaction fees for consumers.
Quote of the Show 12:19
"So, you know, there's so much misunderstanding about just the technology in general. And, you know, because of that early misunderstanding of maintaining one megabit blocks,... it incentivized others to find ways to scale, you know, other ways. And so now we see that all the, all the time with the Lightning network or, you know, these off-chain solutions or moving to a different consensus mechanism. But the reality is, any of those, you know, decisions really draw back from the benefits of what blockchain or Bitcoin specifically provides, which, you know, is this very secure, resilient system for data in, you know, immutability."
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwdaugherty/
Company Website: https://smartledger.solutions/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music — https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play — https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher — https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Janell Nelson became an engineer because she enjoyed the individual nature of the work but quickly found herself drawn to leadership. She accepted the challenges of working in a male-dominated field and having few women in leadership positions she could emulate. However, when she was already an experienced and successful manager and found herself pigeonholed based solely on gender, she decided to do what she could to bring more women into STEM leadership roles.
Currently a Senior Engineering Manager at Canon Medical Informatics, Janell is active in her local community. She works with engineering and STEM programs for girls and young women at every stage of education, from elementary school to college. The future of STEM leadership and global competitiveness is in the hands of today’s students.
Key takeaways
- I’ve only had one female leader that was in the engineering side above me in my 20-year career. Changing the status quo means reaching back into the community to encourage more girls to be interested in STEM programming and showing them the career path is possible.
- Graduation rates for female engineers are around 18%, which makes it hard. There are just not that many young women right now who have a background or an interest. Those who are interested face challenges in an industry where they may have to fight harder than their peers and may not always fit in.
- Diversity is not just a matter of equality; it’s critical for global success and competition. For example, if you only employ people who live in the Midwest, you only have a very small bubble of thought patterns you’re pulling from. You can’t be a global company if you’re only focusing on how you see the world.
- If we all think the same way, we run into problems such that the AI doesn’t recognize everybody who might use it. A classic example was AI which couldn’t see the facial features of somebody who wasn’t white. That’s a problem. That’s why diversity is not optional — it’s essential.
- The soft skills that many women bring are also essential to creating connections and building teams. If you step back and look at the whole reality, it’s never just one team that builds anything. You need to connect to other teams and the rest of the business, not just within engineering but with support teams, install teams, sales teams, and marketing teams. Soft skills are a great asset to making that happen, and that helps the whole company.
- Suppose we don’t have women in leadership roles, being role models for the next generations and helping to influence how we hire and who we bring in. In that case, we will never be able to increase our diversity and increase the number of women within this industry.
- To change something as fundamental as what people want to do for their career, you make connections and go to local schools. It’s hard to do it globally. Kids resonate with people who show up for them.
- Elementary school is the most critical time because middle school kids are heavily influenced by peer pressure, and most of the kids in STEM classes are boys. The solution is to get more girls in those classes and normalize it as a choice.
- I’ve seen it work, even with third through fifth graders who were economically challenged and going through difficulties at home. The presence of an encouraging adult may be all they need to follow through on their natural abilities and talents. Students who I worked with in elementary school are now receiving academic achievement awards in middle school and following through with STEM classes.
- You don’t have to do it all yourself. An employee resource group is a change to influence your company’s direction and make a lasting impact on children’s lives and the future of our country.
- There are great companies out there building leaders. I worked at an Aetna company. The Aetna trainings helped me be the leader that I am today. They focused on building their female leaders, which helped me understand how I should be doing things.
Quote of the show:
6:23 “If you don’t have diversity in thought patterns, let’s just say we’re only going to employ people that live in the Midwest, you only have a very small bubble of thought patterns that you’re going from. And you can’t be a global company if you’re only focusing on how you see the world… That’s why you need diversity..."
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janell-nelson-6376794/
Company Website: https://www.vitalimages.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music — https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play — https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher — https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA
Thursday Oct 06, 2022
Thursday Oct 06, 2022
Emily Gabriele’s fascination with technology and love of people led her to customer success. In her work with multinational corporations, she realized the idea that the “customer was always right” could cause more harm than benefit. She also saw that, for customer success employees to succeed without burning out, they need the right kind of resources and support.
In her current position as customer success manager at Airtable, Emily helps reps get the support they need to be proactive rather than reactive. She advocates that what is best for the customer is the right solution, but not necessarily the one they think they want at the start of the call.
Key takeaways
- Great customer service includes a mixture of curiosity and listening.
- Everyone has their own unique perspective. Anytime we get into a stance of right versus wrong, we assume our viewpoint is the only valid or nuanced one. Listening and curiosity help us understand the other person’s viewpoint and more about what they truly need and want.
- No one walks away from a conversation where someone tries to understand their viewpoint, thinking, “that person really stinks because they tried to understand me.”
- Customer service reps face ridiculously high burnout rates. They need work-life balance and appropriate work boundaries to succeed long term.
- An employee’s well-being is powerfully impacted by company culture.
- Truly effective customer service includes the time and presence of mind to think proactively and reactively. Sometimes, that’s as simple as leaning into a pause.
- Customers are strategic partners to a company. Customer service needs to position itself as a strategic partner to a customer. If a customer is upset or disgruntled, it’s essential to remember that it is transitory. Of course, the same applies to a happy customer. Every interaction counts.
- Airtable offers its customer service reps supportive benefits, including mindfulness apps, professional coaching, and therapy. Reps have someone to listen to and be curious about them, just as they are to the customers. Talking about situations has also been hugely helpful in relieving stress and uncovering solutions. It strengthens the muscle they use to do their work well.
- Another way to improve employee happiness is to simplify their tools for basic and repetitive tasks, like timecards. Airtable reduces employee stress and improves their happiness by making all of those functions easy and accessible through one dashboard.
Quote of the show:
5:35 “It’s helpful to slow down to speed up. And what does that mean? Well, a customer can come to you with these fast and hard deadlines, which may not align with what you can produce or provideare capable of producing or providing in that short turnaround time. And if you go outside of your advised timeline and the customer is pushing you to do so, then maybe you end up with a band-aid fix instead of a fully functioning and appropriate solution.”
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-k-gabriele/
Company Website: https://www.airtable.com/
Emily Gabriele’s Music Website: https://www.egmusicnyc.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Amazon Music — https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption
Apple Podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755
Google Play — https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlzcnVwdGlvbmludGVycnVwdGlvbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw
Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlD
Stitcher — https://www.stitcher.com/show/disruption-interruption
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2zbLqmHtSHQ7u1V-Is8cA