In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Erika Villarreal, Senior Customer Success Manager at Condeco about how to build your personal brand in Customer Success and how your personal brand can land your dream job.
Landing your Customer Success dream job is far from being a simple task. It is a competitive industry and you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd - and that’s where your personal brand comes in. When done right, personal branding is a tool to help climb the career ladder. But how do you get started building your personal brand? And why is it so important in CS?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Erika Villarreal, Senior Customer Success Manager at Condeco about how to build your personal brand in Customer Success and how your personal brand can land your dream job.
Landing your Customer Success dream job is far from being a simple task. It is a competitive industry and you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd - and that’s where your personal brand comes in. When done right, personal branding is a tool to help climb the career ladder. But how do you get started building your personal brand? And why is it so important in CS?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
Hello everyone. I'm your host, Anika zer. And welcome back to the next episode of the customer success channel podcast brought to you by plan hat, the modern customer platform. This podcast is created for anyone working in or interested in the customer success field. On this podcast, we will speak to leaders in the industry about their experiences and their definitions of customer success and get their advice and best practices on how to run ACS organization. Today, we are speaking to Erica Valerio, who is a senior customer success manager, her at Condeco software, but you might already recognize Erica's name as she has over 5,000 followers on LinkedIn, a little over a year ago, Erica transitioned into customer success and used her personal brand on LinkedIn in order to land her dream job. Erica is a customer success enthusiast, where of many hats curious by and a process addict. She is happiest when she is able to translate customer data into actionable insights, and she really loves to help improve customer experiences and drive success and not to mention she's also the top 100 CS strategist for 2021. Today, we will be speaking to Erica all about building a personal brand and customer success and how your personal brand can land you. Your dream job. Welcome Erica to the podcast. I know so much about you and I'm sure a lot of people who follow you on LinkedIn also know so much about you, but before we get into today's topic, can you please tell our podcast listeners a little bit about yourself? How did it started in customer success and what is your passion for customer success?
Speaker 2:Yes, of course Anika. Uh, first of all, thank you very much for having me on this podcast. I'm a huge fan of your work and of this podcast. So I'm super excited to be here. So here's a little bit about myself. Um, I'm Mexican. I was actually born and raised in Monterey Mexico, a, a chemical engineer who somehow ended up working in the financial industry for 10 years. Um, I started my career doing traditional lending for small businesses and then had a huge opportunity to co-found a FinTech startup back in Mexico. This is actually how I ended up, uh, working in tech and in SaaS. And I got very lucky because of that. Um, one of the things of building a company from scratch is that you got to learn a lot, uh, from every part of the business. And as we were scaling up, I had many different roles, including sales market, marketing operations, and many others, including accounting. If you can believe it. When the business started to grow, I was tasked with building and leading our customer success team. And that is, that is actually how I ended up in customer success. But to be honest, I feel like I have been doing customer success my whole life.
Speaker 1:I love that you come from such a unique and different background. I always love talking to different leaders and CS professions on here that, that have such a unique background. And that's so cool that you started your own startup and worked in so many different facets within that up. And I think that kind of led to you sharing about customer success, especially on LinkedIn. So I'm so curious, what kind of inspired you to start sharing as much as you do about customer success on LinkedIn?
Speaker 2:Sure. So I wanted to prove my customer success skills to the rest of the world. So one of the, the things that I didn't share, uh, on the previous question is that, uh, I quit my job, that job that I worked for 10 years, um, that I was working in Mexico in the middle of the pandemic. And I was trying to learn a role here in the us, uh, and I was struggling to do so even with all of my experience, even, even, even, even with my experience of building in a startup, I, I was having a really hard time. So I thought that if I shared my skills, uh, through LinkedIn and through the post and content that I was sharing, that would be, that would make it easier for the rest of the world to see, uh, to see my skills. So I started following people who were talking about customer success online, and then I realized that I had a lot to share myself. So as I started posting, I saw my thoughts resonated with other people. And the more I shared, the more motivated I felt to keep, to keep going. So sharing my stories and my learnings also allowed me to learn from other people's stories. And I really liked that.
