Podcasts about CSM

Today's guest knows what it means to lead when the stakes are high. Nate Amidon spent 15 years guiding people and programs across the U.S. Air Force, Microsoft, Boeing, and Alaska Airlines. He's an Air Force C-17 evaluator pilot with more than 3,200 flight hours—including 800 in combat—and over 1,500 hours as an instructor teaching young pilots how to fly, make decisions under pressure, and lead crews on global missions. When he transitioned from active duty, Nate brought that same discipline into technology—consulting as a Project Manager, Scrum Master, and Scaled Agile Framework coach on enterprise software programs. He went on to found Form100 Consulting, where he helps clients apply military-tested leadership practices to build strong, high-performing teams that endure. In our conversation, Nate and I talked about how hard that transition actually was. Even with a degree from the Air Force Academy and an MBA, landing his first role at Microsoft wasn't simple—and it showed him how untapped the veteran talent pool really is. That frustration was the spark for Form100, where he now connects veterans with organizations desperate for alignment, communication, and trust. We also dug into why veterans are uniquely equipped for tech: they're trained to see the whole mission, not just their own slice. They know how to drive clarity in chaos, how to align teams across silos, and how to solve problems with urgency but also with care. Nate reminded us that in technology, speed without alignment is just drift. Veterans bring the perspective to check the vector, build relationships, and keep the team moving in the right direction. Nate holds a Management degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy, an MBA from the University of Nebraska, and certifications spanning PMP, CSM, SPC, Lean Six Sigma, and DevOps. He also continues to serve as a reservist C-17 pilot with the 313th Airlift Squadron.

O nouă ediție a Ligii Florilor începe în acest week-end cu numai 12 echipe la start, în loc de 14, din cauza reducerii bugetelor cluburilor. Deși este în reconstrucție și nu o mai are în lot pe Cristina Neagu, retrasă din activitate, CSM București se luptă din nou la titlu și la Final-four-ul Ligii campionilor. Principala rivală a CSM-ului este Gloria Bistrița. Tudor Furdui face o prezentare a noului sezon din handbalul feminin Începe Liga Florilor într-un format mai redus. Noile politici de austeritate anunțate de guvern au făcut ca unele cluburi să dispară din handbalul feminin iar unele să nu poată să evolueze pe prima scenă. Știința București și CSJ Prahova au ales să rămână în liga secundă, chiar dacă au obținut promovarea, Măgura Cisnădie a anunțat că nu mai continuă în prima ligă iar Gloria Buzău s-a desfințat încă din timpul sezonului precedent. Astfel, Federația a reluat tragerea la sorți a meciurilor din noul sezon, la start aliniindu-se 12 echipe și nu 14 așa cum ne-am obișnuit în anii trecuți. Nu se știe încă ce se va întâmpla la sfârșitul celor 22 de etape. Vor fi echipe care vor retrograda sau se va reveni la o viitoare ediție cu 14 participante? Președintele Constantin Din a văzut și partea plină a paharului în sensul că micșorarea numărului echipelor poate duce la o concentrare a valorilor și la un handbal calitatativ superior. Ținând cont de aceste aspecte din domeniul superlativului gândul ne duce automat la cea mai bună echipă din campionat și anume CSM București, care este principala favorită la câștigarea unui nou titlu, lucru normal dacă comparăm bugetul echipei primăriei Capitalei cu cel al adversarelor sale. Tigroaicele, râmase fără Cristina Neagu, retrasă din activitate, și fără antrenoarea Helle Thompsen plecată la Naționala țării sale, sunt însă în plină reconstrucție. S-a reîntors Adi Vasile care cunoaște bine clubul dar și jucătoarele cu ștate vechi. Presiunea este însă mare pe Adi Vasile, pentru că suporterii nu uită că acesta nu a calificat niciodată echipa în Final four și numai rezultatele îi vor decide soarta pe banca tehnică. Lotul este format din 21 de jucătoare cu 5 noi transferuri , internaționale cu foarte multă experiență, de văzut cum se vor integra acestea în sistemul gândit de noul antrenor. CSM va juca în prima etapă contra băimărencelor de la Minaur care vor reprezenta România în cea de  doua competiție ca valoare din handbal, European League. CSM și Gloria Bistrița în Liga Campionilor Peste numai 8 zile CSM va debuta și în noul sezon de Liga Campionilor într- o grupă de calificare din care mai fac parte Ikast, Ferencvaros, Brest, Podravka, Krim Ljubljana și Odense. Principala rivală a bucureștencelor în Liga Florilor este Gloria Bistrița echipă ce va evolua și ea în Liga Campionilor după ce a primit un wild card. Și Gloria are un nou antrenor după demiterea lui Florentin Pera care a rămas doar la Națională. Spaniolul Carlos Viver are misiunea de a construi cu lotul valoros pe care îl are la dispoziție o echipă în adevăratul sens al cuvântului, una care să se poată bate pe ambele fronturi campionat –Champions League acolo unde adversarele sunt Storhamar, DVSC Schaeffler, Metz, Gyor, Esbjerg,  Buducnost și Borussia Dortmund. Cele două echipe CSM și Bistrița s-au întâlnit deja în deschiderea sezonului, Super Cupa României, un meci spectacol în care bucureștencele s-au impus în final la un singur gol după 4 reprize de prelungiri. Gloria va juca în prima etapă împotriva lui HC Zalău una dintre candidatele la ultimele locuri alături de Galați și Târgu Jiu.  În rest, Rapid cu un lot și un staff nou va juca în prima etapă impotriva CSM Slatina o echipă care are planuri ambițioase anul acesta. Giuleștencele vor evolua și ele în European League acolo unde va fi prezentă și Corona Brașov. Revelația sezonului trecut ar fi putut evolua direct în Liga Campionilor ținând cont de locul pe care l-a ocupat în campionat, dar a ales să joace în European League, poate și din motive financiare. Corona va debuta în noua ediție de campionat contra Galațiului. Ultimele două meciuri vor fi Dunărea Brăilă – SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea, două echipe cu nume sonore în Liga Florilor și derbiul Olteniei SCM Universitatea Craiova – CSM Târgu Jiu. De văzut dacă în ciuda crizelor financiare și a reducerii numărului de echipe Liga Florilor va avea partide echilibrate și cu un nivel ridicat al handbalului.

Join us in this episode as Podcast listener J. shares about his recovery in SAA, his experience being arrested for CSM and thoughts on living amends. Also a great River analogy to being swept up into the tide of addiction.   Since suicide was mentioned in this episode, if you are in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the US by dialing 988. https://988lifeline.org   Be sure to reach us via email: feedback@sexaddictsrecoverypod.com If you are comfortable and interested in being a guest or panelist, please feel free to contact me. jason@sexaddictsrecoverypod.com SARPodcast YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn0dcZg-Ou7giI4YkXGXsBWDHJgtymw9q   To find meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area, be sure to visit: https://www.bayareasaa.org/meetings To find meetings in the your local area or online, be sure to visit the main SAA website: https://saa-recovery.org/meetings/   The content of this podcast has not been approved by and may not reflect the opinions or policies of the ISO of SAA, Inc.

On this week's episode, Brad and Eric go through all the models available for Chaos Space Marines in Warhammer 10th Edition (well… except models that aren't available for purchase on GW's website because… you know… they are probably made of 30 years old resin and are either going to get a refresh or be axed forever in next edition). Tune in to find out more about Daemon Engines and people who look more like crab than people.   POORHAMMER MERCH! https://orchideight.com/collections/poorhammer PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/SolelySingleton YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@thepoorhammerpodcast TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/poorhammer Website: https://poorhammer.libsyn.com/   RELATED TO THIS EPISODE: Every SPACE MARINE model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO6xJGBM5lY Every AELDARI model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEnL6f1dV3Y Every ADEPTUS MECHANICUS model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkEdNsHul9E   TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 First We Silk 00:42 Then We Song 01:51 Abaddon the Despoiler 04:09 Vashtorr The Arkifane 06:46 Fabius Bile 09:28 Cypher 10:17 Haarken Worldclaimer 11:07 Huron Blackheart 11:40 The Flavors of CSM 13:03 Chaos Lords 15:43 Lord Discordant On Helstalker 16:57 Daemon Prince 19:33 Warpsmith 21:03 Sorcerer and Sorc on Terminator Armour 22:57 Master of Possession 24:02 Master of Executions 25:09 Dark Apostle 25:55 Dark Commune 27:38 Cultist Firebrand 28:02 Traitor Enforcer 28:35 Cultist Mob 29:19 Legionaries 30:19 God-Specific Marines 31:50 Traitor Guardsmen Squad 32:49 Accursed Cultists 33:36 Fellgor Beastman 34:11 Chaos Spawn 34:59 Possessed 36:31 Obliterators 37:48 Chosen 38:48 Chaos Terminator Squad 40:00 Chaos Bikers 40:38 Havocs 41:43 Raptors and Warptalons 43:09 Nemesis Claw 44:01 Chaos Rhino 44:45 Chaos Vindicator 44:55 Land Raider 45:59 Chaos Predator 46:21 Noctilith Crown 46:40 Defiler 47:24 Helbrute 48:52 Venomcrawler 51:02 Forgefiend and Maulerfiend 52:54 Khorne Lord Of Skulls 54:08 Heldrake 55:50 Final Bit of Advice 57:42 Alright Audio Audience   Our Producers for AUGUST: 3D Frank A healthy ammount of piranhas airbrush video revenue that got lost in the couch Blizted_Brain BrokenReaper45 Corvus DemolitionMann Dixie Normous Drinking vodka and playing aerial gunlance just to feel something DrLace GilgameshVS iwonderhowlongittakesbeforbloodclawsaccepttheorgys Jan Geisse Jeric Foster Kiwifruitbird Le BloupBloup mistahsquiggems Mr Festastic #WheresMikesBaneblade n0rth the H3retic Nj harlan Off topic but where's the nearest Cracker Barrel, I'm eggin for a peggin ON MAH' WAY TA' STEAL A SNAZZWAGON! Pizza00100 Ratchet7989 thatmoiety The Idiot with grey knights VictorianBatman Wargame Simulator   Our Biggest Supporters: A certain grey baneblade A Pulsating Ball of Pure Energy A Suspicious Looking Guy Addoxin Adrian Franke Aetherion Collector of Slaaneshi thighs and regret Alex Fuja amdragon Amists Andreas Another hairy Sasquatch Ava Warrior Princess Ave Dominus Nuts Bigs The Purple Necron Blubbles 180 Bob Meyers Bobqer BRB gotta snazz my wagon Canuk-eh Carnuvex Chad the Frog Christopher Gargagliano Chroma Veil Colin. H Craig Judge Crazyshak48 Cube1359 Dairy Sorceror, addicted to mana potions Daniel Field5150 Darth Vergeance DasGoopy Dominick Colacicco Dylan Baker Edward Lawrence Enchantedgalaxycat Fay FlawlessOyster Freedom is only three edibles away Gathering Clouds GearOverlord Geete Hoss Hammond How are those rivets going Eric Hyena Beans HypnoticSpecter I read the Space Wolves Codex and all I got out of it was wolfwolfwolfwolfwolfwolfwolfwolf Illindi IrisHFoXRR isaac hall J3C GAM1NG James coe Jarrett DiPerna Jolyne Justin Yudichak kalex Kaydien moore Kentorb Kozak Krishna Chanamolu L'Etranger (Lukus) Lord of Chaos LSJay Madison Ramanama Malcador the Rizzler-ite Matthew Tsushima Michael Melcher Mitchell Mixolydius mmmm burnt toast Monkey218 morfiel55 Not-Gafie NotEE Omegashark Pierce forgot about changing their name as a bit for a while Protius7331 Qelan Rock roguetraderjake RossWarlock Rothana's All Terrain Tactical Enforcer Rymora saft SarahchaSauce Shaxxs pet otter Solonite Struggle_l3us The Mailman The Other Mailman Thecrusader13 TheFishboi Thrango

On this week's episode, Brad and Eric go through all the models available for Chaos Space Marines in Warhammer 10th Edition (well… except models that aren't available for purchase on GW's website because… you know… they are probably made of 30 years old resin and are either going to get a refresh or be axed forever in next edition). Tune in to find out more about Daemon Engines and people who look more like crab than people.   POORHAMMER MERCH! https://orchideight.com/collections/poorhammer PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/SolelySingleton YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@thepoorhammerpodcast TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/poorhammer Website: https://poorhammer.libsyn.com/   RELATED TO THIS EPISODE: Every SPACE MARINE model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO6xJGBM5lY Every AELDARI model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEnL6f1dV3Y Every ADEPTUS MECHANICUS model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkEdNsHul9E   TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 First We Silk 00:42 Then We Song 01:51 Abaddon the Despoiler 04:09 Vashtorr The Arkifane 06:46 Fabius Bile 09:28 Cypher 10:17 Haarken Worldclaimer 11:07 Huron Blackheart 11:40 The Flavors of CSM 13:03 Chaos Lords 15:43 Lord Discordant On Helstalker 16:57 Daemon Prince 19:33 Warpsmith 21:03 Sorcerer and Sorc on Terminator Armour 22:57 Master of Possession 24:02 Master of Executions 25:09 Dark Apostle 25:55 Dark Commune 27:38 Cultist Firebrand 28:02 Traitor Enforcer 28:35 Cultist Mob 29:19 Legionaries 30:19 God-Specific Marines 31:50 Traitor Guardsmen Squad 32:49 Accursed Cultists 33:36 Fellgor Beastman 34:11 Chaos Spawn 34:59 Possessed 36:31 Obliterators 37:48 Chosen 38:48 Chaos Terminator Squad 40:00 Chaos Bikers 40:38 Havocs 41:43 Raptors and Warptalons 43:09 Nemesis Claw 44:01 Chaos Rhino 44:45 Chaos Vindicator 44:55 Land Raider 45:59 Chaos Predator 46:21 Noctilith Crown 46:40 Defiler 47:24 Helbrute 48:52 Venomcrawler 51:02 Forgefiend and Maulerfiend 52:54 Khorne Lord Of Skulls 54:08 Heldrake 55:50 Final Bit of Advice 57:42 Alright Audio Audience   Our Producers for AUGUST: 3D Frank A healthy ammount of piranhas airbrush video revenue that got lost in the couch Blizted_Brain BrokenReaper45 Corvus DemolitionMann Dixie Normous Drinking vodka and playing aerial gunlance just to feel something DrLace GilgameshVS iwonderhowlongittakesbeforbloodclawsaccepttheorgys Jan Geisse Jeric Foster Kiwifruitbird Le BloupBloup mistahsquiggems Mr Festastic #WheresMikesBaneblade n0rth the H3retic Nj harlan Off topic but where's the nearest Cracker Barrel, I'm eggin for a peggin ON MAH' WAY TA' STEAL A SNAZZWAGON! Pizza00100 Ratchet7989 thatmoiety The Idiot with grey knights VictorianBatman Wargame Simulator   Our Biggest Supporters: A certain grey baneblade A Pulsating Ball of Pure Energy A Suspicious Looking Guy Addoxin Adrian Franke Aetherion Collector of Slaaneshi thighs and regret Alex Fuja amdragon Amists Andreas Another hairy Sasquatch Ava Warrior Princess Ave Dominus Nuts Bigs The Purple Necron Blubbles 180 Bob Meyers Bobqer BRB gotta snazz my wagon Canuk-eh Carnuvex Chad the Frog Christopher Gargagliano Chroma Veil Colin. H Craig Judge Crazyshak48 Cube1359 Dairy Sorceror, addicted to mana potions Daniel Field5150 Darth Vergeance DasGoopy Dominick Colacicco Dylan Baker Edward Lawrence Enchantedgalaxycat Fay FlawlessOyster Freedom is only three edibles away Gathering Clouds GearOverlord Geete Hoss Hammond How are those rivets going Eric Hyena Beans HypnoticSpecter I read the Space Wolves Codex and all I got out of it was wolfwolfwolfwolfwolfwolfwolfwolf Illindi IrisHFoXRR isaac hall J3C GAM1NG James coe Jarrett DiPerna Jolyne Justin Yudichak kalex Kaydien moore Kentorb Kozak Krishna Chanamolu L'Etranger (Lukus) Lord of Chaos LSJay Madison Ramanama Malcador the Rizzler-ite Matthew Tsushima Michael Melcher Mitchell Mixolydius mmmm burnt toast Monkey218 morfiel55 Not-Gafie NotEE Omegashark Pierce forgot about changing their name as a bit for a while Protius7331 Qelan Rock roguetraderjake RossWarlock Rothana's All Terrain Tactical Enforcer Rymora saft SarahchaSauce Shaxxs pet otter Solonite Struggle_l3us The Mailman The Other Mailman Thecrusader13 TheFishboi Thrango

Outline 00:00 – Intro 01:19 – Early steps: PhD journey & robotic hands 15:42 – What is a soft robot?23:35 – MIT years & models of soft robots 30:01 – Discretization & underactuation 37:21 – The regulation problem 47:01 – Pros and cons of soft robots 51:42 – The soft inverted pendulum 1:05:27 – Eigenmanifolds 1:15:22 – Physical intelligence 1:26:09 – On machine learning 1:37:49 – Embodied AI & TC on Robot Control 1:44:50 – Advice to future studentsLinks- Cosimo's website: https://tinyurl.com/mt37597k- Piaggio Center: https://tinyurl.com/muryjw5h- Pisa Robotic Hand: https://tinyurl.com/4ujtec59- Model-Based Dynamic Controller for a Planar Soft Robot: https://tinyurl.com/5a8fv3c8 - Soft Robot definition (Encyclopaedia of Robotics): https://tinyurl.com/3y2jz987 - Isidori's book: https://tinyurl.com/42254hav- CSM magazine paper: https://tinyurl.com/bd54an6x- Cosserat rod theory: https://tinyurl.com/zu73nadx - Strain function: https://tinyurl.com/y8v63ue2- Zero dynamics: https://tinyurl.com/2ezarn5e- The soft inverted pendulum: https://tinyurl.com/y4bzkkup- Templates and anchors: https://tinyurl.com/2957w6sz- Exciting Efficient Oscillations Through Eigenmanifold Stabilisation: https://tinyurl.com/yc3586y5- When Do Lyapunov Subcentre Manifolds Become Eigenmanifolds?: https://tinyurl.com/5tckw7xe- Passive walker: https://tinyurl.com/yjwwapv5- Strandbeests: https://tinyurl.com/494mfccu - Physical control: https://tinyurl.com/bdddb6ur- Morphological computation: https://tinyurl.com/an6vaahx- The Playful Machine: https://tinyurl.com/5525xys2Support the showPodcast infoPodcast website: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n84j85jSpotify: https://tinyurl.com/4rwztj3cRSS: https://tinyurl.com/yc2fcv4yYoutube: https://tinyurl.com/bdbvhsj6Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/3z24yr43Twitter: https://twitter.com/IncontrolPInstagram: https://tinyurl.com/35cu4kr4Acknowledgments and sponsorsThis episode was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research on «Dependable, ubiquitous automation» and the IFAC Activity fund. The podcast benefits from the help of an incredibly talented and passionate team. Special thanks to L. Seward, E. Cahard, F. Banis, F. Dörfler, J. Lygeros, ETH studio and mirrorlake . Music was composed by A New Element.