Speaker 1:I love of it. And I know at the end of 2021, you shared specifically on LinkedIn about how, you know, you were doing so many things on LinkedIn about customer success and really growing your personal brand, as well as continuing to grow that personal brand into 2022. And I know that you have really big plans of doing that, and it's amazing how much you are doing. And I know we'll get into that more as we dive in deeper to the topic, but I would love to know you've been posting now probably on LinkedIn for a year. And Dr. And landed your dream job. What has been one of your biggest learnings thus far in customer success?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the biggest learnings, uh, for me has been that customer success is not a one size fits all strategy. It's, it's actually a tailored suit for every company. What works for one company might not work for another one. And it's really important for every leader and every CSM to understand, uh, the customer journey, your pro success, to make sure that you're building the right strategy for your organization. And that, that, that to me has been one of the biggest learning so far
Speaker 1:Amazing. And on this podcast, we of course like to talk all about customer success, and I know that you've now landed your dream job in customer success. So congrats on that, but can you please help us understand kind of how your focus in customer success has influenced your growth? You mentioned you work in everything from accounting to marketing, to sales, like why customer success, how has that influenced your growth? I
Speaker 2:Esther, of course. So, um, again, one, uh, being, uh, aware of many hats has its advantages and disadvantages, of course, right? So one of the advantages is that you get to learn from everything, but you are not an expert at anything, right? So when I decided to go all in into customer success, I, I decided that I wanted to be the expert in customer success. I didn't wanna be, uh, I, I didn't wanna be the person who knew much of a lot, but actually not expert at anything. So, um, when I decided to go all in customer success, my life has changed drastically. I built more relationships than I than ever before. I've joined multiple communities. I have moved faster than ever. And as you've mentioned, um, that post I shared with everything that I accomplished in that last year was because I was focused on customer success. I was not doing any, uh, I was doing, I, I was focused on doing just that. So I learned so much from my every conversation that I had. Um, my knowledge has multiplied exponentially since then. And I feel like I am going to achieve my goal really fast, which is actually becoming, uh, director of customer success or BP of customer success in the short term.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you'll get there. And I know that you're super determined and that's why you also built your personal brand. And that's what we are actually talking about in more detail today is a personal brand and customer success. And we see it more and more. I think maybe the pandemic has had a big influence on this, but a personal brand on LinkedIn is what really landed you, your current job as, uh, a CSM at Condeco. And I would love to understand why building a personal brand in CS is so important. And why did you actually start to build that brand?
Speaker 2:So again, the first reason of, uh, why I decided to do this, uh, tracks back to that time where I was out of a job, right? I was out of a job of, in the middle of the pandemic, June, 2020, um, I, I was working in Mexico and I was looking to transition to the us, right? So at that time, when I was, uh, looking for roles in the us, I was struggling a lot to get the attention of hiring managers. I had been applying for six months. I had not been getting the interviews that I wanted and people were telling me that I have, not that I didn't have the experience when I did get those interviews. So I, I didn't use LinkedIn the way that we use it today, or at least I didn't know that there was, uh, a social network out there. Right. I thought that LinkedIn was a platform where you could just apply for roles and hear back from hiring managers and that's it. But I was so wrong. Uh, there's a huge community out there. There's people sharing content, there's people network working and meeting with other people on one on one. And, and, and, and I realized that, um, when, when I started using more LinkedIn, right? So one of my friends who was going through this similar journey as I was going through back in June of 2020, she was also quitting her job. She was also looking for another opportunity and she recommended this webinar, uh, that talked about personal branding. And I was like, what's personal branding. I've never heard that before. What does that mean? Uh, how, how is this going to help me achieve my goal? Right. So I joined that webinar and learned that LinkedIn was more, was much more than just applying and for roles, right? So I learned about communities and I learned about networking, and I learned about content and, and, and, and making sure that I was commenting and posting and, and sharing my ideas as well. So, so one of the things that they, uh, told me during that webinar is that that would help me, uh, boost my profile to hiring managers. So I decided to give it a try. I, I was seeing other people do that as well on online. I was like, if other people can do it, why can't I, so that's how it all started.
Speaker 1:It's amazing that you obviously jumped in and really got started with your personal brand. Erica, I think a lot of people listening to this podcast today is thinking, Hey, how do I start my own personal brand? Or how do I get started in customer success, which is both things that you've recently done and done really well. Can you give us a little bit of background of your journey and how you got started in CS branding? You mentioned that you wanted to become a specialist in it. How did you learn and then, and what did you start sharing?
Speaker 2:Yes, of course. So one of the things, uh, that I like to propose as a first step is actually finding out who you are and what are the topics that make you passionate, right? So for example, for me, I like to talk about data. I like to talk about CS operations. I like to talk about breaking customer success. I could write for days around these topics, find out which are those topics that interest you, that make you passionate, that you could just sit in a computer and just make it, uh, make your hands flow while we write, right? So this is actually the first step in, in actually being successful. Knowing what to talk about. Then the second step for me is to start following people who are talking about those topics, right? Uh, people who inspire you, people who are sharing the type of content that you like to read, and this way you are reading content from other people that you can later use as inspiration for your own posts. Then another tip that I have is, uh, start building meaningful connections. It's not just about commenting or liking other people, other people's posts. It's also about engaging with them, actual providing value, sharing your thoughts on, on what they have shared, not, not just click like, and that's it, right? This allows you to build a connection with them. And, um, it also allows you to start conversations, right? That later can lead into a connection request or, um, a one on one with that person, right? So your personal brand is not just content it's content and connections as well. Finally, connect with people. It's not just about sending connection requests. It's about actually building those relationships. Did you read something, uh, online, a post that resonated with you, and did you like that post and think that you should be reading more of that person send a connection request, but not just as, not just click on connect, just, uh, click on connect, send a personalized message of why you're connecting with that person. So you can keep, continue to read more about that person as well.
Speaker 1:Thanks for sharing that, Erica. I know you mentioned that there were as people that you started to connect with and have meaningful connections, as well as started to follow people that possibly inspired you to build a personal brand. Can you maybe share with our listeners who inspired you to start personal brand? Who do you follow on LinkedIn? That makes sense for other people to follow as well?
Speaker 2:Sure. Um, I actually love this question cuz um, it, it definitely was something that, um, allowed me to make my decision and started building my brand. So one of the first persons that I started following that I am a huge fan of, of, uh, by the way is, uh, Theus you probably really know her she's everywhere on LinkedIn. She has her website, she has her blog she's she she's, I don't know how she does everything, but, um, she has her own personal brand as well. She was one of the first persons that I met. Um, and then I started reading her blog and I started seeing what she was sharing online and, and everything shared was, uh, something that resonated a lot with me, cuz her story is, uh, very similar to mine, right? She was transitioning from customer support into customer success. She was trying to land a role. She was also, uh, feeling kind of lost during this process and, and, and, and she started building this brand where she demonstrated her skills. She demonstrated her value and it got her, her, um, her goal, right. She actually landed a customer success role by doing that. And, and, and I felt like if she can do it, why can't I, right. So that's one of the persons that I really recommend for people to follow. And then there's multiple other people out there. Um, and there's for example, the gain and grown routine community. There's Jay and there's Jeff and there's also Christie Russa, who I'm also a very huge fan of, um, there's Jan, John, and well, the list goes on and I can continue naming up 100 people. But, um, the thing here is like just, just make sure that you're following the right people and that will get you the inspiration that you need to start with the first step.
Speaker 1:I love it. And everyone you mentioned are super inspirational and share so much content. And funny enough, I'm a huge fan of Dana's, uh, newsletter. I'm actually speaking to her tomorrow as well. So anyone who's not following her or reading her newsletter, she shares so many tips and tricks about breaking into customer success. And yes, she has an amazing personal brand. And I can see why she's so inspirational to you. Erica. I would love to dive in a little bit deeper to what you've shared thus far. That's really worked well for building your personal brand. And how has this led to people reaching out to you? I know you mentioned trying to get the attention of recruiters and there was one post in particular that, uh, that you did share that helped recruiters reach out to you. So what did you share that really worked and what should our listen be sharing?