According to research from McKinsey, companies that invest in comprehensive training programs see 21% higher productivity and 22% higher profitability. So how can you build effective training programs that drive measurable business impact at your organization? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win-Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic are Jonathan Biebesheimer and Andy Knight, sales Enablement Managers at ServiceTrade. Thank you both for joining us. As we’re getting started, I’d love if we could just start by talking a little bit about who you are, what your background is, and what your role is at ServiceTrade. So Jonathan, if we wanna start with you.  Jonathan Biebesheimer: Yeah, sure. So thanks for having us. Here. So I’ve been in business for a little over 30 years now. Started my career owning and running technology startups, then switched over to a gig at Lexus Nexus where I was on the sales organization. I was a seller quota caring seller for a number of years, and then shifted over to sales enablement and then that led me to joining ServiceTrade about four years ago. So I’m currently a sales enablement manager, along with my colleague Andy.  RR: Amazing. Andy, I’ll pass it off to you. Andy Knight : Yeah, thank you so much Riley. Super excited to be here. I’ve been in sales in a variety of roles for about 15 years, give or take. I’ve been in enablement for about five of those years, made the shift after finding really just a lot of personal and professional fulfillment from helping people do their job better. I’m also part of the enablement team here at ServiceTrade. I’ve been here only since April of this year, so a little newer, but. A lot has happened in that time.  RR: Wonderful. Well thank you for those overviews. I think we’ve got a lot to dig into, and I know we have quite a lot to talk about today. So, Jonathan, question that I’ll start with you. Over the past four years at ServiceTrade, I know that you’ve focused on enabling your sales teams to succeed, as we all are trying to do. I’d love to know how you’ve seen the enablement function at Servicer evolve in that time, especially as AI is becoming much more prevalent in GTM workflows. JB: Yeah, so when I started the company was about half the size it was today and. One of the things that attracted me about ServiceTrade when I started interviewing was they, I could tell they had a very enablement culture. Right. They understood they were doing a lot of training, they were doing a lot of coaching. They understood the importance of supporting the sales organization, but they really had no structure or dedicated resources. Right? And so that’s what I was brought on. To help with. I had built a program in prior job, so it was kind of a rinse and repeat to some. I enjoyed it so much. Lemme do it again. And so, you know, it’s been kind of a classic, slowly over time building our program, what we’re able to deliver to the revenue organization, what things we’re involved in, what things we consult on. So it’s been kind of a slow, steady progress. I mean, we’ve obviously focused on the highest impact things. Another thing, you know, and in our team of two, I was a team of one for a while. So as a small team, I think one of the things you have to think about is just capacity. Like what do you do? How much do you do? We’ve always had kind of a good, better, best approach. You know, we always try to deliver high quality work, but we’ve got 10 things we’ve gotta do. You know, can we what? What can we deliver in those 10 areas knowing that when we have time, we’ll go back and, you know, kind of make ’em better. AI is interesting. I think it’s helped in that regard. You know, it’s helped us be able to accelerate certain things. So what I would, you know, call a quote unquote good deliverable AI can sometimes make that a good and a half or better, right? Just because of its nature. It’s also interesting, you know, I’m sure this is not unlike a lot of companies has. Definitely, I mean, it’s going so fast, but it feels like in the past few months, especially. It’s really shifted from just being kind of this fad to more of an expectation right? Across all departments, including ours. And so one of the things that Andy and I find ourselves asking ourselves a lot is we look at new projects or we talk about getting, you know, going from good to better to best thing is, you know, how can we use AI to help us there with those things? I mean, it’s fascinating where AI is gonna go. Who knows? But it’s definitely playing a larger role in, in the things that we do in a voting role. RR: Yeah, it’s definitely a big question mark, but I think, you know, technology is always one of those things that you need to work with and learn to work with, and I know that’s kind of one of the evolutions actually, that you’ve seen at ServiceTrade, which is that you played a pretty key role in the decision to invest in an enablement tool. I’d love to know maybe why you thought that technology was kind of necessary to your work, and then maybe how as you were evaluating solutions in the market, you eventually made that solution to choose Highspot. JB: So when I came in, as I said, there was really not a program per se. And so one of the things I was asked to do was just kind of observe for the, my first two weeks, kind of, you know, see what the revenue organization was doing, see what sellers were doing, see what the gaps were. It became, I, I know it was probably day three. I’m like, oh my God, this content is just, it’s a nightmare. I mean, it’s a classic. Situation where content was in like 17 different places floating around in Slack. Nothing was governed. Branding was, you know, so I kind of jotted down on my, you know, high priority list. You know, we need a content management system. So two other things I noticed. One was that, you know, when I joined the company, they were at kind of an interesting shift. They were kind of in that stage where they were from being a startup to a scale up. Right. And so there was a lot of institutional knowledge, things that were in people’s heads. And so when I came on board, the um, the volume of, of conversation in Slack just blew me away. I’m like, what are all these people talking about? And when you started to dig into it, you were realizing that sellers were asking, you know, more tenured sellers, everything about the business. And so it became very clear that that wasn’t gonna scale. And so again, a system, you know, ultimately at the, a Highspot, it was a very, I don’t wanna say easy, but it was a, a very impactful, you know, business case for me to say, look, if you guys wanna scale, you need to get this knowledge outta people’s heads. We can’t have sellers living in Slack. They need to have a place to go. The other thing that was interesting is that, you know, again, I deployed these systems in prior roles. They were enabled, but they didn’t really understand the capabilities of what enable enablement technologies could do. Right. And so when I came in, they. I don’t wanna say they were antiquated, but they, they were not as progressive as they could be from a technology perspective. And they weren’t. Even, some of ’em, we weren’t even aware of some of the other capabilities Highspot had to offer, you know, pitching for example, you know, as new things have have come out, like remix, you know, those types of concepts to me, I was like, oh, it’s. That’s table stakes and they didn’t have it. Right? So the business case for me was, again, I won’t say it was easy, but it was very well supported, creating a foundation to get, you know, content under control. Get that institutional knowledge documented, and give their sellers a leg up on competition. Right? You know, other competitors I knew they didn’t have, you know, a system like a Highspot. So if we could implement Highspot, we could not only get information better under control, but we can give our sellers, you know, more modern tools to sell against our competition. RR: Yeah, that all makes sense. I’m really excited to kind of dig into how that vision is going so far. I know we talked a little bit about content, so I’d like to switch gears a little bit and touch on training. To your point of Highspot did a lot more than maybe some of the other tools in the market. Andy, I’d love to know from your perspective, because you have quite an extensive background in sales training, as you mentioned a little bit, if you could. Walk us through some of the core components of your strategy for sales training, and then maybe, if at all, if you’re using AI in there, I’d love to know. AK: Yeah, definitely. We are, we’re using AI in, in really every facet of enablement at this point in terms of kind of the core components of, you know, sales training here at ServiceTrade and, and how we like to run things. I’m a big framework guy. I love a model. I love a framework. I love an acronym, right? So there’s a framework called addie. Those individual letters stand for analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate. That’s really at the core of our sales training here. Whenever we get a request for, you know, whether it’s a product launch or a new competitor Intel that we’re surfacing, anything along those lines. Our first step is gonna be analyzing the problem and understanding. To Jonathan’s point, what do we currently have that’s available in Highspot? What are our cross-functional partners currently saying? How can we implement a lot of the content that we already have to fold into a live training where we’re doing things like. Lectures. We’re doing things like role plays. We’re doing things like take home exercises. All of that facilitated through Highspot, so that’s a big piece of it. I have a personal framework as well. I call it my three Cs rule. Every training that we develop in design is gonna make our sellers more comfortable, more capable, and more confident, and the ways that we go about and really utilize those things and to, to Jonathan’s point, AI just makes it all so much easier. We can take. Compilations of conversations, of real conversations that our sellers are having, create scenarios using AI that are similar but not the exact same scenarios to kind of play off of. We’re able to use, you know, Highspots coaching and training capabilities to generate rubrics to say how someone should respond to an objection, how someone should position a capability to give a, a seller real time and immediate feedback on how they are responding to that. So it’s some really powerful stuff. RR: Yeah, I think we’re well on the same page. I’m also a fan of frameworks. I’m also a fan of alliteration, so I love the three Cs, the comfortable, capable, confident. That’s wonderful. Thinking about that strategy, I’d love to know how your mapping your approach to Highspot, especially knowing that you’ve recently migrated to your point, learning and coaching into the platform. So I’d like to hear from both of you how that has been going and maybe how it’s better then or different from what you’ve done in the past. JB: Yeah, I think we can tag team this. I’ll give a little bit of the history. I mean, when I came on board, they did not have a, any learning management system at all. They did have a, a master spreadsheet that was, I don’t know, like 400 rows long. It was very tactical. It was to some degree, there was almost no method of madness. It took me, there’s kind of weeks to understand what it was. It was very tactical and you know, ultimately there was. No way to track it, right? There was a wave where they were hiring dozens of people and just blind. So one of the things I did just kind of conceptually, even before we got some technology into place, was to try to reverse engineer it, right? Try to understand what the sales leaders were working towards in terms of outcomes or moments, you know, that the sellers needed to be prepared for. And that took, uh, quite a while. It’s kind of a classic thing before you introduced technology to just kind of get a step back and just wire frame this thing. Just that alone took a while and kind of culturally making that shift to get sales leaders to, to start thinking about, okay, well yeah, you could teach ’em that in week one, but you know, they’re, they’re not gonna be on a, that kind of call until week seven. So do, do we really need to prioritize it? So that was a lot of, you know, work. We did start as quietly, we did start with a different LMS at, at the beginning just because of our needs at the time and, and where the LMS was. But I say this with all honesty. I mean, even though we made that decision at that point, I made it very clear to my leader. That every time we came up renewal that I wanna reevaluate, I want training and content to be in the same platform. The reality is that, you know, the two systems kind of worked together, but they really didn’t. It was disjointed. It was a lot of cumbersome work. We didn’t have a lot of good visibility. Timing was perfect. ’cause this is where Andy came in. We finally made the decision, got buy-in to make the transition over to Highspot, and sure enough, I talked to Annie, he is like, oh, guy, I, I’ve got experience with that. I’m like, well, guess what? You’re hired. So, so Andy came in at a perfect time and then I’ll, I’ll kind of turn it over to you. I mean, you’ve been mostly involved in kind of that migration from where we were to where we’re today, so I’ll let you kind of take it from here. AK: Yeah, I mean, Jonathan said it perfect my, I think, second interview before deciding to join ServiceTrade. We talked about migrating onto to Highspot is both our LMS and our content repository, and. I’d already had green flags, and that was the final one for me. Okay, let’s do it. I’ll sign the offer today. It is a completely different experience today than what ServiceTrade was previously. We have really a centralized experience. We’ve created all of our processes and all of our training and coaching and content with that user experience in mind, we have. A really, really positive user experience. It gives us a really great opportunity to get insight into things that are and are not working. It gives us just that one stop shop. All roads lead to Highspot, however you wanna say it. Everyone knows that everything they need to do their job effectively lives with high. RR: Amazing. Well, I love that kind of serendipitous story of how it worked out so well for you guys. I’m also very happy that you’re able to escape the spreadsheets. It sounds like it’s going really well. I know one of the initiatives that you guys are focused on has been kind of defining what good looks like for your sales team. Andy, can you tell us a little bit about that initiative and then how you. Build that. What good looks like into your programs? AK: Yeah, Riley definitely. So it’s an ongoing program for sure. I think that is one thing that I’ll be working on forever. I think people will always want to understand what sellers are doing that are helping them be successful. What techniques are they employing? What content are they utilizing? Things like that. I’m a big basketball guy, Riley. I am an elder millennial, so I think that LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan. And I always say that people want to be LeBron James. They want to understand who is the LeBron of ServiceTrade, how can I emulate those behaviors, those attitudes, those practices, things like that. And there really is so much value in learning from each other versus learning from enablement. We are a really important function, and we do provide a lot of really valuable information, but at the same time, we’re not in the seats that our sellers are, and we don’t have that experience that they do. So as much value as I can provide as a coach. A player coach can provide even more value and deployed in the right way. So from my perspective, Riley, the how we build these programs and what we’re really focused on doing is finding things like the internal collateral that are our top performers are, are constantly referencing, right? We’re finding examples of calls where they’re handling a tough objection really, really well. We’re finding those examples of behaviors that we want people to emulate through things like enabling mutual action plans through using digital rooms, things like that, and it’s really about providing the space for our teams to have those conversations and making sure that. They know that they’re empowered to share things that are working well and to be the LeBron to be that coach for other people. And so it’s an ongoing initiative. We’re certainly not done. We do a lot of things with like peer showcases, for example. If we get a really good deal, we have a really tough client, a really, really powerful proposal template deck that was used, we’ll share that out. We want that shared. We want people to know not only that it exists, but we wanna celebrate the wins with our teams and highlight those sellers that are really performing really well. RR: Yeah. I love that you’re. Building so intentionally with their needs in mind and recognizing that maybe it’s not a top-down mandate of here’s what you need, but rather how can I help you be your best? JB: And kind of back to the question of shifting and having content and training and coaching and everything Andy talked about all on platform is just been, I mean, it’s been a day we’ve been waiting for, right? You know, how can we wrap? Guidance. How can we wrap success just in one page or play or whatever, you know, whatever, however we surface it. Just being able to create that world around any given topic has just been huge for us. And it’s, it helped a lot of sellers. I mean, one of the challenges I think everyone has is just getting sellers to connect dots, right? And so we, you teach ’em a concept and they’re like, okay, I get it. Well, do you really? And then they hear another seller, you know, have a call and like, oh, okay. Right. And so we’re, we’re able to join more of those moments. In Highspot, which has just been huge for us. RR: You know, that actually ties in pretty well to the next question I had for you actually, which is, you know, thinking of creating that unified experience. I’d love to know maybe how that’s helping you foster a culture of continuous learning and motivating your sales teams to continue enhancing their skills, continue developing their knowledge over time. I know that’s never easy, but it seems like maybe this is helping it be a little bit easier. JB: Yeah. To me, the, the, you know, you’re right, Andy’s got more experience in kind of a learning coaching world that I do. But one of the things that I’ve learned from him since he’s been on, and, and the further I get into it, I’ve tried to get more in tune with, I mean, yes, you need to create these programs, but I’ve been trying to think more about, uh, just individual, like what is their definition of achievement? What is their definition of, of success? Right? And I’ve recognized over my career, it could be very different from seller to seller to seller. Right. There’s some sellers that are very monetarily motivated. There’s some sellers that are very, you know, have a certain status in the company. There’s others that just, they want to be good coaches. Right? And so, one of the things I’ve personally tried to do is through courses we create, or courses that I’m involved in, is, is try to make that connection with the learner. Sometimes even flat out asking like, you know, what are you hoping to get out of this? Just have them say, well, I, I’d really like to be able to do blah, whatever that is cool. That’s why you’re here as a, you know, a teacher or as a coach, that’s what I’m gonna help you do. The other thing that I’ve always tried to do it is a little bit more. In the things that I deliver, but I think I approach learning in this way, making it accessible. To sellers, I think is really important, right? Giving ’em a space to feel comfortable, to be vulnerable to, you know, to make mistakes. I mean, I did a a week long training where half of my stories were about like my failures, right? And it’s all kind of weird. But again, we had some junior sellers, some sellers at first sale job outta the gate, letting ’em understand, look, you’re gonna make some mistakes. It’s okay. 55 years old, I haven’t dropped off the face of Earth yet. Like, but you’ll learn from ’em, right? And giving sellers that space in that session, as soon as I started talking about that, sellers would open up a little bit more and they, and they, they’d start sharing their stories, not just all the negative, but you know, here’s what I learned, kind of making the environment comfortable. To learn and grow and just keeping people focused on, look, this will help you by whatever definition of success or achievement you have. That’s why we’re here. RR: Amazing. Andy, anything you would wanna add to that one? AK: No, I, I would just say that that last piece about making learning accessible to different learners at different stages is so important and we’re doing. Constantly evolving how we deliver training as well. Whether it is like a live virtual session, whether it is, you know, that just in time training through Highspot, short little micro explainer videos, things like that. Being able to meet people where they’re at, I think is a big piece of that. RR: Gotcha. Well, it certainly seems like you guys are doing the right things. Um, looking at the numbers, I can see that you’ve already achieved a really remarkable 93% recurring usage of the platform and are seeing some pretty early wins with training in Highspot. So Andy, I, I’d love to know from your perspective, how are you driving that adoption? What are some best practices you can share with our audience? AK: Yeah. You know, Riley, it’s so funny you say that, that 7% actually is the thing that bugs me. I want a hundred percent so bad. Um, we’re, we’re really proud of that number though. We, we joke with Kayla and Chris, our CSM team all the time that we do want it to be at a hundred percent. I, I think I said it earlier, we’ve created this feel here that all roads lead to Highspot. Everything that, that anyone needs to do their job effectively, they’re gonna be able to find that. And I think the thing that made that most impactful here is not just that it was myself and Jonathan, the enablement team sharing that information, but we made it a point really early on in this sort of Highspot adoption phase to get buy-in from our executive sponsorship as well. We wanted our CRO to understand why we’re investing in this tool, what it means for us. What it means for our sellers, what it means for him as an executive. So getting that executive buy in early on really helped to spread the message internally really organically that this tool is going to be very powerful for these different reasons, for these different audiences, and being able to really kind of customize and tailor. The solution of Highspot has made that adoption so high. We are really pushing again to get it at a hundred percent. We’d love to see that if, if it even is possible. But again, it’s, and being able to prove and hear from people that they find what they need, they’re using like instant answers in Highspot, for example, getting that AI response from content that we’ve uploaded into Highspot. Really powerful stuff, and so just sellers using it and being able to see it for themselves, I think is the final piece of that. RR: Thinking of other future goals, especially knowing Andy that you came in kind of to run this show, a little bit of this transition to training in Highspot, I’d like to know if you could share how you plan to measure success of this new training rollout, and then maybe a little bit from both of you what you’re hoping to achieve now that you have everything consolidated in the platform. AK: Yeah, definitely. So in terms of measuring success, I mentioned frameworks. Another one, a Kirkpatrick Model of evaluation is something that a mentor of mine from my previous role has, has really just ingrained in, into, to my brain. Essentially it looks at four different levels of responsiveness to training. The first being a, a reaction. It’s like a survey. Did you like the training? The second being learning, that’s typically like a quiz something or an assessment following a session, then into behavior. That’s is the, the seller, the individual contributor, applying that into their role. Finally, it’s the results. Are we seeing the action, you know, the, the results from that action, the business impact, things like that. So that’s our model. That’s how we evaluate things. We do pre and post session surveys. How do you feel about. Doing a podcast before the podcast, now that you’ve done the podcast, how do you feel now? Right? Things like that to capture the pre and post training lift. We also look for, obviously, the learning results assessments. Are we completing these, number one, and are we completing them to pass at a certain score? And then we’re looking into, you know, obviously how that impacts sellers going to market, speaking to customers. Even internally, how they’re sharing their best practices, things like that. So in the future, I mean, especially with, you know, digital rooms, that’s been a big push for us. The past couple weeks. We’re gonna see a lot more Highspot speaking to business impact, which is I think the thing that maybe we’re missing right now, that last piece of the Kirkpatrick evaluation model. So from a future state, that’s the thing I’m really, really excited about. JB: Yeah, I’ll agree. I think to date a fair bit of our focus has just been on utilization. Just get people into, and maybe a few months ago we were on with our CSM team and they were talking about where you want to go. And we realized, you know, now we have people here in Highspot. Now how are they using Highspot? Are they using it well? How can they use it better? And to Andy’s point, our feedback today has been anecdotal. And so we’ve got the enterprise, I think it’s, what’s that? Enterprise Plus platform or the data lake. Um, so we’ve got means and APIs, the future state is gonna start aligning it. I know you’ve have really some of those business outcomes. Those are the things that we’re gonna start looking at, right? So it’s great, you know, to any point a seller goes through course check ace, the role play check. Okay, now what does that mean in the real world? How, how did it affect his quota? How did it affect, uh, you know, the deal size? All of those things are, are where we’re hoping to go next. You know, with, with a lot of the things that we’re looking at. RR: Yeah, I’m curious to know too, then thinking just of in that future state and the plans that you guys are laying, I’d like to know both of your thoughts on kind of the role that you see AI playing in these ongoing evolutions. To your point of, you know, you never fully reach good. You’re always on a course towards it. So how do you see AI helping you get to those better training and coaching programs? Uh, Jonathan, I’ll kick it over to you first. JB: Yeah. This is Sunday. Andy and I talk about a lot. As we get more into it, I mean, everyone’s learning. One of the things that we’re trying to understand is AI can do a lot. And so one of the questions is, you know, what can an AI do? And then the next question we’re asking ourself almost more is, what should AI do? There is another, a lot Annie talk about. There’s another thing that we’re, we’re starting to see as it relates to AI versus our, our, our sales leaders. Andy, do you wanna talk about that a little bit? AK: Yeah. So one sort of big thing that we’ve been looking to tackle Riley is call coaching and, and being able to take this huge number of calls, minutes, hours of conversation and identify what of that should be coached, that, how to coach to it. So as a part of that, we’ve. Recently in partnership with our Rev ops team, developed essentially a, a scorecard tool that rates and reviews every call over a certain threshold time amount that our sellers partake in, and they get an, an automated scorecard every day of all of their calls from the previous day. Some really incredible insight from that, some amazing data to parse through that and, and surface that for, for coaches and for managers. But the important piece to Jonathan’s point is, is then the human element of taking that output from ai. And incorporating that feedback, understanding the context of a conversation, the context of a deal, the experience of a seller, things like that, and provide that sort of human emotional element to the AI output. That’s where I think is, is like the biggest next step for us and how we want to move forward. How can we use AI as a way to facilitate and make things like call review and call coaching efficient versus completely replacing it? Is you need that human emotional aspect to still provide that co coaching context. So it’s to Jonathan’s point, kind of marrying the two together, if that makes sense. RR: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s so important to take that kind of intentional, really thoughtful approach of, yes, there’s so much possibility here, but how can we use things in a way that really benefits our sellers? So I love that you guys are taking that angle on it. Moving from kind of future state to where we are now. I’d love if you could share any business results. Wins, things that you’re really proud of that you’ve achieved recently. Anything you could share with our audience? AK: Yeah, I’ll, um, I’ll take one. So, as you noted earlier, ri I’m pretty new to the role. I’ve been a large part of like, onboarding and, and moving things into Highspot. Um, we were able to reduce the time of our onboarding. It was between five and six weeks, depending on the role, all the way down to three to four weeks, depending on the role. Just from incorporating Highspot. We don’t have that disjointed. LMS and content repository experience anymore. Again, just having everything in one place has allowed us to reduce that time to get a new seller on the phone, which we’re hoping eventually will lead to reduced time to ramp, increased profitability, higher average deal size, all those things that we’re looking for for success metrics. But we’re really proud of the work that Highspot Hass been able to help us do just from an onboarding standpoint so far. JB: Yeah, and as I mentioned, it’s, this is another area where we’re still somewhat anecdotal, but I’ll, I’ll add to that. I mean, we are seeing in the evidence of just like Slack messages, you know, reps booking demos faster than any reps we’ve ever hired, you know. First deal close, first demo, whatever it is. Some of those moments, we’re seeing those much, much faster than we’ve seen in the past. One of the things that we saw, we were looking at one of the newer business outcome scorecards on, I think it was a play, and we pulled it up and, and, and I kind of looked at it for a minute and the, the light bulb went on for us. We’re like, wait a minute. The highest users of this play, this cannot be a coincidence. The highest, highest users of the plays were our top performers for that quarter. Right. And so again, we just kind of bumped into that and that’s why we’re so excited about kind of taking this next step towards just better analytics and understanding and, you know, all that kind of good stuff. But it was, to some degree, it was, it was, you know, it was cool to see and, and very kind of reassuring that our hypothesis was right. You know, the tool is designed to do certain things and the things that you say it does, it does it. And oh yeah. By the way, if you’ve used it and you use it really well and you use it often, you’ll be successful as your job. RR: Amazing. Well, I know we’ve talked about a lot. So I’ll close this out with a, hopefully a simple question. So for each of you, if you could share one, maybe two key lessons you’ve learned from your experience, building effective training, coaching enablement programs, what would it be? AK: Yeah, so I’ll, I’ll give you kind of two answers. RiIey, the only framework that I haven’t been able to mention today that I did want to also bring up, that’s pretty funny, right. Uh, I love action mapping. It’s a part of the ADDIE framework that I mentioned earlier in the analyze portion. This is really early on when someone comes to you and they say, Hey Riley, we need training on X, Y, Z. Getting into and really understanding that problem from an action mapping perspective, which means what is the ultimate end result that someone needs to do? Okay, now what practice activities will inform that action? What information is needed to inform those activities to lead to that action? And then the, ultimately the business goal from that, if you start with that, if that’s your first conversation. Outside of, you know, who needs to be involved in this project? Nine times outta 10, you’re gonna get a really, really good end result, and you’re gonna have a really, really powerful enablement motion. And then my last piece, I think this is probably more important, is to just always lead with empathy. It can be really easy in this seat to just focus on enablement, but we have to remember that our clients or our sellers, what we’re doing really exists to serve them and to help them do their jobs better. And so leading with that understanding and just being empathetic towards what they’re doing on a daily basis, and to your point, how can we make that easier for them? What can we do that’s gonna make their lives better doing that? RR: Amazing. Jonathan, I’ll pass it over to you. JB: I think the thing I’ve come to realize is probably the most important is, is making sure sellers are learners or whoever understand the why. Right. Not just from a training itself, like these little learning objectives, but as they go through any given training in whatever shape and form, do they truly understand the why? Why is it important that you’re talking about this thing? Why is it important that you’re asking this question? Why is it important that you’re listening for this thing? What I see a lot is that sellers will go, especially junior ones, you, the more tenured you get, start to get a little better. There’s a lot of the junior sellers, you can just tell that they’re not in their heads. And then you hear ’em on calls. They’re not coming from a place of conviction. They’re not coming as a, you know, to some degree, a business coach to these prospects who’ve never bought software like ours before and need that kind of help, right? They’re not comfortable asking challenging questions, right? Because they don’t understand the why. RR: I think that’s fantastic advice and I think it’s really great advice to close on. I gotta say thank you, both of you for joining us. This has been a really wonderful conversation and I’m sure our listeners will agree. JB: Well, thank you for having us. We really appreciate it. AK: Yeah, thank you, Riley. This has been awesome.  RR: To our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win-Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement’s success with Highspot.