Speaker 2:Yes. So, um, one of the things that I found out, uh, really worked for me was sharing posts and content that taught something to your, uh, I mean to my audience, for example. Um, so whenever I talked about my experiences as starting as a new CS Sam or starting my new role, for example, or when I talked about my successes and my challenges, and even, even those posts, when I shared those times that I failed, right? When something went wrong at work, what happened, what I did, how I fixed it. Right? So those, those posts that showed, um, transparency, let's say I was not trying to hide who I was. I was not trying to, to be another person. I just was trying to be myself and, and, and share my learnings out there. So those, those kind of posts resonated a lot with people. Uh, those were the type of posts that went viral and I continued to do that. Right. Cuz you, every day you have new learnings, uh, when you're at your job, something new happens or there's a new experience, right? So I used all of those, uh, times where, where I had a learning at work to share it with the community and that worked very well for me. Another, another thing that I did at work very well was, uh, take, taking time to build infographics cuz uh, people are visual, right? They, uh, sometimes we like to write and write and write and there's long posts and there's short posts, but then when you are visual and create, um, something there's Amma and there's colors and there there's icons and there's much more than just words, people like that. People, people like seeing these type of, uh, content because they also know that those take time, right. So I know you have to invest time in building those, but it, it is definitely worthwhile and it worked very well for me,
Speaker 1:Love that. I love that you're sharing those tactical takeaways of being vulnerable, being yourself and really sharing what you are passionate about. Because again, a personal brand is exactly that is being personal and making sure you put your own stamp on everything. And again, just remembering to be open because you know, no one's perfect and sharing what you've learned can go a real long way. Um, but on the other hand, I'm so curious. What did you share that didn't work? Or what did you learn from stuff that you shared that maybe didn't get the attention you were hoping it would?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so sometimes I thought that I had to post because I needed to post. Right? So every time you read about personal brands, uh, you, you get these messages of you have to be posting every day or you have to be posting three times or five times per day. And, and it's, it's not necessarily like that. Like you, you, you definitely have to be consistent, but it's not, it's not just about posting, right? It's, it's not whatever comes to your mind and, and post that. Uh, I feel when, whenever I posted things that didn't have like the background or didn't have facts in it or didn't have, uh, learnings in it or, or were just, uh, I don't know, posts that were out there without an intention. Those didn't really work very well. So, uh, one of the things that I did is I stopped doing that. Uh, I stopped posting because I had it to post, right. So I only posted when I had something relevant to share with the community or some sort of learning, um, or some sort of value to add, right. It's, it's, it's not just about being out there. And the other thing I feel, uh, that sometimes we forget about when we are building personal brand is that you're, you're building your personal brand, but other people are doing that as well. Right? It's not only about you and what you post. It's also about your, uh, engagement with other people's content. It's also about the connections that you build and the conversations that you have, right? So it's not just about putting out their content and that's it. It's also about connecting with people and, and, and having those meaningful conversations that help you build, uh, your friends and, and, and, and, and that, and the connections you have overall. So my suggestion would be to always post with intent and always add value to your community and always look for a connection or, uh, or for a conversation additional, uh, from your post.
Speaker 1:It resonates so much back to customer success. Everything you're saying about building a personal brand makes me think about how a customer success professional can also connect meaningfully with their customer. And remember that when they are sending an email or doing an EBR, you have to make sure you're adding value. And so I can see why personal brand and customer success works so closely together. And you can be successful in both when you are using the right content and the right meaningful message, like you mentioned before. And I know that you started building this personal brand because you wanted to land your dream job, which you're in, which is amazing, but so curious, which post did you actually share that ended up landing you the position that you're in now?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's, uh, that's a funny question. A funny story. Um, cuz I was not intending that to call out so many hiring managers, but the post that I shared that landed me, my dream job was an infographic that I built. Let's see how I was talking about building infographics before this was one info infographic that I built, that I was comparing the salaries of, uh, customer success managers versus uh, product management and sales. So it had a, a graph with big, huge numbers of how much, uh, on average, a CSM versus a sales versus product manager did. Uh, and, and this image was very shocking because a customer success manager role had the least, uh, the least salary from, from the three of them. Right. And, and, and, and to me it was like, how come a CSM, who is a hero and does everything for the company has, uh, has as salary as low as this. Right. And I believe, uh, the average for, for, or that infographic that I shared was some somewhere around from 60 to 70, 70,000 annually. Right. So it was like, how, how is, how is it possible that the salary is so low? Right? And, and, and that brought a lot of discussion into, into LinkedIn. I think that post got like somewhere around 350 likes and it, it was built like for, I don't know, maybe 30,000 people. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but, but it was, it was really impacting because from that post, there was a lot of, uh, controversy out like people were commenting and were discussing why, why people thought it was right, that the salary should be more. And anyway, that called the attention of three hiring managers. Uh, some of them posted in, in that same, uh, in that same, in that same infographic that I shared and some reached out via direct message. My, uh, the VP of operations, uh, currently at Conco, saw that post and, and reached out and say, Hey, well, uh, I, I noticed that you share these, uh, found it interesting. I am looking for CSMs and, and, and the salaries more than this. So would you be interested? And I was like, yeah, of course let's talk. Right. So that's how, that's how it happened.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I love that you posted about something so controversial, which is salaries, which is something that I think a lot of companies still don't share publicly, and it's not common to kind of openly talk about salaries. It's just so much hidden truths about who's getting paid, what, and you know, what level they are and how much they get paid for it. So I love that you bringing some truth or at least highlighting what the average salary for a CSM is, what ended up sparking so much conversation and thus leading you to a meaningful conversation with a, uh, leader within the business that ended up landing you a job. So I really do love that sharing something. So controversial ended up with such a, a positive spin at the end of it. Um, but you also mentioned at the earlier start of our conversation, you were doing a lot of things. You were a Jack of all trades, and you were kind of focusing in every which direction, which a lot of people within a startup can relate to because when you wear multiple hats, you just kind of have to do it all, but then you really decided to put all of your cards or, or all of your intention into customer success. Why customer success, what made you pull towards that instead of marketing or sales or another direction?
Speaker 2:Great question. So, um, again, let's go back to that time where I was, uh, reflecting on what I wanted to do next, I was evaluating different roles. And in fact, I actually evaluating product marketing and sales, which was the roles that I did before. And I was comparing the job descriptions side by side. Like what's what the pros and cons for each one of these opportunities were. And, um, I liked product management because it paid more, but I didn't really, I didn't really feel passionate about the activities, like thinking about backlogs and, and, and all of that stress of, of making changes to the product and all of that. Like, didn't really resonate with me. And when I was doing my research on customer success and I was learning more and I was taking these certifications to learn more about it, I was like, this feels like the perfect fit for me, feels like this is what I wanna do. And, and the reason that was is that I like helping other people, right. It it's part like it's in my blood. I like helping out. Um, I like making people successful, whether it's at work or in my personal life. So when I was thinking, these are the activities that I could be doing for the rest of my career, I, I felt like that was, uh, that was what I needed to do next. So that's the reason why I chose customer success, uh, cuz it makes me really happy to be able to help my customers out. And the activities that a customer success manager does even, even when, sometimes they're stressful in a way. Um, it, it always ends my day with happiness. So, um, yeah. So that's the reason why I chose customer success over any other role.