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Are you stuck chasing new clients while ignoring the goldmine in your past customer list? Does your agency feast on projects but starve for predictable revenue? Today's featured guest knows what it's like to hit a growth ceiling and being tired of the one-and-done client hamster wheel. He shares how he pivoted his agency after becoming a HubSpot partner, why he turned to project-based work after customer habits changed following the pandemic, and how he got out of the dreaded “no man's land”. Eric Baum is the CEO and founder of Bluleadz, a HubSpot Onboarding and Implementation Agency dedicated to transforming the way companies market, sell, and service their customers through the power of the HubSpot platform. He'll discuss his cash flow challenges, pricing mistakes that almost tanked the business, and how EOS helped him escape “no man's land.” If you're stuck in the fulfillment hamster wheel or scaling past $5M feels like pushing a boulder uphill... listen up. In this episode, we'll discuss: Reinventing his agency as a HubSpot partner. The real scaling struggle: cash flow. Why project-based doesn't mean profitless. Strategic partnerships are the future. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service. Accidental Founder, Intentional CEO Back in the Yellow Pages era, Eric was running two service-based franchises and needed a better way to market them. He brought marketing in-house for PPC, SEO, web dev, and that hire didn't just turn things around. It turned into a new business. Fast-forward a few months, and other franchise owners across the country started asking for help. Eric spun that in-house team into an agency, and had 50 clients out of the gate. As many owners before have admitted to, Eric started out charging way too low—$250 to $500/month. “I don't know how I didn't go broke right out of the gate,” he laughs. And if you've ever undercharged in the early days, you'll feel that one deep in your soul. Reinventing the Agency (and Himself) Around HubSpot The turning point came when Eric discovered HubSpot and pivoted Bluleadz to become a certified partner. That's when the “real” agency began, as he started to study the industry and figure out what he had to do to be profitable, take care of his team, and do it without necessarily doing all the sales work all the time. From there, Eric leaned into strategy, profitability, and systems. He stopped trying to be the everything guy and started building an agency that didn't need him in the trenches every day. Fifteen years later, his agency isn't just thriving. It's structured, profitable, and on track to hit 8 figures. Life in “No Man's Land” – The $1M to $5M Plateau After fifteen years in the industry and getting closer to the eight-figure mark, one of the things that most surprised Eric was getting stuck in the ugly middle: the zone between $1M and $5M where a lot of agency dreams go to die. Many call it “no man's land,” and if you've been there, you know the pain. “It was up, down, up, down,” he says. “I'd grow, then lose key employees. Revenue would spike, then tank. I kept asking, ‘What am I doing wrong?'” The answer: a lack of structure. So about nine years ago, Eric implemented EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System). That gave his agency the foundation it needed—vision, accountability, and a cadence to scale. It didn't fix everything overnight, but it got the business out of reaction mode and into growth mode. The Real Scaling Struggle: Cash Flow Even with all that success, Eric's biggest constraint today isn't clients or talent. It's cash. In the agency world, sometimes you can grow so fast that you can actually outpace your ability to fund it. As Eric explains, “Receivables stack up. You can't hire, build, or invest without the cash reserves in place to hit the down terms.” For instance, just this year his agency was down 20% compared to last year because of all the uncertainty for businesses. Sound familiar? So far, Eric's solution has been airtight payment terms. They moved away from waiting on client deliverables and toward milestone-based billing. They typically charge: 50% upfront 25% after month one 25% at month two or fixed date Not based on deliverables. Based on time. Why? Because waiting on clients kills momentum (and your margin). “We used to wait months to get that final 50%. Now we're often 100% paid before a project is even done.” Moral of the story? Set clear terms and stop letting clients hold your agency hostage. Project-Based Doesn't Mean Profitless If You Structure It Right Five years ago, 85% of Bluleadz's revenue came from retainers. Then COVID hit. Buying behavior shifted fast. Clients wanted results without long-term commitments. So Eric pivoted hard into project work—today, 80–85% of their revenue comes from one-off HubSpot onboarding and implementation projects. That means 50–75 new customers per month, each on 30 to 90-day timelines. The lesson: project-based doesn't have to mean chaos - if you systemize delivery and payment. However, Eric does admit he and his team had been failing to recapture clients for a second or third project. “We were just focused on getting new clients through the door.” Instead of nurturing clients post-delivery, they handed off the project and moved on. Meanwhile, past clients drifted—only to come back a year or two later in total chaos saying, “We lost our HubSpot guy. Can you help?” The opportunity cost was massive. They are currently working on recapturing these relationships. By reselling past clients, his agency could double or triple revenue in a year. The Triple-Team Model: Sales, CSM, Implementation In their efforts to start creating more lifetime value for customers, Eric's agency introduced Customer Success Managers (CSMs)—not just to check in, but to hunt for value. CSMs dig into each client's needs post-project, surface upsell or cross-sell opportunities, and feed them back to the sales team. Now they're farming the base, increasing LTV, and stacking wins without chasing cold leads. This third new role adds a new layer to his team's structure, which he now breaks down as: Salespeople close net-new deals and join key milestone calls.           Implementation Specialists own delivery and are the client's main point of contact. CSMs sit above delivery, watching for success gaps, retention issues, and upsell opportunities. “Salespeople are hunters, not farmers. Trying to make them farm didn't work. So we changed the model.” This layered structure gives clients clarity, keeps teams focused, and ensures no growth opportunity slips through the cracks. Strategic Partnerships Are the Future Another key reason Bluleadz is scaling so quickly is partnerships. They're one of HubSpot's top onboarding partners, and at one point this partnership drove most of his agency's net new leads. More recently, however, as they start to expand their efforts to engage past clients, only 40% of their leads come from HubSpot, while 30% comes from existing customers, and another 30% from their inbound marketing efforts, other strategic partners, and referrals. This makes for a more balanced pipeline: “Inbound, outbound, and strategic partnerships”. Those are the three pillars in the Playbook. You've got ‘em dialed in. As for Eric, he's all in on strategic partnerships, which he considers to be the way of the future. The One Thing Eric Would Do Differently If he could go back and give his younger self advice on agency ownership, Eric would say “Let go faster.” He held on too long to sales, finance, client services… all of it. And every time he finally let go, the agency grew again. Today, Eric has zero departmental responsibilities. His job is vision, strategy, and leadership—and it's paying off. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

This week we are doing our very best just to make it through this episode intact while we regrettably discuss “My Struggle III”! We're talking the episode titles reflecting our increasing struggle to watch these, CSM name drop without any forewarning, Chris Carter's “Secret Science” AMA, Mulder becoming a noir detective out of nowhere, and how this whole apocalypse thing was just one big joke. We get really excited about the possibility of Scully transmitting brain morse code, wonder when exactly we ended up in a Ford commercial, get excited about Spender's brief return, and really struggle (ha!) to recap the last five minutes of this episode. We are getting Scully out of here if it's the last thing we do!Send us an email at scullynationpod@gmail.com or follow us on Instagram!

跟大家分享今年最新發表的CPG: 旋轉肌肌腱病變 (Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy) 這次主要分享的內容是關於評估檢測的臨床指引 也有今年CSM上作者演講的相關補充 快點連結在自己喜歡的平台收聽：https://linktr.ee/2PRO_PT 歡迎到Facebook, Instagram追蹤或來信來訊跟我們互動～ Email: 2propt@gmail.com Reference: Desmeules F, Roy JS, Lafrance S, et al. Rotator Cuff Tendinopathy Diagnosis, Nonsurgical Medical Care, and Rehabilitation: A Clinical Practice Guideline. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2025;55(4):235-274. doi:10.2519/jospt.2025.13182 Music by Elizabeth's Groove by Amarià @amariamusique Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/elizabeths-groove Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/-MO-mrBlo5

Episode No. 718 features artist Masako Miki and artist/curator Katherine Simóne Reynolds. The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco is presenting "Midnight March," a far-ranging presentation of Miki's two-dimensional and three-dimensional practice. The Japanese-born Miki's paintings, sculptures, and installations live between the sacred and the secular. Her often exuberant sculptures are rooted in the blending of Japanese and US cultures. Her previous solo shows have been at museums such as the de Young Museum, San Francisco, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, and the ICA San José. Her work is in the permanent collections of BAMPFA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and more. Reynolds is the curator of "Held Impermanence (Artists Select: Katherine Simóne Reynolds)" at the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver. The exhibition uses the museum's art collection and archive to consider multiple competing desires, including Still's and the desires of art institutions, such as the unknown future museum to which he directed his art and archive be entrusted. Reynolds is an artist and curator who investigates emotional dialects and psychogeographies of Blackness. Her previous exhibitions have been at venues such as SculptureCenter, New York, Counterpublic 2023, St. Louis, and the Stanley Museum of Art, University of Iowa. As mentioned on the program: The CSM's gallery booklet. Instagram: Masako Miki, Tyler Green.

Customer success professionals are often thrown into the deep end. They are told to act like trusted advisors, which includes driving adoption, building relationships, or uncovering growth opportunities without being given clear instructions or training on what to do.That's why I wrote The Strategic Customer Success Manager — and why I joined a recent webinar with CS Insider to provide some assistance to CSMs. We mainly focused on how to build more trusted relationships with clients and colleagues, and this post distills the key takeaways from that session. It will help you move from task manager to trusted advisor.You're operating as a task master and not even realizing itLet's get real: If your day is filled with sending “just checking in” emails, logging product bugs, or reacting to renewal reminders, you're operating as a task manager.A trusted advisor, on the other hand, earns a seat at the strategic table. Their customers typically don't ignore their messages or meeting requests. Why? Because they bring insights, not just unstructured agendas.The trusted advisor starts with the customer's business, not just their product usage.Three Ways to Uplevel Your Role1. Start with the Company, Not the ProductTypical CSMs say:“I noticed you haven't used Feature X.”Strategic CSMs ask (a Bob London disruptive question):“If your leadership team were sitting around a table, what's the number one priority they would be discussing?”The difference?By trying to understand your customer's business and internal pressures, you position yourself to tie product capabilities directly to business outcomes. And that's where value lives.2. Focus on Impact, Not Just AdoptionAdoption is typically a vanity metric - it doesn't tell the whole story. Just because users are logging in doesn't mean you're making a difference.Ask yourself:* Are we solving the problem they hired us to solve?* Is our solution affecting their key KPIs?* Can they prove ROI internally?Better yet — help them prove it. At Siena, we created an ROI calculator to show savings and outcomes tied directly to our solution. Customers took it and ran straight to their execs with it. It made renewal a non-issue.3. Be Customer + Company CentricBeing customer-centric is a foundational element of being a customer success professional. But being customer and company-centric takes you to another level to the strategic layer.This means:* Bringing well-framed feature requests to the product team, not just a wishlist.* Saying “no” the right way — with alternatives and rationale.* Understanding your company's priorities so you can balance the two worlds.Your product team, sales team, and execs will trust you more. And your customers? They'll thank you for helping them see the big picture. You just need to communicate this in the right way (I go into this more in chapter 17 of the book).Building Trust: The Real DifferentiatorTrust is the foundation of strategic customer success. And it doesn't just come from solving tickets.Here's what it does come from:* Disruptive questions: Ask questions that make you and your customer a bit uncomfortable. In the webinar, I share a story where I ask the question, “Is there anything you hoped I'd ask but didn't?” This leads to an outpouring of information from the customer that helped us secure a two-year renewal.* Extreme ownership: Take responsibility when SNAFUs occur - don't place blame. The customer doesn't care who caused the issue. They just want it resolved. Focus on that and get away from the blame game. Do you really think someone intended to mess up? Probably not. In addition, don't throw other departments under the bus.* Vulnerability: Saying “I need help” — to your colleagues is OK. Asking for assistance isn't demonstrating weakness. It's showing that you're strong enough to admit that you can't handle everything on your own. Being vulnerable also means letting your clients know more about who you are as a person. When you do this, they will do the same and it will deepen your relationship.* Consistency: Follow through on what you commit to. Words are words until you act. If you fail to follow up or show up consistently, you damage trust.* Candor + Care: Saying no, kindly but firmly, when needed. If you've built a strong relationship with your clients, built on value and trust, you've earned the right to push back from time to time. It's not about your customers liking you - it's about achieving their business outcomes. Sometimes the answer is “I'm sorry, but we just can't do that”.You're not their buddy. You're not their therapist (ok, maybe you are). You're their partner. That's what being strategic means.Your Personal Roadmap to Becoming StrategicYou don't become a trusted advisor overnight. Just like your product has a roadmap, you need one too.Start here:* Pick one challenging question (e.g., “From 1–10, what are the chances you'd renew tomorrow?”).* Practice it. Use it with 3 clients this month.* Review responses with your team. What worked? What didn't?* Layer in more strategic techniques from there.And always bring a “golden nugget” to every call — a story, insight, feature, or piece of data that adds unexpected value.Final Thought: It's Not a Title — It's a MindsetBecoming a strategic CSM isn't about waiting for a promotion or new role. It's about how you show up right now.Ask better questions. Prepare deeper insights. Balance your customer's needs with your company's goals. And never forget: you are the differentiator.Let's make “strategic” the new standard.Here is the full video from CS Insider and feel free to ask me questions here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chadhorenfeldt.substack.com

Deputatul USR Stelian Ion critică la RFI declarația șefei CSM, Elena Costache, privind pensiile speciale ale magistraților. Ea a afirmat la Digi24 că o pensie de 11.000 de lei i se pare mică. Stelian Ion, despre pensiile speciale ale magistraților: ”Nu cred sub nici o formă că este o conspirație națională la adresa magistraților, nu simt lucrul ăsta”. Despre declarația șefei CSM privind pensiile speciale: ”Mi se pare scandaloasă și mi se pare că a făcut un mare deserviciu sistemului judiciar, magistraților, în general. Cred că dacă ar fi fost plătită să facă un astfel de deserviciu, nu i-ar fi reușit atât de bine”. Despre un eventual referendum care să vizeze eliminarea pensiilor speciale, cerut de comunitatea Declic: ”Este o chestiune pe care o cunoaștem deja. Societatea românească vrea desființarea pensiilor speciale, nici nu mai e nevoie de referendum, știm lucrul ăsta, cred că suntem cu toții conștienți”.

OP Labs releases the OP Kona rollup node.  ChainLink introduces State Pricing. Lido discloses a CSM vulnerability. And Privacy Pools supports wstETH. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/753 Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.

According to research from Gartner, 77% of sellers report that they struggle to complete their assigned tasks efficiently. So, how can enablement help cut through the noise and maximize rep efficiency to drive business results? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win-Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Kim Engebretson, manager of sales enablement at Protegrity. Thank you so much for joining us, Kim. We’re super excited to have you here. As we get started, I’d love if you could just run us through yourself, your background and your role. Great. Thanks Kim Engebretson: Riley. I’m happy to be here and excited as well. So, as you mentioned, I’m the manager of sales enablement at Protegrity. Which is a data-centric security company, which is part of the cybersecurity industry. I’ve actually been in sales ops and enablement for more than 25 years of my career over a host of different industries, most of which was in medical devices than telecommunication, and that ultimately brought me here to Protegrity. But I would have to say that my earliest career back in aerospace and defense really contributed to my love of sales enablement because I learned about manufacturing processes, project management, and I always take that lens of a process when I bring it to looking at a sales process to say, can we refine it? Is it the most efficient? Are there things that we can do? So always using a continuous improvement mindset. So it’s really been fundamental in how I approach most of my sales enablement projects. RR: Amazing. Thank you for that background. I love the thorough experience that kind of leads you to where you are today, and it’s part of the reason that we’re super excited to have you today is you bring a really well-informed perspective to the table and looking at your background, it’s clear that you have extensive experience, not only as an enablement leader, but in all of the different skills that make a strong enablement leader. So as the enablement landscape has kind of continued to evolve over the years, I’m curious how you’ve seen. The challenges go to market teams face evolve, and then maybe what you’re seeing is the most pressing today. KE: Yes. Well, as I mentioned, with having a pretty long career thus far, I’ve come through a couple major milestones. The introduction of the internet, digital transformation. I mean, I was in sales enablement when people had to call in a paper order was processed. So as you can mention, this is a big evolution that we’ve moved to such automation, such efficiency, and so from a go to market perspective, sales hasn’t changed. From the standpoint that a seller must know their product and service, they must bring value to the table so that the customer really perceives them as adding value and being a consultant, being a partner, and making the right business decision. But what has changed dramatically, even in the last five years and is continuing to move at an amazing pace, is that buyers don’t really wanna engage with the seller until it’s much further along in the process. So the buying cycle is still a pretty long period of time, but the sales cycle when the customer and the seller engage is really much further down the pipeline than it normally was. So from a go-to market perspective, our sellers have to know that and know what assets, what webinars, what podcasts, what materials has the prospective customer engage with through their self discovery. And it really precedes ai. But this desire to say, let me educate myself in what’s available before I start talking to a prospective vendor. And from that standpoint. When we do have that first engagement, it’s got to be solid. It’s got to be really a opportunity where we distinguish ourselves from the other vendors that that prospect or customer might be thinking about talking to. RR: Yeah, I think that’s certainly a common challenge that a lot of businesses are seeing, and I think that need to be agile, to be effective, to be efficient in that moment where you’re allowed as a seller, to have that first touch with a buyer is so crucial. I know that kind of as a solution to that. Sales efficiency is kind of a key priority for you. So can you maybe talk us through why sales efficiency is a priority and then how you’re focusing on that and what initiatives you’re using to help you achieve it? KE: Sure. So understanding the prospect. So we have a really strong demand gen organization that is trying to provide leads or prospective leads to our sales team, but that still requires that our sellers really get to know again, who that company is. What industry are they working in? Who are the decision makers? There’s a considerable amount of research and data accumulation that has to take place so that, again, when that seller has that first opportunity, that phone call, that business meeting, that they come prepared. And I believe that customers also expect. That individual to come already knowing quite a bit about them, because again, we work under this kind of accelerated cycle. And so the efficiency part is how do we assemble all that information, how do we synthesize it? And then simultaneously using things like our business use cases, our understanding of the industry, how do we prepare our seller so that they’re not having to do that all on their own? We are providing them those materials and resources so that they can, again, bring their best, you know, representation for that first meeting. So there’s a lot of pressure on that first call, but I think the sales efficiency is building all around, making our sellers. Informed. Knowledgeable and impactful. RR: Yeah, definitely. I think thinking about that sales efficiency and all the support levers that you’re pulling to help sellers drive it, I’d like to maybe talk about enablement technology and how you’re using that to create efficiency. I know you actually switched off of a previous enablement platform and moved to Highspot just recently last year, so I’d love if you could talk us through maybe what motivated the change, how you reevaluated, and then what that process was like. KE: Absolutely. I joined Peg in June of last year and it just so happened the sales enablement platform we were using was coming up for an annual renewal. So there was a natural event that said, you know, I’m new in the role. I was given a new responsibility of sales enablement, so let me test. Whether or not we had the right product, right tool for what we needed. And so I went out and spoke to pretty much the top three or four companies giving our current vendor every opportunity to also come forward and demonstrate what they had that perhaps we weren’t utilizing in that system. So it was really about were there things that we weren’t using, not optimizing in the system. And it was through that process that really Highspot. Distinguish themselves, and I just emphasized that first meeting being so important and really our account executive came prepared, had done some research, was sharing with us ideas that we hadn’t had, even though I had researched all the vendors independently myself, and so they stood out. And that continued through the next engagement and the next engagement. And as the account executive brought in other resources from Highspot through the solutions team, everybody came prepared and demonstrated to me an interest. They were interested in what we needed and they wanted to showcase how they thought the Highspot solution could meet the business needs that we defined. And that really just. Changed the kind of trajectory. So it was up for our incumbent to really lose the business, and unfortunately they did because they didn’t really fight hard enough to sustain it. And again, across the vendors, a lot of common functionality. But it was the way. That the Highspot team was able to really demonstrate what did they think that their solution could do that would be different? And it was, uh, a couple things. Digital rooms. It was the close integration with Salesforce. Were, were really two of the key decision makers, the decisions for us. RR: Wonderful. Well, I first of all am so happy to hear that you had such a fantastic experience with our team, and I think that, you know, kind of speaks to the value of enablement in the work that you do of. How else are you getting sellers ready to deliver these experiences? And then also congratulations on one year. Super exciting. Just past that mark. So gotta call that out. I’d love to know maybe drilling a little bit further into that process of switching. So when you switch an enablement tech stack, what maybe are some of the best practices that you would share for managing that change and empowering reps through that transition? Because I know that’s probably not an easy process. KE: Agreed. That’s probably the biggest challenge with any technology transition is implementation and then change management. So from the implementation side, again, I think Highspot had a great enablement support where the project plan was clear. The kickoff was good. I did have a partner at the time who was working with me on the transition so that I was able to focus on the enablement side. The other person was able to focus on the content. Implementation. So I would say having a good project team internally was really important because you really wanna have people who can focus on the different elements of that transition. But the thing I also focused on was ensuring that our sales leaders really understood why we’re making the change. That they were also helping to articulate the business decision and the value. And then it all came down to just communication, really keeping the sales team well informed why we were making the change, what were some exciting things they could look forward to. And then once we made the change, supporting them through multiple hands-on sessions. So that they could get familiar with the system. And so I was doing, you know, weekly sessions, small group sessions, really to make sure people understood the new navigation, how to find the resources. And then, uh, the big one was introducing the digital rooms. So it was really just about. Change management 1 0 1, communicate, implement, and support. RR: Yeah. Amazing. I think changes in the tech stack are a pretty common scenario that you’ll encounter, but I feel like there’s not so much in the way of guidance or best practices out there for how to do it, so thank you so much for sharing that. I’d love to know, maybe just one more question on this topic, in your opinion. What is the advantage of an enablement platform? How does it help you with sales efficiency? And then maybe a little bit, if you can, share about how switching to Highspot helped you amplify that advantage. KE: Sure. So we were using multiple resources. Our tech stack is pretty, I should say, it’s either deep or wide, whichever way you want to define it, but the ability to compress and integrate. To demonstrate a seamless experience, whether you’re using Highspot through Outlook or through Salesforce or teams, but trying to minimize that feeling of a seller going to multiple systems to achieve something. And more importantly, we have our collateral, our marketing content. We have product information, we have sales process information. We have the ability to collect how to information. And so by putting that all into one system, that’s easy to navigate. Is also giving that seller that kind of efficiency, which is if they have confidence that they can come into one system, quickly, find the answer to the question, whether it’s, how do I, what’s the next step? Particularly for things which maybe they don’t do on a high frequency basis. So they need to come back to how to find that resource. Previously, you know, it was all via SharePoint, which it definitely has some value. But now being able to put everything kind of into one basket, meaning one system, we’re able to provide them, I think a more unified user experience. And then the efficiency of being able to say, I can do multiple things with this one tool that I previously had to go to, maybe three or four different resources, or even people to find the answer to a question. RR: Wonderful. Well, I’m so glad that you’re seeing the degree of success that you are already and that the switch has kind of been a fruitful one. Speaking of some of the work that you and the team have been doing with the platform, we’ve heard that sales plays have been a key lever in helping you improve sales efficiency. So I’d love if you could talk us through how you’re leveraging them to support your sales efficiency initiatives and then how maybe they’re helping you drive. More consistent execution across your sales teams? KE: Yeah, absolutely. So as I mentioned previous to me joining the organization a year ago, we didn’t really have a dedicated sales enablement function. Of course, sales enablement was being delivered by different individuals. And so one of the things that was, you know, my primary objective was improve the onboarding experience and then also help document the processes, or in this case, the sales place. So there really wasn’t a repository or a collection of that. I love the way, it’s what do I need to know, show, say, or do? And I’ve used that so many times, even in my own enablement sessions, because I think that routine, that practice starts to build that understanding of how we break down a sales play. And so first and foremost, brought the right people together through a series of workshops. So that we could create the sales plays. And so the way we started was we used both industry and business use case as the formula for defining the sales plays, and that enabled the team to kind of hyperfocus on for this specific industry and this specific peg use case or solution. How can I define the things that that seller would need to know? And so once we produce a couple of sales plays, that made it a lot easier us for us to template that moving forward. And in fact, that’s all been on the like pre-sales side on winning new business. And now we are moving into building sales plays around the post-sales process about customer onboarding and customer engagement and time to first value. So we’re using those same principles now. Through another portion of the buyer life cycle, so I’m excited to start documenting those processes as well. RR: Amazing. Well, I love to hear that the no say show do structure is so ubiquitous in enablement at Prote. It’s such a useful framework and it really does work. Maybe shifting gears a little bit, besides sales plays, we’ve also heard that you’ve had quite a bit of success, as you mentioned earlier, with things like digital rooms, and you’ve achieved an 83% external share. Adoption rate. So I’d love if you could share some best practices for helping reps regularly use external sharing features, and then maybe how you’re seeing that engage buyers. KE: Digital rooms are by far my favorite. Not only because you can get a little creative, and we’ve created a digital room template for different business use cases or for different customers at the different intervals of where they are in their buyer journey, whether it’s for prospecting or it’s for contract management or responding to a request for proposal. So we look at each one of those buyer seller engagements. As a unique opportunity to define a digital room, and they essentially sold themselves. So I think our sales teams immediately got how valuable these could be compared to, you know, the old school method of emailing customers serially, you know, having to search through your email to find out what was the last communication, looking for resources. And so everybody just really, I think, inherently understood the. Value of a digital room. And again, going back to saying how do we hyper-personalized, how do we customize something for a customer or a prospect, which will help distinguish peg from potentially other vendors that they’re talking to. And in fact, I was onboarding a new solutions engineer just a week or so ago, and when I introduced him to Highspot and the use of digital rooms. The fact that that individual repeated back to me, oh my gosh, I can see the value of this. I was like, alright, you got it. And so I think that it’s not a leap for people to know how valuable digital rooms can be. And the second part of your question is, you know, how did it when the adoption one is, I think there was genuine need in an interest. So those people ran toward it. But I hosted a couple enablement sessions and then. I highlighted the individuals who were doing unique things, they really made their personality stand out in the digital room. They added some stuff that sometimes was funny, you know, or engaging. So using successful sellers to showcase best practices to the rest of the team. I’ve always found that that tends to be more impactful than me sharing my recommendation or even a vendor sharing a recommendation. So when they see another respected seller is doing something and having success with it, then they’re more inclined to say, let me check that out. Let me adopt that practice as well. And so I hosted a enablement session called the Digital Masterclass. Where we took it to, you know, how can we use some higher end functions and features, and I’ll continue to do that as Highspot continues to release some new features and functionality with the digital rooms. RR: Well, I love to hear that, especially I feel like the best part of digital rooms is that they kind of marry, flash and function. So when you can show off a really cool one, everybody’s like, ah, why am I not doing this? And so it seems that’s very much how you’re getting that engine moving. So having heard a little bit about your strategy and the work that you’re doing to drive it, I’d like to know maybe since implementing Highspot, what business results you’ve achieved, any wins, achievements that you’re particularly proud of, programs that you’re running really successfully, that you’d like to share with us. KE: Yes. Well one is, I, I think just the, the adoption rate that you mentioned and the high rate of external shares is indicative of that. The team has adopted this as a, a distinguishing sales function, so that’s one thing. I did take a look at it, and although I can’t give you very specific numbers, I looked at our pipeline from a year ago, you know, year over year, and what I was able to see was double digit growth in both new opportunities created. And new opportunities, not only with existing customers, but what we call net new logos. And so, although there’s other contributing factors, I definitely think that the use of the digital rooms has helped advance the opportunity from say, qualification into then our next opportunity stage. And that’s reflective of the fact that that’s when we say, this is when you now create the digital room. To move a customer from, you know, once we’ve identified there’s a business value that we can deliver to them, is now let’s start to move them into a digital room, start to share more assets and information, which again, can help them inform themselves and be a great place where we can keep a record of recorded meetings, action items, next steps. And it just helps facilitate, you know, the sales process motion and sales tactics. RR: Well, I think. To start. That sounds like you’re making amazing progress and I am sure that’s just reflective of the great work that you’re doing. I really appreciate you walking through kind of that enablement action to then this is how we’re seeing that impact on the outcomes that the business really cares about. And it seems like to your point, the data is reflecting the value of your work. So speaking of kind of seeing that data and being able to. Validate the work that you’re doing. I’ve heard that you’re currently working, as you mentioned on that integration between Salesforce and Highspot. So as you’re making progress on that, I, I’d love to know what value you’re seeing in the integration and then as you’re going, what outcomes you’re hoping to achieve down the line. KE: Yeah, absolutely. So right now we are actually in production. Our integration’s complete. We just haven’t rolled it fully out to the organization. As I continue to fine tune a few things. What I think I’m more excited about now is that it wasn’t how I thought we would be using it. Let me clarify that by saying, you know, floating content, floating recommended sales plays over to the opportunity or from Highspot to Salesforce is. You know, one of the things we expected, but it was a sales operations leader who said, well, can we give them the process guidance as well? And I said, well, sure we can. So this was something that we’ve implemented and we’re now testing out, but this is where I’m also floating over the how to guide, on how to perform the next step. What are the things that you need to do from a Salesforce. Process standpoint as one of the recommended assets. And although we had those materials and we’ve had a lot of how to guides produced in the past, it was always the challenge of somebody going to find the guide at the time that they needed it. And by using the Highspot integration. It is surfaced right there on the opportunity. So it’s literally, you know, look at the opportunity, click on the resource guide, and now we can give them the guidance that they’ve been looking for, or that they maybe stopped doing something and called somebody to get the guidance. So again, I think that highlights the efficiency because we have sellers all around the globe, and we want them to be able to work and not be delayed in what they’re doing because they’re waiting for somebody to answer a question. If they can get the information right when they need it, and again, at the point of use, which in this case would be within Salesforce, within the opportunity. So looking forward to releasing that really in the next, uh, week or so, and I’m sure the team is gonna see the value there as well. RR: Well, I know I, for one, can’t wait to hear about how that goes with the team in the next week. Best of luck to you. But if you’re already finding surprise use cases and additional values popping out at you, I’m sure as sellers are getting in there and using it, you’re gonna find new things pop up that they’re using that you aren’t even expecting. Well, one last question for you before we let you go. For organizations aiming to improve their operational efficiency through an enablement platform. What is maybe one or two pieces of advice you would offer when selecting that tool to partner with? KE: It’s a good question. You know, one, I’m gonna point back to what I said in the beginning, which is really trust, maybe your instinct, which is, if the very initial engagement with a prospective supplier is good, that tends to be somewhat indicative that that business relationship will continue on. If you find that you’re not getting the information. Or you’re struggling to see the value in the tool. It’s not being conveyed to you in a way. That may also be an early indication that, that that could paint how this engagement with that prospective supplier is gonna be so lean into, you know, how does the company represent themselves? Because if they’re successful using an enablement system, it’s gonna be reflected in their own account. Executives do talk to a couple other, uh, referrals. I think it is also helpful. I don’t think a company’s gonna give you a referral that’s not gonna give you a good assessment. But speaking to other companies that are using the product. Particularly if they’re in the same industry, I think is beneficial. And then of course, I would ask to really understand what the implementation plan is. So, and do that early enough when you’re doing the vendor review. Not just what is the product solution, but what is their implementation strategy and plan. How long will it take? And then what is their transition after you have your instance up and running? What are the resources that they provide? And that has also been something that has been really valuable to me, is having the continuing relationship when we transitioned out of our implementation. And then over to the customer support team, CSM. Um, it’s been a good relationship and that’s how we’re continuing to look at how do we leverage the system? How do we continue to optimize Highspot to get the most value out of it? RR: Amazing. Well, I think that’s fantastic advice, and I just have to say thank you again, Kim, for joining us. It’s been so lovely to chat with you and I think we’ve got some great best practices to share with our audience. Really appreciate it. KE: Thanks Riley. I enjoyed being here. RR: To our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win-Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize implement success with Highspot.