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I love that. And I can just feel the positive energy coming from you as you're talking about it. So it makes complete sense why your passion lies within customer success. So thank you for sharing that, but I know you're also just busy with so many things. You have a full-time job now you obviously have personal commitments and a personal life and the ongoing pandemic, which hopefully is coming to an end someday soon, but still there's only so many hours with the, in a day where you can do everything that you need to do. What is your source of energy? Where do you kind of keep it all together and where do you keep finding sources for new content and how do you keep it going? Where is your motivation coming from?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So to be honest, my motivation to continue to write and share things comes out of my day to day work. Um, this is kinda my first source of inspiration. So when, when I'm at work, I normally learn new things every day. Um, and at the end of the day, I try to reflect on those learnings. My work every day is my inspiration. One of my, my post recent post, where I talk about escalations. I wrote it a day after having a conversation with one of my top customers. So we jumped on a call to discuss our progress. And the first things that we talked about was the latest trip that he had for skiing and I had for snowboarding. And then we were discussing business as usual, right? So I was thinking to myself, I can't believe I'm this close with this customer after a huge escalation, cuz this customer had gone through a really hard, uh, implementation process and they were about to churn and, and, and then there's this great relationship that I build with them, right? And, and that inspired me to write that post. So again, every day, when, when, when I'm at work, I get inspiration from, from the things I learn. And that's part of the things that, uh, that I share online. I also get inspiration of my own learnings, whether I'm reading a customer success book or joining a webinar on CS operations, or I had a talk with a friend to discuss as business reviews, for example. So every, every conversation that I have where I have a learning, remember real learnings are value for my community. So whatever I learn, that's what I share online. And that that's also a source of inspiration for me to continue to write content. And finally, another way that I get I ideas to start posting, um, that, um, help me post FA faster if, if you will, is, um, sharing well, learning from other people's content as well. So as I've mentioned before, one of the, one of the tips that I recommend is that you start following people who are talking your same topics. So from those, when people post about something, uh, that resonates with me, what I do is I bookmark those posts and then I see, okay, they talked about this this way. How could I, uh, add my own thought to it? How, how do I change this into my own experiences? And then what I do is I, I talk about that, right? So there's multiple ways of getting ideas. Um, the most, I guess the most important one would be yourself, right on, on, on your own learnings and on your own reflections. And, and talk about that. That's um, yes, the most easies, well the easiest one, I, I would say
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing that. I'm uh, so curious as well when you've already landed the dream job and you're busy and you're continuing to post, why keep on posting? Why not take a step back or I know you have some really, really big goals in 2022, and that's one of the post that you shared that inspired this conversation today, but why keep on going once you've already landed the job because you started the personal brand to, to land the job and you've already done that
Speaker 2:Great question. So, uh, the reason of why I keep going is that my goals changed right? When I started building my brand, it, it was all about landing that dream job, right. But for now my goals have, have changed. Now it's not about, uh, landing another role. It's more about helping other professionals land their current roles, right? It's uh, my, my personal brand is inspiring other people to start their own brand. It's helping professionals become better CSMs. And my goal is to continue to help others become the best version they can be. Right. So I, I love that feeling. I get when my content is reshared or when I get personal messages saying how helpful reading my post was, or when I receive a personal message, uh, saying, uh, that someone recommended they follow me or helping other professionals succeed is what keeps me going. Right? So that, that, that feeling that I have after people reach out to me or, or, or let me know that my post was, uh, something super helpful that I love that feeling. And I wanna continue to do that moving forward.
Speaker 1:That's such an honorable reason to keep going. And, um, I'm sure a lot of your followers and everyone who's inspired by your content and your work will love continuing to see what you're posting and, and sharing really as your goals change. So thanks for all you share, but I know you've shared so many takeaways and learnings for our listener, but if you could summarize, what's your main learning from creating a personal brand and customer success. And are there any key takeaways that you would love our listeners to take away from this conversation?
Speaker 2:Yes. I have three key takeaways from this and, um, the first one would be to start today. So if your, of building your brand and, and, and you're having questions and having doubts and, and, and having a fear, cuz I, I think it all relates to fear, right? Fear of failing, fear of no one listening, fear of people not liking what they're sharing. Right. Uh, what I would say is just feel the fear and do it anyway. Right? That's what I did. And, um, you'll get comfortable once you start, uh, doing it right. The other takeaway would be to be patient success does not come overnight. You gotta put the work in and it's, and it will eventually take off. Do not be discouraged if you feel no one is listening. That's how I started. And I didn't let fear get in the way of my goals. I promise you there's a silver lining and you will find it and finally build true relationships, connect with people who share your same thoughts and ideas. Send connect, jump on one on one chats, meet your network. You have no idea how rewarding that is. One of the best things I got out of building my personal brand are true friends, true friends, who I can actually call on the phone and say, Hey, I need your help. I, I had this issue at work. How, how do I go about this? I cannot even count amount of people who I've, uh, met that I can do that with. Right. So it it's, it's incredible. Cause it's people that I've never met in person, but still consider. Uh, I consider them my friends, right? My friends, my coworkers, people that will help me, um, no matter what, right? So those were, those would be my three, um, advice and my key takeaways for the audience.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing that. And that's so important and everything you said about being open and sharing and starting today and not being fearful is so important. And I really love the building meaningful, real relationships and really tapping into your network because like you said, some of the people that you end up, you know, having those conversations with, whether it's on a comment or a like, or a shared message, they end up helping you in ways that you would never imagine. And it is amazing to build that strong network of CS professionals. And I think by nature, all of us are so helpful. We always wanna help out. So if you're having those conversations, someone's gonna wanna help you along the way. So don't ever be afraid of sharing your posts. So thank you so much, Erica, for sharing all of that. Before we wrap up today, I would love to go into our quickfire questions. And I'm gonna challenge you to try to answer these next questions in a sentence only. So are you ready?
Speaker 2:I am ready. Awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay. My first question is what do you think is next for the customer success industry?
Speaker 2:Number one, I would say more companies will be investing in CS operations. And number two, I would say more CEOs will be coming out from customer success. So summarizing it in, in short sentences, this is what I see for a customer success in the next few years.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I love it. And I totally agree about the CEOs coming from CS leaders because the current CEO at HubSpot is also a ex CCO and then the same with logic monitors as well. Christina, she is now the CEO previous CCO. So it's awesome to see obviously more seats at the table for customer success leaders. Um, that being said, I know you mentioned Dana earlier in this conversation, but my next question is whom do you admire in, in customer success?
Speaker 2:One of my top CS leaders out there is Christie Russo. I feel, uh, every time that I read her post and, and whenever she talks about leadership and everything she's done, right, she was a CSM, uh, at the beginning of her career. And then she grew into the BP of customer, her success right now she's, uh, leading a client success team. Right? So she, for me, she's, she's a rockstar, right? Like she's also a mom and, and, and I know her personally and I, I feel like she's just such an incredible leader and it, I don't know, just, I'm a huge, huge fan of Christie Russo when, when I'm thinking about my career, that that's kind of like how I want it to be. Like, I wanted to develop into a BP of customer success soon as I've mentioned before. And, and I just follow her tracks and, and I hope to get there sometime.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you will. And Christie is an amazing soul. She really is such a positive light of energy. And, uh, I also totally admire her. And I can see, uh, the inspiration of, of where you pull from her post and where you are inspired to share as well, cuz everything, both of you post are, are amazing for CS professionals out there. And my final question is what is your favorite part of customer success and being a customer success manager?
Speaker 2:So for me, what has read about me before knows that I am a data driven person. So one of the things that I enjoy the most out of being a customer success manager is that ability to analyze, analyze data, analyze usage, uh, analyze numbers and, and, and figure out what type of strategies can help me prove customer health or drive adoption or engagement. So whenever I'm doing that as a CSM, that keeps me going and, and that's some something that I really enjoy. So that's one. And then the other thing that I enjoy of being a CSM is that opportunity to meet different people from different in build relationships. And again, sometimes I feel like I'm building friendships, right? So, uh, that connection, that human part and, and that empathy part O of the role that's, that's something that I enjoy a lot too.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing all your insights and sharing how to start a personal brand today with our listeners. Erica, if our listeners want to ask you more questions or wanna reach out where is the best place for them to reach out to you?
Speaker 2:Yes. So they, uh, if people wanted to reach out, they can definitely shoot me a direct message on LinkedIn. I try to reply as fast as possible and I'm looking forward to connecting with everyone. So thank you very much for having me today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the customer success channel podcast today. We hope you learned something new to take back to your team and your company. If you found value in our podcast, please make sure to give us a positive review and make sure you subscribe to our channel as we release new podcasts every month. Also, if you have any topics that you would like me to discuss in the future, or you would like to be a guest on the podcast, please feel free to reach out all my contact details are in this show notes. Thanks again for listening and tune in that time for more on customer success.