Guvernul Bolojan, a șasea încercare de reformare a pensiilor speciale. Cum au eșuat primele cinci (Libertatea) - Puteau fi prevenite inundațiile, cu decese, din Suceava și Neamț? Apele Române: Este nevoie de implicarea mai multor instituții (Europa Liberă) - Cazul Pieleanu – chiar dacă studenții i-au boicotat cursul tot semestrul, profesorul continuă să predea la SNSPA. Andreea, studentă, 19 ani: „A încuiat ușa cu cheia și mi-a zis «Stai jos»” (HotNews) Guvernul Bolojan, a șasea încercare de reformare a pensiilor speciale. Cum au eșuat primele cinci (Libertatea)  Premierul Ilie Bolojan a ieșit, marți, 29 iulie, într-o conferință de presă, în care a anunțat că are loc o nouă încercare de reformare a pensiilor speciale, cu precădere cele ale magistraților, unde crește vârsta standard pensionare la 65 de ani, iar maximumul cuantumului pensiilor să fie de cel mult 70% din ultimul salariu net, nu 80% din brut, cum e în prezent. De asemenea, ar putea fi pensionări timpurii din sistem, dar în jur de 58 de ani, pentru cei care lucrează din timp în magistratură, însă ar pierde 2% din pensie pentru fiecare an înainte de 65 de ani. Guvernele și legislaturile din ultimii șase ani, fie într-un mod mai serios, fie doar prin mimare, au încercat să reformeze sistemul pensiilor speciale, prin eliminare, supraimpozitare sau alte prevederi, scrie Libertatea. Executivul Bolojan e ultimul care încearcă o asemenea reformă, singurul succes fiind însă pe vremea Cabientului Boc, care a reuşit să scape de pensiile speciale ale parlamentarilor. Iar acest lucru se întâmpla în iunie 2010. Pensiile speciale, greu de „ucis”. Un profesor constituțional explică de ce reforma justiției oscilează mereu între două extreme (Adevărul) Premierul Ilie Bolojan a anunțat, marți, o nouă încercare de reformă a pensiilor speciale, după ce în ultimii 15-20 de ani au existat mai multe tentative nereușite de a rezolva această problemă. Doctor în drept constituțional și conferențiar universitar la Facultatea de Științe Politice a Universității București, Bogdan Iancu explică, într-un interviu pentru „Adevărul”, care sunt marile piedici în calea acestei reforme și din ce cauză au eșuat toate încercările de până acum. „Nu trebuie demonizată o categorie socio-profesională atât de importantă. Trebuie corectate carențele structurale, dacă și cât se poate”, avertizează expertul. „CSM seamănă însă tot mai mult cu o organizație sindicală, tot mai puțin cu garantul independenței justiției”, adaugă Bogdan Iancu. În Germania, un judecător de Amtsgericht, judecătoria lor, are un venit salarial de încadrare de 4.472 până la 4.820 euro. Crește prin promovare până la final de carieră, dar nu peste 8.000 și ceva, treapta cea mai înaltă, creșterea cea mai mare. Salariul mediu net pe economie în Germania e circa 2.700 euro. Judecătorii germani ies la pensie la 67 de ani, cu pensii care nu pot depăși 71,75 % din salariu și sporuri. „Există un studiu interesant care ne arată că reformele „justiției” sunt ciclice, de la independență extremă la dependență extremă. Noi nu ne găsim niciodată echilibrul, nici nu prea tindem către el”. Integral în ziar. Puteau fi prevenite inundațiile, cu decese, din Suceava și Neamț? Apele Române: Este nevoie de implicarea mai multor instituții (Europa Liberă) Inundațiile masive din județele Suceava și Neamț, în urma cărora trei persoane au murit, au fost provocate în primul rând de ploile abundente, dublate însă de scurgerile foarte rapide de pe versanți, favorizate de lipsa unor măsuri care să le împiedice, potrivit specialiștilor de la Apele Române. Orașul Broșteni, din județul Suceava, cunoscut la nivel național drept cel mai mare oraș – ca întindere – din țară, de două ori mai mare ca a Bucureștiului, a ajuns în centrul atenției, în ultimele zile, în urma unor evenimente devastatoare pentru localitate. Debitul râului Bistrița a atins valori istorice și a crescut în doar 12 ore de peste 20 de ori, depășind cota de pericol în județul Neamț și cota de inundații în județul Suceava. „La Broșteni, peste 50% din oraș și localitățile aparținătoare sunt grave afectate”, spune pentru Europa Liberă președintele Consiliului Județean Suceava, Gheorghe Șoldan. Inundațiile puternice din Suceava și Neamț sunt rezultatul „unui efect cumulat, între cantitățile foarte mari de precipitații cu scurgerile de pe versanți, care practic au condus la o creștere foarte rapidă a debitului”, explică pentru Europa Liberă purtătoarea de cuvânt a Administrației Naționale Apele Române (ANAR), Anamaria Agiu. Instituția gestionează portalul inundații.ro, unde sunt prezentate hărți ale riscului la inundații, realizate în cadrul unui proiect cu finanțare europeană. Pe harta principală a portalului, orașul Broșteni nu apare ca fiind în zonă de risc.   INVESTIGAȚIE. Cazul Pieleanu – chiar dacă studenții i-au boicotat cursul tot semestrul, profesorul continuă să predea la SNSPA. Andreea, studentă, 19 ani: „A încuiat ușa cu cheia și mi-a zis «Stai jos»” (HotNews) Premierul României a vorbit, ministrul Educației s-a pronunțat, iar partide din opoziție cer comisie parlamentară. Au fost multiple reacții după ce Snoop a prezentat mărturii ale femeilor care vorbesc despre abuzurile sexuale ale profesorului Marius Pieleanu, pe care acesta le neagă. Ce se întâmplă la SNSPA 32 de studenți SNSPA au cerut, în mai, într-o scrisoare „cǎtre instituția în care ar fi trebuit sǎ ne simțim în siguranțǎ”, un cadru normativ clar și transparent împotriva hărțuirii sexuale, cu mecanisme sigure de raportare. Nu au primit răspuns. După dezvăluirile din cazul profesorului Alfred Bulai, SNSPA a cercetat și plângerile la adresa lui Marius Pieleanu. Pe 10 februarie, cazul s-a clasat. Hotărârea nu e publică la 5 luni după ce a fost luată. Mai multe pe HotNews.ro.

This week we are trying to stop an apocalypse, develop a world-saving vaccine, locate our long-lost son, and find a good parking spot while we discuss “My Struggle II”! We're talking Scully's strange anti-vaxx turn, the tonally bizarre Guy Ritchie fight scenes, Scully being able to stop a riot with just her words, CSM's return as a cartoon flaming skull, and the fastest-onset apocalypse we have ever seen. We wonder just how quick Scully is able to develop a vaccine, if Teen Willy has a permit to drive that UFO, get indignant on behalf of the nurse Scully won't learn the name of, and wish we could welcome back Reyes, but why did it have to be like this? Quote of the episode: Calm down, you're talking to a scientist here. Thanks, Skinner.Send us an email at scullynationpod@gmail.com or follow us on Instagram!

In this Tactical Tuesday episode, Natalia Bullett (a CSM here at Loxo) joins us again to discuss more strategies for in-house and agency recruiters.Today, she walks Sam through some of the dynamics of working with multiple hiring managers — from the importance of creating customized templates and the value of pipeline review calls to the need for tools that enhance communication and collaboration. The biggest takeaway? As a recruiter, you're a strategic partner to hiring teams — and you can help set the tone for the collaboration and the overall success of the partnership. Chapters:00:00 - Becoming a strategic partner to your hiring managers02:35 - Tailoring your recruiting process for different departments05:55 - The value of pipeline review calls and candidate scorecards08:10 - The power of sharing recruiting metrics early and often11:05 - Improving your time-to-hire with the right communication12:59 - Translating team objectives into a winning recruiting strategyExplore all our episodes and catch the full video experience at loxo.co/podcastBecoming a Hiring Machine is brought to you by Loxo. To discover more about us, just visit loxo.co

Derek Crager, PMP, CLSS, CSM, AWS-CP is a visionary AI Solutions Architect & founder of Practical AI, which exists to bridge the gap between people and the knowledge they seek. Mike Petrusky asks Derek about empowering employees with the right knowledge and tools for effective asset and facility management. They explore how Voice AI can act as a singularity point in knowledge, providing instant access to standard operating procedures, safety routines, and tribal knowledge in the built environment. Derek believes that AI will not replace human jobs in facilities maintenance, but it will support and enhance them, so we must seek applications that will help FM and asset professionals deliver value for their people. Leading with empathy and curiosity is key to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving tech landscape, so Mike and Derek share their love of music and classic videos games as they offer advice and the encouragement you need to be an Asset Champion in your organization! Take the Eptura™ Podcast Survey: https://forms.office.com/r/jY577CbNcx Connect with Derek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amazonleadership/ Explore more about Practical AI: https://www.practicalai.app/ Learn more about Eptura™: https://eptura.com/ Discover free resources and explore past interviews at: https://eptura.com/discover-more/podcasts/asset-champion/ Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikepetrusky/  

Război între magistrați și președintele României. Cine câștigă? (SpotMedia) - Despre extremism: de la Eminescu la Nicușor Dan (DW)  Opriți jaful din companiile de stat! De ce Guvernul Bolojan trebuie să limiteze prin lege salariile și indemnizațiile nesimțite / Cum profiturile companiilor de stat sunt împărțite frățește între șefi și Consiliile de Administrație (G4Media) Guvernul Bolojan are datoria față de contribuabilii corecți – împovărați deja de măsuri de austeritate – să includă în al doilea pachet de reforme anunțat pentru sfârșitul lunii o regândire profundă a modului în care funcționează companiile de stat, scrie jrunalistul Dan Tăpălagă. G4Media.ro a documentat, în ultimele săptămâni, o serie de situații revoltătoare. În esență, vorbim despre jefuirea organizată a acestor companii prin: salarii uriașe, arbitrar crescute, care ajung la mii de euro pe lună bonusuri de zeci de mii de euro acordate fără criterii reale pensionări urmate de reangajări pe aceleași posturi indemnizații de Consilii de Administrație (CA) majorate de zeci de ori, cu aprobări formale și complicități la nivel înalt De regulă, aceste companii decid singure și arbitrar cum își cresc salariile și beneficiile, cu acordul formal – și adesea pasiv – al autorităților de supraveghere. Membrii CA și directorii se comportă ca niște vătafi pe moșia statului: nu răspund în fața nimănui și nu dau explicații pentru risipirea banului public. Da, legislație există. Dar ea este slabă, permisivă și plină de portițe. Iar aceste portițe trebuie închise urgent. Război între magistrați și președintele României. Cine câștigă? (SpotMedia) O decizie care indică mai degrabă teamă, a dus la declanșarea unui conflict între CSM și Palatul Cotroceni din cauza faptului că Nicușor Dan amână să semneze câteva cereri de pensionare venite din partea unor judecători. Magistrații, fără nicio susținere publică, criticați frecvent pentru pensiile speciale și corupția din sistemul de justiție, au ajuns din nou în centrul atenției în urma unor mașinațiuni suspectate ca ilegale prin care au impus-o pe judecătoarea Lia Savonea în fruntea Înaltei Curți de Casație și Justiție. Elena Costache, președinta CSM (Consiliul Superior al Magistraturii), printr-o mișcare surprinzătoare, a decis să-i scrie lui Nicușor Dan pentru a-i cere să semneze un număr de 22 de cereri de pensionare ale unor judecători. Mesajul șefei CSM este șocant prin faptul că dă lecții președintelui, ales de peste 6 milioane de cetățeni, dar și că sugerează o încălcare a legii de către acesta. Dacă CSM cu adevărat a constatat o încălcare a legii de către președintele României, trebuia să pună în discuție acest lucru pe ordinea de zi a Consiliului sau să facă plângere și să deschidă acțiuni în justiție. E fără precedent în istoria recentă a României ca un judecător să-l tragă de urechi pe șefului statului în afara cadrului creat de lege, consideră jurnalistul Emilian Isăilă pe pagina SpotMedia. Despre extremism: de la Eminescu la Nicușor Dan (DW) Președintele Nicușor Dan face o declarație politică atunci când atacă la Curtea Constituțională legea care înăsprește pedepsele pentru fascism, extremism, legionarism și rasism? Și de ce vrea să întoarcă legea din drum? Diana Șoșoacă, AUR și alți parlamentari populiști au făcut deja o contestație la CCR, iar Curtea a respins-o ieri, 10 iulie. Nicușor Dan argumentează în sesizarea trimisă judecătorilor constituționali neclaritatea definițiilor din lege și critică o posibilă restrângere a libertății de exprimare.  Legea anterioară era suficient de puternică pentru a-i ajuta pe procurori și judecători să-i pedepsească pe nostalgicii legionari, pe fasciști și rasiști, doar că magistrații nu erau prea dornici să o pună în practică. Așa a scăpat, prezidențiabilul Călin Georgescu de pedeapsă, după ce procurorii l-au considerat nevinovat. De fapt, în ultimii cinci ani, procurorii au trimis în judecată cam o persoană pe an în baza acestei legi vechi de mai bine de 20 de ani. Președintele se întreabă dacă nu cumva ar putea fi pedepsit și Eminescu, poetul național și se teme ca nu cumva cărțile lui să fie cenzurate. Nicușor Dan se întreabă „până la ce nivel prezența unor idei și concepții fasciste, legionare, rasiste sau xenofobe” transformă un text „într-un material cu caracter fascist, legionar, rasist sau xenofob în sensul Legii”. „Claritatea este necesară”, se arată mai departe în documentul președinției, fiindcă sancționează penal distribuirea unor astfel de materiale. Specialiștii de la Cotroceni fac o confuzie intenționată între literatura de acum 150 de ani și propaganda xenofobă din prezent, mai scrie jurnalista Sabina Fati. Articolul integral pe pagina DW.

According to the State of Sales Enablement Report 2024, 31% of organizations are preparing to launch a new product or service as a key go-to-market initiative. So, how can you prepare your sellers to be ready for a successful product or service launch that drives business results? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Kate Stringfield, senior manager of revenue enablement at Dialpad. Thank you so much for joining us, Kate. Before we get started, I’d love to learn a little bit more about yourself, your role, and your background. Kate Stringfield: Yeah, so I’m Kate Stringfield, as you called out. Was in sales prior to being in enablement, and I was in sales for about seven years, both in hospitality as well as SaaS. And then I made the jump into enablement around six years ago, and now I’m over at Dialpad. RR: Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. I feel like it’s always so helpful to get insight from people who make that transition and have experience on both sides of the playing field.We’re so excited to have you on the podcast for that reason. You have such extensive experience as both a sales and sales enablement leader. So can you maybe walk us through your journey into enablement, how you made that shift, and then maybe a little bit about how that sales background helps influence your enablement strategy? KS: Yeah, so I was in hotels, like I mentioned, for a number of years, and I found my passion helping other people as they started out in their new roles and getting them up to speed. And so when I made the move into SaaS, I learned about this cool role called enablement, and I was like, oh my gosh, I gotta—I gotta learn more and get into that.So since helping others be successful was a—or still is—a passion of mine, I made that jump. And once I landed in an enablement position, I was like, man, I found my place.So I spent a number of years doing enablement for the sellers that I was once a seller for—like, I was doing that role. And then I did another two and a half years in enablement at an enablement company, where I focused on role-specific enablement, as well as launching a sales methodology, three sales motion changes, and various other initiatives that I supported along the way.And then I moved over into Dialpad, where I’m now leading a team of six incredibly gifted, talented revenue enablers across sales, success, and partner enablement. RR: Wonderful. Thank you for walking us through that. It seems like it’s been quite the journey to get where you are today. I’m curious then—we’ve talked about how it informs your strategy—but maybe how does it inform action?So I kind of want to shift gears a little bit and maybe talk about a recent initiative that I know Dialpad has been running, which is that you rolled out a new SKU after an acquisition, and product launch has become a priority for you this year. So can you maybe talk to us a little bit about that initiative? KS: Yeah, absolutely. So making sure that our product is up to speed and ahead of the market is imperative. And so, gosh, around eight months ago, back in October, we acquired a WFM company—so workforce management—which is part of a solution of ours that we did not currently have. So we acquired a company in order to offer that as a complementary solution with what we already had.This was a completely new product line, and we had to figure out, okay, how could we enable our reps to be able to go ahead and sell this? And it’s a slightly different selling motion, so we had to talk through what is it, why does it matter, as well as how do they then position the value of it. And so in true SaaS fashion, we were also, in addition to launching this new SKU, we also had other product enhancements that we were sharing along the same time, as well as a rebranding and new marketing strategy and a new pitch deck.So there was a lot going on. So we had to make sure that we also landed this and landed it well. And so we did some pre-launch awareness where we equipped our sellers with content in the form of kits as well as micro-learnings and giving them the foundation to get them ready for that launch moment so they could start having introductory conversations with customers.So how do you first scope that? Then we did our launch moment and made our just-in-time much more robust and turned them into true sales plays where they learned how to really position this product in the right way and along the whole sales process. And with that, we also did additional learning moments, such as full-blown e-learnings and certifications for how to sell this.Then we really wanted to focus on reinforcement that stuck, and so we looked at, okay, how can we get our managers speaking about this product in team meetings? What kind of activities could we give to managers to run in team meetings, such as trainings in a box? And how can we continue to evolve the conversation and get our reps learning more?And so we focused on PEC talk as well as more thorough, in-depth enablement from a product standpoint, and then that later along the line sales motion and how to sell that. And overall, we saw around $500,000 of closed-won sales initially, and we built around $3 million in pipeline. And through that, we also looked at data with the kit and with the play that—you know, the kit that shifted into the play—and a lot of our reps were using it. There was high adoption of it. They were going back to it multiple times and spending about four minutes consuming the content.And so we were able to track, alright, they did the enablement, they were using the content and sharing it with customers, and then that translated to those closed-won numbers and that pipeline build that I discussed. RR: That sounds like such a thoughtful approach and also like quite a lot of work. I’m sure that was quite difficult to execute, but I love that you’re already seeing the results that you’re looking for. I’d like to maybe dig a little bit more into kind of the initial concept phases where you’re staring down the barrel of this initiative.What kind of challenges do you see reps tending to face when it comes to things like product launch, and what were your best practices for overcoming them as you were executing over the next few months? KS: Yeah, information overload is a big one. And it’s one that—you know, I mentioned we did this in conjunction with other product enhancements and a marketing branding shift in our messaging, as well as a pitch deck launch.So you know, besides that, reps are always being overloaded with information, and so that’s always something you have to contend with as a challenge. Also, when reps are learning about how to sell a new product, it’s something that’s outside of their existing knowledge and skill set a lot of the time or, you know, is just stretching them in a different way.And so you have to figure out how to use the foundation that they already had and build upon that. And then sometimes there’s additional complexities as well. And so when I think about those challenges and how to solve for them, I think about, you know, making sure that you’re taking a crawl-walk-run approach with those product launch moments and building upon what they already have to get them into that run state, but not expecting them to run right out of the gate—which a lot of times is an expectation that happens.So making sure that we’re setting them up for success in learning and building upon that learning, and then also creating resources that really meet them where they are in their tenure and their journey, and being able to translate complex information into simple information that they can digest, consume, put into practice, and then go and evangelize.And then also weaving in sales subject matter experts that really know how to sell your current product and what talking to your customers is like currently, and using them as subject matter experts to really inform that sales motion of that product launch. RR: Great. I think those are all wonderful strategies. And I know kind of a common one when it comes to product launch that you need to keep in mind is just how crucial cross-functional alignment is for the success of a launch. So can you talk to me a little bit about how you create and maybe maintain alignment as you’re building and executing your launch enablement strategy? KS: Yeah, it is so critical. And communication in general in all relationships is so important. And so this is one that really is the make-or-break fail point in a lot of companies. And so having regular touchpoints with subject matter experts across various teams such as—you know, as I called out, sales and success—but also product marketing and other marketing teams. Operations is another really key one.There are so many different teams, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have a business transformation team or a project management team that’s there to foster all of those cross-functional relationships and create that alignment.We work really closely with our product managers and our product teams. We meet with them regularly within our enablement role. In fact, we have somebody in enablement at Dialpad that’s focused on our product and pricing strategy, and so he has these deep relationships with these different teams and different individuals across the business.Additionally, we have a product launch playbook that we have socialized with these cross-functional partners so they know what that playbook looks like, how it can act modularly, and where they play in the process of the playbook—or where they fit into the process, so to speak.And so that really helps us create that alignment and speak the same language. Lastly, we focus on retrospectives—so making sure that we’re learning from each product launch or product release to the next, and by performing retrospectives and having that discussion over, hey, what worked really well, what maybe didn’t work as well, and what can we make better the next time? RR: I love those strategies. I think the Product Launch Playbook is such a clever idea to kind of get everybody on board and aligned with what you’re expected to accomplish. I also love the idea of coming back and reviewing. Sometimes the business runs so fast that you feel like you can’t, but that moment is just as essential—almost—as that next product launch. So I love to hear that.Thinking then of how you’re launching, I’d also like to know a little bit about once you’ve established alignment, how you’re then developing that launch strategy to start running with. Could you talk me through the components of your launch strategy and then maybe how you’re partnering with an enablement platform to support and scale it? KS: Yeah, so that product launch playbook is key. And making sure that it’s modular and nimble to work with various forms or shapes and sizes in which products or, you know, product launch moments happen.Highspot is truly the home—or I guess any platform that people might use—to host just-in-time resources. For us, it’s Highspot, and it truly is the home and where we expect reps to go to first. And so if we think about it in that way, we need to build around that concept.So having that host pre-launch and post-launch and launch materials, having it give guidelines on how to execute—whether it is, you know, as an SDR, BDR, ADR, picking up the phone, what to say, how sellers should be selling the product, how our Customer Success Managers should be reviewing adoption for the product—all needs to live there.We also focus on asynchronous learning, so making sure that we’re not pulling reps out of prime-time selling and giving them space and time to learn on their own, but also checking their knowledge through knowledge checks and certifications. And then all of this new information happening during a product launch needs to, in some way, shape, or form, be folded into onboarding.So thinking about how that comes back into onboarding so that reps who start tomorrow can benefit from that information and be able to hit the ground running. RR: Yeah, there are a lot of different lenses to look at it and areas in which it needs to be embedded, so that all makes sense. On the note of enablement platforms, I know that Dialpad had previously partnered with another enablement solution, so can you maybe share why Highspot was the better fit for your organization as well as how it supports your enablement strategy today? KS: Yeah, Highspot is integral.It’s integral in that it is where our reps start their day and where they end their day. It hosts all of our content, both internal-facing and external-facing. So Highspot is a game changer for us because within my team it’s easy for us to manage from an admin perspective and to practice governance across the various teams that are content creators or host content and manage it there.Our reps are familiar with using it. That’s another thing—you know, having a solution like Highspot is something that reps come to expect nowadays, and so they’re familiar with it, they know how to use it, and we’re constantly thinking about how they interact with it and how we can train them to interact with it better.Our Highspot team—so the team that helps us at Highspot—is a differentiator. So that is our CSM and our AM. So Jess, Emily, our Technical Account Manager Brian, and Matt Hunin, our Solutions Engineer, all help us be able to learn the latest and greatest, utilize what we already have, and maximize our value.And then potentially look at other things that might help us as we overall, as a company, shift to more of a just-in-time strategy. So moving away from live sessions that people are going to forget most of what you said, moving away from, you know, long e-learnings, and more of, okay, I’m in—you know, I have to prepare for this call in 15 minutes—where am I going to find that information?Surfacing it up in Highspot and making it easy to find has become a game changer in helping them—meeting them where they're at and giving them the information they need to be successful.And then we can use data from Highspot and correlate that to leading indicators on whether reps are doing the kind of behaviors we want to see and how that ties to business outcomes. And are the reps actually closing deals or protecting revenue as a result? RR: Well, that’s all great to hear, and I always love to hear a really positive experience. I’m so glad that your account team is there to support you through all of it.We have heard through the grapevine, actually, that you’re doing some really awesome work with the platform, and one area where you’ve seen a lot of success is actually through Digital Rooms—with over 342 Digital Rooms created in Highspot, as well as a 9% increase in external engagement, which is wonderful just to call that out.So what are some of your best practices for driving that adoption? KS: Yeah, yeah. We moved to Digital Rooms just last year, if you can believe it, from pitch templates. And one of the things we did first off was—there was a Highspot University course around Digital Rooms that we took, and we also used materials that we were able to find from Highspot so we could become proficient ourselves as the people that were enabling the reps.We then built a dedicated Digital Room kit to help reps get familiar with the why and the how of Digital Rooms and provided them with walkthroughs. And then we hosted sessions, we did asynchronous learning, we do one-on-one support for our reps on why it’s important, how to build, how to find engagement and analytics.And we regularly also work with reps to get feedback—so figure out what’s working, how do we build templates that make it really easy for them to add in what they want to add in, what information do they always add in so we can just add it into the template for them.Another thing that we thought about was—we use Consensus for demo videos, and so integrating Consensus into there, and how do we make that easy?We have also thought about Digital Rooms not just for sales. We’ve thought about it for our sales development reps and what are their use cases, and built templates for them, and done specific training for them, and gotten feedback from them.We’ve also thought about the post-sales journey a lot. So how do we get our client sales reps using it to position cross-sell and upsell? And then customer success—where do we feed in content for QBRs or other conversations that they’re having with customers and integrating in their feedback to make their templates better?So we’re always thinking about how to get our reps more and more proficient and making that a focal point month over month. And we’re really excited for some of the enhancements coming to Digital Rooms that we’re going to capitalize on moving forward and making sure our reps know how to use it. RR: Yeah. I love that you led with educating yourself first, because how can you enable on something that you haven’t been in those weeds with as well?Well, that’s one of the biggest things you can give your reps—is to build with them in mind. You know their work, you can build something for them, and then actually they’ll use it. It sounds simple, but it’s really hard to do.So I’d love to hear a little bit of a shift in focus, but I’m curious if you could walk me through how you measure the impact of—and maybe then begin to optimize—some of your enablement efforts? KS: Yeah, I think about measuring impact of enablement in three ways. So you have the first prong, which is your enablement effort in general. So how do you measure enablement through, like, what activities are you doing?So this is—you know, if you think about the Kirkpatrick model—this is Level 1 and Level 2: Was your training effective? Were you able to certify, you know, X number of reps? That sort of thing. Those are examples of that.Then I think about the second prong, which is leading indicators. And this is about behavior. Are the reps able to take what they have learned and apply it to their daily workflow?Maybe it looks like building pipeline, maybe it looks like having certain conversations with customers or sending information to customers. You know, it could be various things that are that kind of Level 3 of Kirkpatrick.And then the third prong is at Level 4—so thinking about those business outcomes that are the goals of why you are doing this whole enablement approach to begin with. What kind of revenue are you trying to impact? Are you trying to impact conversion rates, you know, average deal size? Are you trying to increase revenue? Are you trying to protect revenue—so reduce churn and downsell?Those are all things that, you know, are on my mind. And then the correlation between the three—the correlation between the enablement efforts, the behavior change that you’re seeing through leading indicators, and the business outcomes.And so when it comes to then, okay, we’ve launched something, we’ve measured it, and now we’re trying to optimize it—it is then looking at, alright, what are the different checkpoints along the way in which we can say, did we do our job? Or do we need to go back and do more?And so maybe it looks like, hey, are they actually reviewing the play or the kits? Are they sending the content to customers? If not, why? We can ask those questions, because we can see the data on whether or not they’re doing it. Are they saying it in customer conversations? That looks like utilizing a conversational intelligence tool to see if they’re actually using it in those conversations.We can start to dig into all the different pieces and figure out where we need to refine our enablement approach to fill that gap.And so we can utilize Highspot to do that, our data in Salesforce to do that, conversational intelligence data. There are many different ways, but just having that data to dig into it, and then asking questions to reps is so important. RR: Thanks so much for that really thoughtful step-by-step walkthrough. I think that’s really actionable, and I think our listeners will take a lot away from it. I know that measurement is always going to kind of be difficult for enablement teams, so I love just hearing how folks have developed real actionable strategies for making it happen.But on the subject of measurement, I’d love to know—since implementing Highspot, what business results have you achieved? Any wins that you could share or just anything that you’re proud of that you’ve accomplished over at Dialpad? KS: Yeah, I’m proud of so much. Our team has done a phenomenal job, and as you called out—you know, the successes with Digital Rooms and that new product that we launched, that new SKU—those are really huge.Additionally, we have utilized Highspot to realize over $16 million of influenced revenue in just 2024 alone within our revenue organization. That is such a testament to how much our reps have Highspot integrated into their day-to-day life, and then how they use that information to speak to customers, how they use their messaging, and then how that behavior results in those closed-won opportunities.Additionally, partner is such a huge focus of Dialpad—so our partnerships with our resellers, our partnership with our channel—and we have seen a high increase: 23% of our partner material being used and being viewed and then being leveraged, which is also something I’m very proud of.And then the project that I’m currently working on that I’m proud of—but, you know, time will tell on results—is I’m working on a robust governance strategy so we can really take Highspot to the next level and make our cross-functional partners more of the partners in how the content gets delivered to our reps.And so I’m really looking forward to rolling out our more robust governance strategy this year. RR: We’ll stay tuned on how it goes. I mean, those are already incredible results, so thank you so much for sharing.Just one last question for you before we close out—would love for you to share maybe what the biggest pieces of advice you’d give other enablement leaders to help them drive a successful product launch. KS: I think the modular Product Launch Playbook has been huge—so having a laid-out plan for how you would run a product launch from start to finish in enablement and making sure that it fits all sizes, shapes, and formations of what a product launch might look like.And then the other piece of advice I would give is having regular communication and good working relationships across multiple cross-functional partners so that siloed work becomes less of a thing you have to battle. Because that just means that, you know, working together, we all lift each other up.And so that’s something that then trickles down to our reps, but then also trickles out to our customers and makes them more willing to buy from us. So I think cross-functional relationships are just so key—and so keep on working on those relationships. RR: Those are both fantastic pieces of advice, so thank you for taking the time to come share these insights with us. I think I speak for myself and our listeners when I say that I learned a lot of valuable information and was taking notes for sure.To our audience, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Win-Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

Ready to peek behind the curtain of AI-driven growth? In this episode of Business Influencers, host Chris Salem sits down with Luke Traina, Founder & CEO of ARBO AI, whose groundbreaking work is transforming how businesses build resilient, scalable systems. With multiple startups, Million-dollar exits, and recognition from Forbes, Inc., and CSM, Luke is on a mission to break boundaries and empower the next generation of technology leaders.Episode drops on Spotify, Apple Podcast & Youtube, don't miss this powerful conversation only on TALRadio English!Host : Chris SalemGuest : Luke Traina, Founder & CEO of ARBO AIlinkedin.com/in/luketraina#TALRadioEnglish #BusinessInfluencers #LukeTraina #AILeader #MachineLearning #StartupSuccess #Innovation #TechVisionary #DisruptiveThinking #FutureOfAI #EntrepreneurMindset #Leadership #ARBOAI #TouchALife #TALRadio

Are your customers ghosting your QBR invites? Let's be real… every CSM has faced the dreaded silence or worse, the wrong people showing up. But here's the ugly truth leadership never told you. It's not your QBR's timing, your agenda, or your follow-ups. It's that your meetings are about you, not your customer.In this episode, I break down the single biggest mistake 99% of CSMs make with their QBRs and hand you my simple 3-step framework to flip the script—from ignored invites to strategic sessions your customers actually want to attend. We'll dig into exactly what to research, how to reframe your outreach, and the one pro move that gets even busy execs leaning in. Craving the kind of executive buy-in that accelerates renewals, expansions, and your own career? Hit play, because everything you've learned about QBRs is about to change, starting now!

Signup for the FREE Masterclass: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/masterclassIn this episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast, host Anika Zuber and guest Kelley Turner, SVP of Global Customer Success at Vitally, discuss the critical role of customer segmentation in driving effective customer success strategies. They explore the importance of understanding customer needs, the balance between automation and personalization, and how AI can enhance segmentation efforts. Kelley shares her unique background in finance and how it informs her approach to customer success, emphasizing the need for curiosity and engagement in building strong customer relationships. The conversation also touches on measuring success in customer success initiatives and the evolving landscape of customer engagement.#customersuccessmanager #podcast #revenuegrowth Chapters00:00 Introduction 02:54 The Importance of Customer Segmentation05:57 Kelley Turner's Background and Role at Vitally08:48 Understanding Customer Success at Vitally14:51 The Role of Curiosity in Customer Success18:01 Operational vs. Service Segmentation20:51 Creative Segmentation Strategies23:54 Impact of Segmentation on Customer Outcomes27:06 Balancing Automation and Personalization29:59 Measuring Success in Segmentation32:59 Future of Segmentation and AI in Customer Success36:06 Quick Fire Round with Kelley TurnerConnect with Anika Zubair:Website: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikazubair/CSM RevUP Academy: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revupConnect with Kelley Turner:Email: kelley@vitally.ioLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelleyturner/Kelley Turner is a seasoned leader in Customer Success, currently serving as SVP of Global Customer Success at Vitally. With a career spanning across multiple industries, Kelley is known for building high-performing teams that deliver measurable value and lasting customer partnerships. At Vitally, she leads the full post-sale experience—spanning onboarding, support, education, and CSM teams —to drive retention, expansion, and strategic impact across the customer base.Prior to Vitally, Kelley held executive roles at Iterable, Guild Education, and Kapost, where she managed portfolios exceeding $200M ARR, built customer success functions from the ground up, and championed initiatives around DEI and employee development. Whether scaling customer teams, driving retention, or mentoring future leaders, Kelley is driven by the belief that customer success is everyone's business.Send Anika a text :) Want to be our next guest? Apply here: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/podcast-guest Podcast Editor: https://podcastmagician.com/

In this podcast Darryl Wagner, Principal with Deloitte Consulting, discussed the complexities and principles of IFRS 17, highlighting its goal to standardize insurance accounting globally. He explained the building blocks of IFRS 17, including best estimate cash flows, risk adjustment, and contractual service margin (CSM). Darryl emphasized the significant data and technology requirements for implementation and the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration among actuaries, accountants, and technology teams. He also compared IFRS 17 with US GAAP, noting similarities and key differences.  More dynamic content such as this is available on the SOAs Professional Development Edge+ product.   https://www.soa.org/prof-dev/pd-edge/ Be sure to take the IFRS 17 course in the Life Learning track of Professional Development Edge+ for more insights.   Contributors: Darryl Wagner, FSA, MAAA; Jon Forster ASA, MAAA

What if I told you the secret to being a proactive CSM has nothing to do with having more time?In this episode, I'm walking you through the exact 6-step framework I use with my coaching clients to help them get out of reactive chaos and into strategic, high-impact action—no matter how overwhelming their workload is. You'll hear how one CSM managing 500+ accounts went from “I don't even know where to start” to “wait… this is actually doable” in just one coaching call. And yes, I'm sharing the exact steps we used.If you're tired of feeling behind and ready to finally feel in control of your book and your career, this is the episode to hit play on. Let's get you unstuck.

If you've ever felt like your Google Ads were rockin' one month and dead the next, you're not crazy, and you're not alone. In this episode, I'm joined by two of my favorite people, our COO, Hallie Wasinger, and lead CSM, Danni Marks, as we unpack the wild ride that is Google Ads.This isn't a blame game or finger-pointing session. It's an honest, behind-the-scenes look at what happens when ad performance drops, whether it's caused by us making strategic changes or Google flipping switches behind the curtain. From the algorithm updates that wrecked March 2024 to the subtle behavioral shifts we're seeing now in 2025, we cover it all.You'll hear why turning off your ads when things get tough might be the worst move, how Local Services Ads (LSA) are stepping in to fill the gap, and why online scheduling isn't just convenient, it's essential. We'll even dig into how your website content and your service advisors' phone skills could be the hidden heroes or villains in your marketing success.This episode is sponsored by Shop Boss. Shop Management software that works the way you need it to right out of the box. Are you ready to convert clients to members? App Fueled specializes in creating custom apps tailored specifically for auto repair businesses. Build client loyalty. Get started today with your own customer loyalty app. Visit Appfueled.comLagniappe (Books, Links, Other Podcasts, etc)GOOGLE LOCAL SERVICES ADSGoogle's Local Service Ads – Everything You Need To Know - BlogGoogle's New Local Service Ads: What Auto Repair Shops Need to KnowHaving Patience With Google Ads With Hallie WasingerPatience is Key With New Google Ads - BlogShow Notes with TimestampsHow To Get In TouchJoin The Auto Repair Marketing Mastermind Group on FacebookMeet The ProsFollow SMP on FacebookFollow SMP on InstagramGet The Ultimate Guide to Auto Repair Shop Marketing Book Email Us Podcast Questions or Topics

If you've ever felt like your Google Ads were rockin' one month and dead the next, you're not crazy, and you're not alone. In this episode, I'm joined by two of my favorite people, our COO, Hallie Wasinger, and lead CSM, Danni Marks, as we unpack the wild ride that is Google Ads.This isn't a blame game or finger-pointing session. It's an honest, behind-the-scenes look at what happens when ad performance drops, whether it's caused by us making strategic changes or Google flipping switches behind the curtain. From the algorithm updates that wrecked March 2024 to the subtle behavioral shifts we're seeing now in 2025, we cover it all.You'll hear why turning off your ads when things get tough might be the worst move, how Local Services Ads (LSA) are stepping in to fill the gap, and why online scheduling isn't just convenient, it's essential. We'll even dig into how your website content and your service advisors' phone skills could be the hidden heroes or villains in your marketing success.Thank you to our friends at RepairPal for this episode. RepairPal will introduce your shop to new customers through repairpal.com, the largest site for auto repair. Learn more at RepairPal.com/shops.Are you ready to convert clients to members? App Fueled specializes in creating custom apps tailored specifically for auto repair businesses. Build client loyalty. Get started today with your own customer loyalty app. Visit Appfueled.comLagniappe (Books, Links, Other Podcasts, etc)GOOGLE LOCAL SERVICES ADSGoogle's Local Service Ads – Everything You Need To Know - BlogGoogle's New Local Service Ads: What Auto Repair Shops Need to KnowHaving Patience With Google Ads With Hallie WasingerPatience is Key With New Google Ads - BlogShow Notes with TimestampsIntroduction and Setting the Stage (00:00:01) Hosts introduce themselves, the topic (Google Ads roller coaster), and thank sponsors.The Reality of Google Ads Management (00:01:17) Discussion on misconceptions about Google Ads being "on/off" and the need for ongoing optimization.Client Feedback and Trusting the Process (00:03:06) Importance of client feedback, knee-jerk reactions, and trusting expert teams during ad fluctuations.Addressing Industry Concerns and Performance Drops (00:04:01) Responding to industry chatter about ad performance drops and explaining the episode's educational intent.Impact of Large-Scale Changes in Google Ads (00:05:15) How significant campaign changes trigger the learning phase and temporarily impact performance.Client Involvement and Its Effects (00:06:22) Challenges when clients request frequent changes and the need for education and boundaries.Troubleshooting Declining Results (00:08:04) Example of troubleshooting an underperforming account and the impact of repeated budget cuts.Google-Initiated Changes: The Great Ads Exodus (00:09:30)

On this episode, we explore how B2B SaaS platform monday.com has scaled its digital customer success programs to support rapid growth — and how these programs are optimized to meet each customer at their specific point along the customer journey.As businesses expand, there are more customers to support and the same amount of time in each day. That means customer success teams face the challenge of ensuring clients derive maximum value from products or services at scale. This growth can make providing consistent one-to-one support, particularly to smaller customers, increasingly difficult.To strategically support its expanding customer base, monday.com introduced office hours — scheduled sessions where small groups of customers receive live training from a customer success manager (CSM), followed by dedicated time for questions and answers.Listen for the informative insights of Samantha David, digital customer success program manager at monday.com, as she shares valuable insights on how office hours complement monday.com's traditional customer success approaches. Learn how monday.com leverages customer segmentation and data-driven insights to deliver tailored support at scale, and discover best practices for CSMs looking to implement similar digital content strategies in their own organizations.Visit our website to learn more about TELUS Digital.

In this episode, Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, discusses leadership, culture, and the relentless pursuit of excellence that has propelled McLaren to the top of Formula 1. Recorded during McLaren’s turnaround in 2024, the episode delves into how strategic leadership changes, innovation, and a culture of continuous improvement have driven the team to dominate the 2025 Formula 1 season. Zak shares invaluable insights on building world-class teams, making tough leadership calls, and creating a dynamic and inclusive work environment. Episode Highlights: 03:50 Leadership and Culture at McLaren 08:22 The Importance of Fun and Engagement 16:55 Innovation and Technology at McLaren 22:06 McLaren's Journey in Formula One 23:32 Leadership Changes and Team Restructuring 27:52 Innovative Sponsorship Approaches 34:04 IndyCar Highlights and Emotional Moments As Chief Executive of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown has overall responsibility for the business, including strategic direction, operational performance, marketing and commercial development. Zak leads McLaren’s direction and involvement in professional motorsport, spearheaded by the McLaren Formula 1 team. Operating at the pinnacle of global motorsport, McLaren uses the white heat of competition to drive innovation and develop synergies across the group, including but also in Formula E, Xtreme E, IndyCar, and F1 Academy. In 1995, he founded JMI, which grew to become the largest and most successful motorsport marketing agency in the world. When JMI was acquired by CSM, a division of Chime Communications, in 2013, Brown became the company’s Chief Executive Officer. He then relinquished that post to embark on his journey at McLaren in the winter of 2016. A passionate racer, collector and enthusiast, Zak also sits on the board of Cosworth Engineering and competes and races as a partner and driver in Anglo-American racing team United Autosports. Check out these Move the Ball Motorsports Episodes: Guenther Steiner “Formula 1 Unfiltered – High Performance Beyond the Grid”: https://omny.fm/shows/move-the-ball/guenther-steiner-formula-1-unfiltered-high-perform Brendan P. Keegan “Creating Purposeful Partnerships in Business and Sports”: https://omny.fm/shows/move-the-ball/brendan-p-keegan-creating-purposeful-partnerships Darren Cox “Driving Innovation from Formula 1 to Hollywood”: https://omny.fm/shows/move-the-ball/darren-cox-driving-innovation-from-formula-1-to-ho Mark Sibla “Driving Success and Growth with IndyCar”: https://omny.fm/shows/move-the-ball/mark-sibla-driving-success-and-growth-with-indycar Alex Moeller – “Connecting Brands to Speed & Innovation”: https://omny.fm/shows/move-the-ball/alex-moeller-connecting-brands-to-speed-innovation Kyle Larson “Relentless Drive. High Speed. No Limits.”: https://omny.fm/shows/move-the-ball/kyle-larson-relentless-drive-high-speed-no-limits Nic Hamilton “Driven to Inspire, Living a Life Bigger Than They Expect”: https://omny.fm/shows/move-the-ball/nic-hamilton-driven-to-inspire Read The Executive Edge Newsletter titled Fast Decisions, High Stakes: What Executives Can Learn from the Racetrack: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fast-decisions-big-stakes-what-executives-can-learn-jd-llm-mba-1dufc Connect with Zak Brown: McLaren Racing Website: www.mclaren.com/racingMcLaren Instagram: www.instagram.com/mclarenMcLaren Twitter/X: @McLarenF1Download the McLaren App: www.mclaren.com/racing/latest-news/mclarenracing/article/download-official-mclaren-app/?utm_content=linkstream_link&utm_source=storystream IT'S TIME TO SHOW UP WITH CONFIDENCE, MAKE AN IMPACT, AND MOVE THE BALL:

#362 In this episode, Guy welcomed back Suraj Holzwarth White Eagle Medicine Woman. They delved into a deep and heartfelt discussion about the current state of the world, a collective awakening, and the collapse of old illusions. Suraj shared insights from her meditative experiences in front of Hawaiian volcanoes and discussed the significant shift of humanity towards a new understanding of self and the divine. They also talked about the Crystal Skull Method (CSM), developed over seven years, which integrates sacred geometry, ancient healing practices, and modern science to activate the pineal gland and promote healing. Suraj explained how CSM sessions can be done in-person or remotely and shared remarkable case studies demonstrating its effectiveness. The podcast underscores the importance of grounding to liquid fire, the role of forgiveness, and the journey of moving from human doing into human being. About Suraj: White Eagle Medicine Woman (Suraj Holzwarth) adventurous life began early, when at the age of 19 she moved to Alaska and became the youngest woman to climb Denali, North America's highest peak. With a deep love for the earth, she spent most of her early years in the wilds, climbing the highest peaks and guiding wilderness expeditions and retreats throughout the world for over twenty five years. In the late 90's she received a vision in dreams with indigenous Grandmothers to create the world's largest healing drum and to travel promoting peace through music. Beginning in 2000 and taking over a year to construct, White Eagle and the multicultural Alaskan community built the seven-foot, crystal inlaid GrandMother Drum.  In 2001, White Eagle and Grandmother Drum were launched on their first of many World Peace Tours inspiring unity, peace and “drumming up” awareness of earth sustainable projects with the theme “ The Heartbeat of One Family, One Earth.  White Eagle is the founding director and Drum Keeper of the GrandMother Drum International Peace Project and the 501c3 non-profit Whirling Rainbow Foundation based in Homer, Alaska. She is internationally known as a shamanic healer, seer, trance-medium, author, speaker, teacher, ceremonial and performance artist of Native American and European ancestry. She has since traveled over a million miles touching a million people in 20 countries with the 7 ft, crystal inlaid, thundering heartbeat of the world's largest drum of its kind, Grandmother Drum, and promoting unity, peace, tribal reconciliation, and earth sustainability. Her award winning CDs include “Journey of the Heart”, “Songlines of the Soul”, “Living Waters of Grace” and “Holy Ground”. She is the author of “The Magic Bundle” children's book, and “Songs of A New Earth” songbook. White Eagle is also the director and co-producer of the award winning documentary film “GrandMother Drum: Awakening the Global Heart”, selected as the Top 20 Spiritual Films at the Tel Aviv Spirit Film Festival. She is the founder and director of the Rainbow Fire Mystery School (RFMS) operating in Alaska, Hawaii and Peru and has led thousands of shamanic workshops, ceremonies and training globally for over 35 years. Starting with the acclaimed "Language of One" and "Heart of One" online spiritual programs, White Eagle has now expanded the RFMS to over a dozen certified online shamanic training programs. She is also the creator, director and lead instructor of the certified shamanic methods of Balancing the Shields© Community Mother DrumKeepers Training© and The Crystal Skull Method©.In 2013, White Eagle launched the Global Blue Flame Planetary Grid ceremony, activating and renewing the earth's grid in a one day ceremony annually with 62 trained groups worldwide. Key Points Discussed:  (00:00) - SHAMAN REVEALS Prophecy Is Unfolding — And There's No Turning Back! (00:47) - Podcast Welcome and Overview (02:15) - Guest Introduction and Initial Thoughts (04:32) - The State of the World and Personal Reflections (07:40) - Navigating Change and Spiritual Insights (21:15) - The Role of Forgiveness and Love (24:17) - Spiritual Awakening and Personal Stories (34:17) - The Illusion of the Ego and True Being (38:02) - Slowing Down and Finding Bliss in Nature (39:58) - The Crystal Skull Method: An Introduction (40:22) - Channeling and the Collective Consciousness (41:48) - The Significance of Crystal Skulls (44:05) - Grandmother Drum and Global Activations (46:21) - The Crystal Skull Method Explained (49:09) - The Pineal Gland and Sacred Geometry (52:55) - The Science Behind the Crystal Skull Method (01:02:41) - Training and Applications of the Crystal Skull Method (01:10:12) - Conclusion and Final Thoughts How to Contact Suraj Holzwarth:www.whirlingrainbow.com   About me:My Instagram: www.instagram.com/guyhlawrence/?hl=en Guy's websites:www.guylawrence.com.au www.liveinflow.co

#updateai #customersuccess #saas #businessRachel Tsui, the ex-Head of CS at Komodo Health, joins hosts Jon Johnson and Josh Schachter to dive deep into the intricacies of customer success. Rachel highlights the innovative use of healthcare data to identify patient trends and enhance service delivery. The conversation explores how Komodo's customer success team navigates post-sales processes, strategically collaborates with account management, and the essential role of data-driven decisions. Jon and Rachel also delve into career growth challenges, touching on the balancing act of flat organization structures, professional development, and the evolving expectations of newer workforce generations. Join us for a captivating journey through customer success strategies, organizational dynamics, and how they shape the future of innovation at Komodo Health.Timestamps0:00 - Preview, & Intros7:30 - CS at Komodo Health 10:28 - KPIs for customer success at Komodo12:00 - Plans and Priorities 13:22 - Focusing on separating support from CS activities16:03 - Managing expectations around promotions20:06 - Navigating career growth23:50 - Cross-functional collaboration and tools for knowledge sharing___________________________

Want to know exactly what it takes to crack $150K+ in Customer Success this year? Spoiler: It's not a straight climb up the CSM ladder. Most high earners don't even have the "perfect" resume you'd expect.Inside this episode, I deconstruct the real, actionable strategies from ten clients who recently landed six-figure CS roles. You'll discover the resume keywords, career moves, and day-to-day behaviors that got them hired and the surprising patterns that break all the so-called “rules” of CS career growth.Curious how your experience stacks up? Wondering what one move could unlock your next salary bracket? Listen now! This playbook could literally change your trajectory, starting today.

Joel Bancroft-Connors: The 90-Day Rule—Building Trust Before Disrupting the Status Quo Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Joel shares his first experience as a CSM at a traditional hard drive manufacturing company, where he learned the art of patient change management. Tasked with bridging the gap between a rigid mothership company and their agile startup division, Joel discovered the power of focusing on principles rather than processes. For six months, he concentrated on creating transparency and shifting focus from status reporting to "getting to done" without ever mentioning Scrum or Agile.  His approach followed what he calls the 90-day rule: "In the first 90 days - do no harm, but then have a plan to do something." By listening first and building trust, Joel helped the team deliver a product in just three months. He emphasizes the importance of making people feel valued and using "future perfect thinking" to envision desired outcomes before introducing change. In this episode we refer to Luke Hohmann's Innovation Games, the website and resource Manager-Tools.com, and Daniel Pink's book Drive. Self-reflection Question: Are you rushing to implement changes, or are you taking time to build trust and understand the current state before introducing new practices? [Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

In this episode, host Ken Vinacco interviews Franchino Porciuncula, the winner of the DDSIG platform award at CSM 2025 in Houston, TX. They discuss his research related to utilizing closed-loop, music-based rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) with people with Parkinson's Disease (PD). They review the impact on real-world walking and gait quality, as well as participant feedback. He discusses ways to integrate use of RAS in clinic, highlighting both the complex nature of PD and challenges and limitations observed in this randomized clinical trial.   The Degenerative Diseases Special Interest Group is part of the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy – www.neuroPT.org Show notes: https://app.box.com/s/yqos32rt9wf5ofdshnsiwedxh8ftny7i

In this episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast, Anika Zubair emphasizes the importance of building genuine human relationships with customers. She discusses the challenges faced by Customer Success Managers in managing multiple accounts and the need to shift from transactional interactions to strategic partnerships. Anika outlines common mistakes CSMs make, such as only reaching out when they need something and failing to personalize communication. She introduces principles for building strong relationships, including being relevant, consistent, and human. The episode concludes with actionable challenges for listeners to enhance their customer relationships.Get your FREE QBR Revenue Guide: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/resourcesGet on the VIP Waitlist for RevUP Academy: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/revupChapters:00:00 Building Lasting Customer Relationships02:15 Customer Management in CS05:34 Myths in Customer Success10:10 Principles of Strategic Relationships15:44 Consistency Over Intensity19:34 The Human Element in Customer Success22:18 Actionable TakeawaysConnect with Anika Zubair: Website: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/anikazubair/CSM RevUP Academy: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/revupSend Anika a text :) Want to be our next guest? Apply here: https://www.thecustomersuccesspro.com/podcast-guest Podcast Editor: https://podcastmagician.com/

“Brand is the promise, the experience is the reality.” This week, Lacey Peace sits down with Abhii Parakh, Head of Customer Experience at Prudential Financial, to unpack exactly how the 150 year old legacy brand created a scalable culture of empathy, innovation, and action. From defining what CX really means to implementing belief-driven rituals and artifacts, Abhii shares a behind-the-scenes look at Prudential's remarkable shift.You'll hear how Prudential turned feedback from a single paper-fatigued customer into a multi-year digital transformation, why they built a champion network of 100+ internal customer advocates, and how they're blending human insight with emerging AI technologies to drive predictive customer experiences. This isn't about generic platitudes — it's about measurable change, internal momentum, and leadership buy-in.If you're leading CX at scale, battling organizational silos, or just wondering how to make customer experience more than a department, this is the episode you've been waiting for. Subscribe for more insider conversations with the most customer-obsessed minds in business. Key Moments:  00:00 Who is Abhii Parakh, CSM at Prudential?04:56 Building a Customer-Centric Culture10:19 Scaling Customer Experience Globally13:58 Three Elements of Culture: Artifacts, Rituals & Beliefs28:05 Impact of Predictive Analytics & Debunking NPS35:22 Adopting AI at Prudential: Challenges, Success & Predictions45:23 The Difference Between Generative AI & Agentic AI 50:27 Future of AI and Ethical Considerations –Are your teams facing growing demands? Join CX leaders transforming their AI strategy with Agentforce. Start achieving your ambitious goals. Visit salesforce.com/agentforce Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org

In this episode, AAOMPT interviewer Nick Rainey is joined by Dr. Natalie Turrentine, orthopedic physical therapist and educator at Rosalind Franklin University, to unpack her CSM 2024 research on obstetric education in DPT programs.They cover:Differences between pelvic health and obstetric terminologyWhy orthopedic PTs need training in pregnancy-related considerationsAccessibility issues and referral trendsCAPTE standards and what's actually required in PT educationHow her program threads obstetric content across curriculumOpportunities to better prepare students without extending program length

 This week we are trying to discover the difference between the Seinfeld finale and this X-Files finale while we discuss “The Truth”! We're talking Gothic heroine Knowle Rohrer, how much Mulder loves his corner, Skinner awkwardly third-wheeling and then being coerced into being Mulder's lawyer, wonder how ghosts can give away pieces of paper, and get really excited for a second that we would be seeing Normal Hosteen. We spend a lot of time discussing CSM growing Rapunzel hair, get happy about one more Mulder Yell for the road, wonder how Marita still has her job at the UN, sleep through endless court scene after endless court scene, and feel a shiver go through us at how closely we avoided the George W. Bush deleted scene. Petition to replace the alien head emoji with CSM flaming skull starts now.  Send us an email at scullynationpod@gmail.com or follow us on Instagram! 

Show Notes Today's Guests: Jamie Dyson PT, DPT jamiedyson224@gmail.com Constanza Aranda PT, DPT, MSPH carandadpt@gmail.com Guest Quotes: 3:34 Connie “ And that was when I said, wow, like, it would be so cool one day to be able to present in a such a big stage like CSM. And Jamie being the mentor that he is, he said, noted a little mental note and he said, I think we have just written our first goal as mentor mentee.” 7:07 Jamie “ It's easier to be a mentor when your mentee takes an active role. Yeah. In, in the relationship. Too many mentees try to take a passive route.” 21:35 Jamie “  If you try to be too prescriptive as a mentor, I think that kind of turns the mentees off.  If I had told Connie exactly what she needs to do every single day, she probably would've said, all right, enough of this guy, I'm outta here.” Rapid Responses:  Before you walk into a patient's room, what would be your theme song as you walk into that patient's room? -Connie “Eye of the Tiger” You know you work in acute care when… -Connie “You have a change of scrubs in the car” Links: https://www.aptaacutecare.org/page/AspireandAchieveMentorshipProgram Connect with our host and the podcast! Leo Arguelles (LEE-O R-GWELL-IS) largue2@uic.edu Twitter @LeoArguellesPT Interested in being a future guest? APTA Acute Care: Website Awards Journal Access Twitter @AcuteCareAPTA Facebook APTA Acute Care Instagram @AcademyAcutePT YouTube  APTA Acute Care Podcast APTA Acute Care Resources APTA Adult Vital Signs APTA Lab Values Document Webinar Recordings

Send us a textIn this episode of the Customer Success Pro Podcast, Anika Zubair emphasizes the importance of storytelling in customer success and upselling. She discusses how effective storytelling can significantly enhance a CSM's ability to connect with customers, drive revenue, and create compelling narratives that resonate with clients. Anika outlines a structured approach to storytelling, including the 'before', 'trigger', 'after', and 'future' elements, and encourages listeners to practice their storytelling skills to improve their upselling techniques.Get your FREE QBR Revenue Guide: https://thecustomersuccesspro.com/resourcesChapters:00:00 The Power of Storytelling in Customer Success02:16 Understanding the Human Element03:40 Crafting the Customer's Story08:21 The Upsell as a Natural Continuation12:07 Weekly Challenge: Practice Your Storytelling17:22 Recap and Key TakeawaysConnect with Anika:LinkedInYouTubeTikTokInstagramWebsite: thecustomersuccesspro.comCoaching with Anika: CSM RevUP Academy Podcast Editor: https://podcastmagician.com/

Join my newsletter and in the survey select Side Hustler and I will send you the best side hustles to your inbox plus alot more great information - https://lionden.io  Here is another video I made if you re looking for Passive Income - https://youtu.be/32R5NcmL22E?si=DVyhv9egeFaNoF5_  Buy my video course for just $27 were I break down the best side hustles so you can learn and make real money fast! - h https://robertrlyon.thrivecart.com/real-money-side-hustles/   Check out my course on how to make money day trading futures -  https://robertrlyon.thrivecart.com/day-trading-futures-training/   Wanna get a guaranteed high paying remote CSM job? Go here - https://clientsuccessclub.io  

If your customer check-ins feel awkward and your QBRs are just you talking at a screen of blank stares, this episode is your tactical reset. I'm sharing the five power questions top CSMs use to turn flat convos into high-impact, expansion-driving moments without needing deep product knowledge or extra prep. These aren't theoretical frameworks. They're practical, repeatable questions you can use today to build trust, build authority with customers, and uncover what actually matters to them.One of these questions helped a CSM reignite a stalled deal and close a six-figure expansion just by flipping how they framed one ask. And that's the magic... the right question doesn't just get you answers. It positions you as a strategic partner who “gets it,” not a glorified support rep running through a checklist.If you've ever felt like your customers aren't opening up or wondered why you're not looped into strategic convos, it's not your fault. You just need better questions. Hit play and let's turn your next check-in into the one that changes the game.

"If done right, AI will actually make us more human. It handles the busy work and surfaces real-time insights—so GTM teams can focus on what really drives revenue: building relationships, solving real problems, and creating long-term customer value." That's a quote from Roderick Jefferson and a sneak peek at today's episode.Hi there, I'm Kerry Curran—Revenue Growth Consultant, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost, A Marketing Podcast. In every episode, I sit down with top experts to bring you actionable strategies that deliver real results. So if you're serious about business growth, find us in your favorite podcast directory, hit subscribe, and start outpacing your competition today.In this episode, titled AI + EQ + GTM: The New Growth Equation for B2B Leaders, I sit down with keynote speaker, author, and enablement powerhouse Roderick Jefferson to unpack the modern formula for revenue growth: AI + EQ + GTM.We explore why traditional sales enablement isn't enough in today's landscape—and how real go-to-market success requires alignment across marketing, sales, and customer success, powered by emotional intelligence and smart technology integration.Whether you're a CRO, CMO, or GTM leader looking to scale smarter, this episode is packed with real-world insights and actionable strategies to align your teams and drive sustainable growth.Stick around until the end, where Roderick shares expert tips for building your own AI-powered revenue engine.If you're serious about long-term growth, it's time to get serious about AI, EQ, and GTM. Let's go.Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01)Welcome, Roderick. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.Roderick Jefferson (00:06)Hey, Kerry. First of all, thanks so much for having me on. I'm really excited—I've been looking forward to this one all day. So thanks again. I'm Roderick Jefferson, CEO of Roderick Jefferson & Associates. We're a fractional enablement company, and we focus on helping small to mid-sized businesses—typically in the $10M to $100M range—that need help with onboarding, ongoing education, and coaching.I'm also a keynote speaker and an author. I actually started my career in sales at AT&T years ago. I was a BDR, did well, got promoted to AE, made President's Club a couple of times. Then I was offered a sales leadership role—and I turned it down. I know they thought I was crazy, but there were two reasons: first, I realized I loved the process of selling more than just closing big deals. And second, oddly enough, I wasn't coin-operated. I did it because I loved it—it gave me a chance to interact with people and have conversations like this one.Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:16)I love that—and I love your background. As Roderick mentioned, he does a lot of keynote speaking, and that's actually where I met him. He was a keynote speaker at B2BMX West in Scottsdale last month. I also have one of your books here that I've been diving into. I can't believe how fast this year is flying—it's already the first day of spring!Roderick Jefferson (01:33)Thank you so much. Wow, that was just last month? It feels like last week. Where is the time going?Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:45)I appreciate your experience for so many reasons. One is that—like we talked about before the show—my dad was in sales at AT&T for over 20 years. It paid for my entire education. So we were comparing notes on that era of innovation and what we learned back then.Roderick Jefferson (02:02)Thank you, AT&T!Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:13)So much of what you talked about on stage and wrote about in your book is near and dear to my heart. My background is in building integrated marketing-to-sales infrastructure and strengthening it to drive revenue growth. I'm excited to hear more about what you're seeing and hearing. You talk to so many brands and marketers—what's hot right now? What's the buzz? What do we need to know?Roderick Jefferson (02:44)A couple of things. The obvious one is AI—but I'll add something: it's not just AI, it's AI plus EQ plus IQ. Without that combination, you won't be successful.The other big theme is the same old problem we've always had: Why is there such a disconnect between sales and marketing? As an enablement guy, it pains me. I spent 30 years in corporate trying to figure that out. I think we're getting closer to alignment—thank you, AI, for finally stepping in and being smarter than all of us! But we've still got a long way to go.Part of the issue is we're still making decisions in silos. That's why I've become a champion of moving away from just "sales enablement."Yes, I know I wrote the book on sales enablement—but I don't think that's the focus anymore. In hindsight, “sales enablement” is too myopic. It's really about go-to-market. How do we bring HR, marketing, product marketing, engineering, sales, and enablement all to the same table to talk about the entire buyer's journey?Instead of focusing on our internal sales process and trying to shoehorn prospects into it, we should be asking: How do they buy? Who buys? Are there buying committees? How many people are involved? And yes, ICP matters—but that's just the tip of the iceberg. It goes much deeper.Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:44)Yes, absolutely. And going back to why you loved your early sales roles—it was about helping people. That's how I've always approached marketing too: what are their business challenges, and what can I offer to solve them? In your keynote, you said, “I want sales to stop selling and start helping.” But that's not possible without partnering with marketing to learn and message around the outcomes we drive and the pain points we solve.Roderick Jefferson (05:22)Exactly. Let's unpack that. First, about helping vs. selling—that's why we have spam filters now. Nobody wants to be sold to. That's also why people avoid car lots—because you know what's coming: they'll talk at you, try to upsell you, and push you into something you don't need or want. Then you have buyer's remorse.Now apply that to corporate and entrepreneurship. If you're doing all the talking in sales, something's wrong. Too many people ask questions just to move the deal forward instead of being genuinely inquisitive.Let's take it further. If marketing is working in a silo—building messaging and positioning—and they don't bring in sales, then guess what? Sales won't use it. Newsflash, right? And second, it's only going to reflect marketing's perspective. But if you bring both teams together and say, “Hey, what are the top three to five things you're hearing from prospects over and over?”—then you can work collaboratively and cohesively to solve those.The third piece is: let's stop trying to manufacture pain. Not every prospect is in pain. Sometimes the goal is to increase efficiency or productivity. If there is pain, you get to play doctor for a moment. And by that, I mean: do they need an Advil, a Vicodin, a Percocet, or an extraction? Do you need to stop the bleeding right now? You only figure that out by getting sales, marketing, product, and even HR at the same table.Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:34)Yes, absolutely. I love the analogy of different levels of pain solutions because you're right—sometimes it's not pain, it's about helping the customer be more efficient, reduce costs, or drive revenue. I've used the doctor analogy before too: you assess the situation and then customize the solution based on where it “hurts” the most. One of the ongoing challenges, though, is that sales and marketing still aren't fully aligned. Why do you think that's been such a persistent issue, and where do you see it heading?Roderick Jefferson (08:14)Because sales speaks French and marketing speaks German. They're close enough that they can kind of understand each other—like ordering a beer or finding a bathroom—but not enough for a meaningful conversation.The core issue is that they're not talking—they're presenting to each other. They're pitching ideas instead of having a dialogue. Marketing says, “Here's what the pitch should look like,” and sales replies, “When's the last time you actually talked to a customer?”They also get stuck in “I think” and “I feel,” and I always tell both groups—those are the two things you cannot say in a joint meeting. No one cares what you think or feel. Instead, say: “Here's what I've seen work,” or “Here's what I've heard from prospects and customers.” That way, the conversation is rooted in data and real-world insight, not opinion or emotion.You might say, “Hey, when we get to slide six in the deck, things get fuzzy and deals stall.” That's something marketing can fix. Or you go to product and say, “I've talked to 10 prospects, and eight of them asked for this feature. Can we move it up in the roadmap?”Or go back to sales and say, “Only 28% of the team is hitting quota because they're struggling with discovery and objection handling.” So enablement and marketing can partner to create role plays, messaging guides, or accreditations. It sounds utopian, but I've actually done this six times over 30 years—it is possible.It's not because I'm the smartest guy in the room—it's because when sales and marketing align around shared definitions and shared goals, real change happens. Go back to MQLs and SQLs. One team says, “We gave you all these leads,” and the other says, “Yeah, but they all sucked.” Then you realize: you haven't even agreed on what a lead is.As a fractional enablement leader, that's the first question I ask: “Can you both define what an MQL and SQL mean to you?” Nine times out of ten, they realize they aren't aligned at all. That's where real progress starts.Once you fix communication, the next phase is collaboration. And what comes out of collaboration is the big one: accountability. That's the word nobody likes—but it's what gets results. You're holding each other to timelines, deliverables, and follow-through.The final phase is orchestration. That's what enablement really does—we connect communication, collaboration, and accountability across the entire go-to-market team so everyone has a voice and a vote.Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:16)You're so smart, and you bring up so many great points—especially around MQLs, SQLs, and the lack of collaboration. There's no unified North Star. Marketing may be focused on MQLs, but those criteria don't always match what moves an MQL to an SQL.There's also no feedback loop. I've seen teams where sales and marketing didn't even talk to each other—but they still complained about each other! I was brought in to help, and I said, “You're adults. It's time to talk to one another.” And you'd think that would be obvious.What I love is that we're starting to see the outdated framework of MQLs as a KPI begin to fade. As you said, it's about identifying a shared goal that everyone can be accountable to. We need to all be paddling in the same direction.Roderick Jefferson (14:16)Exactly. I wouldn't say we're all rowing yet, but we've definitely got our hands in the water, and we're starting to go in the same direction. You can see that North Star flickering out there.And I give big kudos to AI for helping with that. In some ways, it reminds me of social media. Would you agree that social media initially made us less social?Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:27)Yes, totally agree. We can see the North Star.Roderick Jefferson (14:57)Now I'm going to flip that idea on its head: if done right, I believe AI will actually make us more human—and drive more meaningful conversations. I know that sounds crazy, but I have six ways AI can help us do that.First, let's go back to streamlining lead scoring. If we use AI to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert, sales can focus efforts on the most promising opportunities. Once we align on those criteria, volume and quality both improve. With confidence comes competence—and vice versa.Second is automating task management. Whether it's data entry, appointment scheduling, or follow-up emails, those repetitive tasks eat up sales time. Less than 30% of a rep's time is spent actually selling. If we offload that admin work, reps can focus on high-value activities—like building relationships, doing discovery, and closing deals.Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:59)Yes! And pre-call planning. Having the time to prepare properly makes a huge difference.Roderick Jefferson (16:19)Exactly. Third is real-time analytics. If marketing and ops can provide sales reps with real-time insights—like funnel data, deal velocity, or content performance—we can start making decisions based on data, not assumptions or feelings.The fourth area is personalized sales coaching. I talk to a lot of leaders, and I'll make a bold statement: most sales leaders don't know how to coach. They either use outdated methods or try to “peanut butter” their advice across the team.But what if we could use AI to analyze calls, emails, and meetings—then provide coaching based on each rep's strengths and weaknesses? Sales leaders could shift from managing to leading.Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:55)Yes, I love that. It would completely elevate team performance.Roderick Jefferson (18:11)Exactly. Fifth is increasing efficiency in the sales process. AI can create proposals, contracts, and other documents, which frees up time for reps to focus on helping—not chasing paperwork. And by streamlining the process, we can qualify faster and avoid wasting time on poor-fit deals.Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:58)Right, and they can focus on the deals that are actually likely to move forward.Roderick Jefferson (19:09)Exactly. And sixth—and most overlooked—is customer success. That's often left out of GTM conversations, but it's critical. We can use AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants to handle basic inquiries. That frees up CSMs to focus on more strategic tasks like renewals, cross-sell, and upsell.Let's be honest—most CSMs were trained for renewals, not selling. But cross-sell and upsell aren't really selling—they're reselling to warm, happy customers. The better trained and equipped CSMs are, the better your customer retention and growth.Because let's face it—we've all seen it: 90 days before renewal, suddenly a CSM becomes your best friend. Where were they for the last two years? If we get ahead of that and connect all the dots—sales, marketing, CS, and product—guess who wins?The prospect.The customer.The company—because revenue goes up.The employee—because bonuses happen, spiffs get paid, and KPIs are hit.But most importantly, we build customers for life. And that has to start from the very beginning, not just when the CSM steps in at the end.Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:47)Yes, this is so smart. I love that you brought customer success into the conversation. One of the things I love about go-to-market strategy is that it includes lifetime value—upsell and renewal are a critical part of the revenue journey.In my past roles, I've seen teams say, “Well, that's just client services—they don't know how to sell.” But to your point, if we coach them, equip them, and make them comfortable, it can go a long way.Roderick Jefferson (21:34)Absolutely. They become the lifeblood of your business. Yes, you need net-new revenue, but if sales builds this big, beautiful house on the front end and then customers just walk out the back door—what's the point?And I won't even get into the stats—you know them—about how much more expensive it is to acquire a new customer versus retaining one. The key is being human and actually helping.Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:46)Exactly. I love that. It leads perfectly into my next question—because one of the core components of your strategy and presentation was the importance of EQ, or emotional intelligence. Can you talk about why that's so critical?Roderick Jefferson (22:19)Yeah. It really comes down to this: AI can provide content—tons of it, endlessly. It can give you all the data and information in the world. But it still requires a human to provide context. For now, at least. I'm not saying it'll be that way forever, but for now, context is everything.I love analogies, so I'll give you one: it's like making gumbo. You sprinkle in some seasoning here, some spice there. In this case, AI provides the content. Then the human provides the interpretation—context. That's understanding how to use that generated content to reach the right person or company, at the right time, with the right message, in the right tone.What you get is a balanced, powerful approach: IQ + EQ + AI. That's what leads to truly optimal outcomes—if you do it right.Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:19)Yes! I love that. And I love every stage of your process, Roderick—it's so valuable. I know your clients are lucky to work with you.For people listening and thinking, “Yes, I need this,” how do they get started? What's the baseline readiness? How do they begin integrating sales and marketing more effectively—and leveraging AI?Roderick Jefferson (23:34)Thank you so much for that. It really starts with a conversation. Reach out—LinkedIn, social media, my website. And from there, we talk. We get to the core questions: Where are you today? Where have you been? Where are you trying to go? And most importantly: What does success look like?And not just, “What does success look like?” but, “Who is success for?”Then we move into an assessment. I want to talk to every part of the go-to-market team. Because not only do we have French and German—we've also got Dutch, Spanish, and every other language. My job is to become the translator—not just of language, but of dialects and context.“This is what they said, but here's what they meant. And this is what they meant, but here's what they actually need.”Then we dig into what's really going on. Most clients have a sense of what's “broken.” I'm not just looking for the broken parts—I'm looking at what you've already tried. What worked? What didn't? Why or why not?I basically become a persistent four-year-old asking, “Why? But why? But why?” And yes, it gets frustrating—but it's the only way to build a unified GTM team with a shared North Star.Kerry Curran, RBMA (25:32)Yes, I love that. And just to add—sometimes something didn't work not because it was a bad strategy, but because it was evaluated with the wrong KPI or misunderstood entirely.Like a top-of-funnel strategy did work—but the team expected it to generate leads that same month. It takes time. So much of this comes down to digging into the root of the issue, and I love your approach.Roderick Jefferson (26:10)Exactly. And it's also about understanding that every GTM function has different KPIs.If I'm talking to sales, I'm asking about average deal size, quota attainment, deal velocity, win rate, pipeline generation. If I'm talking to sales engineering, they care about number of demos per deal, wins and losses, and number of POCs. Customer success? They care about adoption, churn, CSAT, NPS, lifetime value.My job is to set the North Star and speak in their language—not in “enablement-ese.” Sometimes that means speaking in sales terms, sometimes marketing terms. And I always say, “Assume I know nothing about your job. Spell out your acronyms. Define your terms.”Because over 30 years, I've learned: the same acronym can mean 12 different things at 12 different companies.The goal is to get away from confusion and start finding commonality. When you break down the silos and the masks, you realize we're all working toward the same thing: new, long-term, happy customers for life.Kerry Curran, RBMA (27:55)Yes—thank you, Roderick. I love this. So, how can people find you?Roderick Jefferson (28:00)Funny—I always say if you can't find me on social media, you're not trying to find me.You can reach me at roderickjefferson.com, and you can find my book, Sales Enablement 3.0: The Blueprint to Sales Enablement Excellence and the upcoming Sales 3.0 companion workbook there as well.I'm on LinkedIn as Roderick Jefferson, Instagram and Threads at @roderick_j_associates, YouTube at Roderick Jefferson, and on BlueSky as @voiceofrod.Kerry Curran, RBMA (28:33)Excellent. I'll make sure to include all of that in the show notes—I'm sure this episode will have your phone ringing!Thank you so much, Roderick. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us. This was valuable for me, and I'm sure for the audience as well.Roderick Jefferson (28:40)Ring-a-ling—bring it on! Let's dance. Thank you again. This was an absolute honor, and I'm glad we got the chance to reconnect, Kerry.Kerry Curran, RBMA (28:59)For sure. Thank you—you too.Roderick Jefferson (29:01)Take care, all.Thanks for tuning in. If you're struggling with flat or slowing revenue growth, you're not alone. That's why Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast brings you expert insights, actionable strategies, and real-world success stories to help you scale faster.If you're serious about growth, search for us in your favorite podcast directory. Hit follow or subscribe, and leave a five-star rating—it helps us keep the game-changing content coming.New episodes drop regularly. Don't let your revenue growth strategy fall behind. We'll see you soon!

Ever wonder what it takes to run one of the fastest and most elite teams on the planet? On this episode of Golf Underground, the crew welcomes Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing and a true master of speed, sales, and strategy. From chasing Mickey Mantle as a kid to leading a 1,000-person Formula 1 operation, Zak breaks down the mental grind of racing, what separates winners from losers, how to build a culture that elite drivers want to be part of—and how AI, tire tricks, and track-day politics all factor into the future of F1.If you think golf is tough, wait until you hear what goes down on the pit wall.Must-Hear Insights and Key MomentsZak Brown shares how a childhood obsession with Mickey Mantle turned into a global racing empire.The crew cracks up as Zak tells how he dodged trouble and found racing through "the long way around."Zak reveals the behind-the-scenes pressure of leading McLaren's 1,000-person Formula 1 operation.AI, tire data, and driver instincts collide in a conversation about how F1 teams win—or completely blow it.Zak and Wardo compare the egos of F1 drivers to pro athletes in other sports, and it gets spicy.George Brett wants to know if there's such a thing as cheating in F1—Zak's answer doesn't disappoint.Brian Sullivan digs into leadership: how Zak handles high-performance people under pressure.Zak drops his golf game stat line—including the story behind the best par he's ever made.The crew dives into Drive to Survive, McLaren's media rise, and whether F1 fame helps or hurts performance.Final lightning round: Zak faces the Golf Underground Emergency 9 with answers that cover fantasy baseball, leadership, and vintage cars.Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode"The best teams don't just hire smart people—they build cultures winners want to join." – Zak Brown"If you take one second off mentally in a race car, you're in the wall." – Zak Brown"We're not guessing out here—Formula 1 is a thousand-person operation." – Zak Brown"AI can't measure guts. Not yet." – Zak Brown"Winning used to be about money. Now it's about people." – Zak Brown"In motorsports, you beg for forgiveness, not ask for permission." – Zak Brown"I shot 92 today, but I also made the best par of my life." – Zak Brown"Drivers aren't just athletes—they're pilots, boxers, and chess masters in one." – Zak Brown"The best leaders know when to put an arm around the shoulder—and when to kick some ass." – Zak Brown"You're running a Formula 1 team, and still managing a fantasy baseball roster? That's elite multitasking." – Brian Sullivan"You get more tech in a race car than a spaceship, and still, some guy will blow it on tire strategy." – Kevin Ward"Zak's out here leading McLaren and still remembers every stat from Mickey Mantle—respect." – George BrettAbout ZakZak Brown is CEO of McLaren Racing, a position to which he was appointed in April 2018 after joining McLaren in November 2016 as Executive Director of McLaren Technology Group. In his role, Zak has overall responsibility for the McLaren Racing organisation, including the strategic direction, operational performance, marketing and commercial development of the McLaren Formula 1 and IndyCar programmes. After a professional racing career in the US and Europe, Zak founded the agency JMI in 1995, which grew to become the largest motorsport marketing agency in the world and was acquired by Chime Communications PLC in 2013 as part of its sports marketing division, CSM. Brown was appointed the company's Chief Executive Officer before joining McLaren. Zak is chairman and co-owner of United Autosports and was a board member of Cosworth Engineering and non-executive chairman of the Motorsport Network. Born and raised in California, Zak lives with his family near McLaren in Surrey, UK.Follow Zak Brown⁠Instagram⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠Facebook⁠X⁠Follow ‘Golf Underground with Wardo, Sully, and George'⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠

Rob Robinson and Natan Hepfer, former Tomahawk, discuss veteran transition and leadership. The guest, with 26 years in the U.S. Army, emphasizes the importance of leadership, team building, and prioritizing people. He shares his journey from a private to a CSM, highlighting the challenges and rewards of military service. The conversation touches on the transition to civilian life, the need for credentialing, and the importance of maintaining a strong network. The guest advises veterans to be reliable, build their network, and explore various career paths, including those outside traditional military roles. The discussion focused on the transition from military to civilian life, emphasizing the need for specific credentials and leveraging programs like OTO and Army Ignited. Rob Robinson highlighted the inadequacy of military education for civilian jobs and suggested using LinkedIn for networking and job opportunities. He recommended starting VA claims 180 days before separation and using non-profit veteran service organizations for better support. The conversation also emphasized the importance of documenting injuries and taking proactive steps to ensure a smooth transition, including building a professional network and using tools for resume building and interview preparation.  So I didn't split this into two parts, so you get an extra-long episode. I'll leave you some more time between episodes to digest it fully.  This is what happens when old tommies get together.As mentioned in the show: www.armyignited.army.mil/student/public/welcomehttps://www.hireheroesusa.org/industrial-logos/o2o/https://www.cool.osd.mil/army/index.htmlhttps://socialimpact.linkedin.com/programs/veteransDisclaimer: The content of the "Philosophy From the Front Line" podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of any affiliated organizations or sponsors. This podcast does not offer legal, financial, or professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult appropriate professionals before making decisions based on the content presented. "Philosophy From the Front Line" assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content or for actions taken based on the information provided during the podcast episodes.​Fair Use Statement: This podcast may contain copyrighted material not specifically authorized by the copyright owner. "Philosophy From the Front Line" is making such material available to educate, inform, and provide commentary under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. copyright law (Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act). We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as it is:​Used for non-commercial, educational, or research purposes.​Critically analyzed, reviewed, or discussed.​Used in a transformative way that adds new meaning or message to the original work.​If you own any content used and believe it infringes on your copyright, please contact us directly, and we will address the matter promptly.​Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/philosophy-from-the-front-line--4319845/support.

Ever find yourself thinking, “There's gotta be a better way to do this”? If you're the CSM who's constantly rebuilding broken processes in your head, secretly obsessed with structure and scale, and lowkey bored of the same playbooks, this episode is your permission slip to explore CS Ops.In this episode, I'm chatting with Justin, who went from traditional CSM to building CS Ops teams at IBM and transforming them at VMware. We break down what CS Ops actually is, why it's way more strategic than people realize, why companies are hunting for strategic operators like you, and how your curiosity and love for structure might just be your secret weapon. If you've ever thought, “I want to level up but I don't want to manage a team,” hit play! This might be the career move you didn't know you were looking for.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PMuNn4sDjBg?si=6Xsi9-gk_L_AMipi 10 years in the trenches scaling businesses & unlocking freedom :Get my exact strategies & blueprint— My FREE Newsletter! https://lionden.io/subscribe  Wanna get a guaranteed high paying remote CSM job? Go here - https://clientsuccessclub.io   Start or Scale your Coaching Business Join My Free Coaching Businesses Community - https://www.skool.com/coaching-businesses   Wanna learn how to fund yourself $150k in 0% interest credit cards? - https://robertrlyon.thrivecart.com/maximum-funding/   Check out my course on how to make money day trading futures -  https://robertrlyon.thrivecart.com/day-trading-futures-training/   Wanna learn how to day trade futures? - Join the day trading mentorship community - https://www.skool.com/day-trading-mentorship-5421   Want to start your own funding company? - https://www.skool.com/power-brokers-8311/about 

Being a standout CSM today isn't about working harder… it's about working smarter. And if you're not already using AI to do that, you're missing a massive opportunity to save time, impress leadership, and build deeper customer relationships.In this episode, I'm sharing four creative ways you can leverage AI that have completely changed the game. From building thought leadership content, to optimizing your schedule, to making sense of messy data. If you've been curious about how to bring AI into your workflow and make your job a whole lot easier, this one's your blueprint.

Ever walked out of an interview wondering, “Did I ask the right questions?” “Did I get all the information I really needed?” Let's make sure you never feel that way again. In this episode, I'm giving you ten power questions that'll help you stand out, impress hiring managers, and get the real intel you need to make smart career moves.We're ditching the generic “What are the next steps?” and replacing it with strategic, credibility-boosting questions that show you're thinking ahead. Want to know how leadership really operates? How does the company support its CSM team through economic challenges? Whether the company actually invests in the tools you need to succeed? If you want to walk into your next interview with confidence, ask questions that actually matter, and leave hiring committees thinking, “Damn, we need them on our team!”... hit play! Let's make sure you're in the driver's seat for your next career move.