In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Julie Reader, Customer Success Coach at Dooly about landing your first CS role without any SaaS experience.
Taking the first step into your customer success (CS) career is something we all have to do once. But how do you apply for your first CS role without having any SaaS experience? And what are some of the transferrable skills you can bring from your previous role?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Julie Reader, Customer Success Coach at Dooly about landing your first CS role without any SaaS experience.
Taking the first step into your customer success (CS) career is something we all have to do once. But how do you apply for your first CS role without having any SaaS experience? And what are some of the transferrable skills you can bring from your previous role?
Podcast enquiries: sofia@planhat.com
Hello everyone, I'm your host Anika Zub 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 a c s organization. Today I am speaking with Julie Rader all about her transition into customer success. Julie is currently a customer success coach at Duly, but prior to being a C S M, she was a special education school teacher for over six years. And before that, a basketball coach. We will chat with her today about the parallels between her previous experiences and how her life experiences have transferred into the customer success industry. She will share with us tips, tricks, and best practices of what it takes to transition into customer success and the SaaS world. And she will be sharing how she landed her first interview to get her first job in customer success and how her skills transferred from teaching children into helping customers. Welcome Julie to the podcast. I am so excited to have you here and excited to chat about this topic, cuz I know it's really close to your heart and, and everything you've done so far in your career. But for those of our listeners that don't already know who you are and what you've done so far, can you please tell us a little bit more about yourself, your current role and, and a little bit about your unique background? Cause I think it'll, it'll come into a great conversation today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here and share my story and like talk all things customer success and also transitioning into customer success. Um, so yeah, I, I grew up in Wisconsin. I am previously an educator, so I was teaching in special education for six years and then I decided it just wasn't for me anymore. So I decided to transition into customer success where that led me to, um, working at Dooly in my first tech job. I love writing, I love reading and, and like former athlete as well, played in college basketball. And so basketball's like my favorite sport. But I've played lots of sports and yeah, really, really, um, connected with my family and really close to my family as well. So just a little, a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:Amazing. And I know that you just said you're a basketball coach, which I, or was Yeah. And that's something I learned in the, in the process of getting to know you for this recording, but you're also now a customer success coach. I think that's your title currently, which is really cool. Really a, a wa like 360 of a coach title there. But can you tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to work in customer success? Does it relate back to that coaching at all? Give us a little bit of insight of why customer success.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So when I, I like left my job, I kind of like got on LinkedIn because everyone was saying like, you know, if you wanna be in business, you have to get on LinkedIn. And I was like, okay. So, um, I got on LinkedIn and then I kind of like boycotted it a little bit. Like I was like, you know, did the whole fill out your resume and apply thing. But then I started, um, getting to know people in the customer success space and I also just met some people that were looking to get into customer success. And then I just kind of dove head into it and, and then learned from LinkedIn, like people that were in customer success started following them and I just kind of like chose that I wanted to do it because after I started learning more about it, I was like, oh, I think I have a lot of a transferrable skills from teaching, so I want, I think I can do this. Like I think I can do this. And I had all these conversations with people in customer success in the CS space and yeah, so then I just was like, I can do this. I can get, I can get a job in this, um, if I put in the work. So that's kind of how I got got into it.
Speaker 1:Amazing. And I know the customer success community is really strong, especially on LinkedIn. I think you've built up and share a lot on LinkedIn. Now for someone who boycotted LinkedIn in the early days, you definitely share a lot more about transitioning into customer success and how to do that, especially from a a non-tech background like yourself. But why teaching to tech or customer success? You know, you could have gone in in other directions within a business, whether it's it's marketing or, or a different direction. Why, why tech or why customer success? What, what stood out about that?
Speaker 2:There's a lot of things about it that I liked. Like I, I've always just had like this nurturing characteristic that I just like to help people. I like to see people have success. I'm very curious by nature too. So I love that part of about customer success, being able to ask questions, do some discovery, also really understand their unique problems and, and their unique businesses. So I love that part about it. Also, just building the relationship as well. So a lot of that pared over from teaching. Um, I didn't do a lot of research on other types of roles. Like I kind of just decided, okay, I'm gonna go and try this after I like did a little bit of research, but if it wasn't cs, like some other things that are, I'm curious about now, especially since I've done a lot of writing on LinkedIn and things and I, I like writing just as like journaling and things as well, like content marketing and, and copywriting are areas that I'm super interested as well. But super fortunate to have my, my position right now and all that I'm learning just about business in general from all the customers I have from like my teammates and the business that I'm in dually. So it's, it's been a great experience so far.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Amazing. And um, for those that don't know much about dually or or what Dually does and what type of customers you serve for contacts, for those that are listening, what, what is dually? What kind of customers are you dealing with daily? I'm thinking about basketball and education, which is very different to probably, probably what duly expects today, but what, what is it that you're working with today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm working with a lot of um, sales, sales teams, sales professionals, leadership, sometimes CS as well. Um, we are a platform that a connected workspace that helps sales be more efficient so they can save time in their day so that they can spend more time on selling, like getting rid of that, that admin work that takes so much time. So like we connect seamlessly to Salesforce, they can update all their fields, they can take notes, prep for calls, so, so we are, we are that platform.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I also love that you went in a direction that's not EdTech you went into like CRM site or sales side of things. Yeah. Which again is a, a great transition, but a lot that people don't think of when they're thinking of transitioning from education to customer success, which is a topic we're talking about. And I think it's a really hot topic right now because the last episode that I just recorded with Jen York, we talked about customer success in a possible recession and I know there's a lot of people that are looking for jobs right now more so than ever, but I think a lot of people are also taking that leap of faith of transitioning into tech or customer success. So when you first started doing it or when you decided, you mentioned LinkedIn, but what are some of the first things that you did when you decided to transition to tech and, and look for that job?
Speaker 2:I had like a group on LinkedIn as well that um, one of the girls that I met on LinkedIn set up Stella. So we had like a bunch of CSMs, like people that were looking to transition into cs. Um, so that was really great to just be able to like collaborate on ideas and like questions we had and just um, you know, talk to people. I think that's, that's really helpful. Like I had a little small community, like at first I feel like I was a little lost, right? Like I think everyone may be a little lost when you start out. But I started getting smarter as I went along right. And I realized like I really needed a plan cuz I couldn't just be like doing random things all day long. I started making like a list of 10 companies that I wanted to work for started following companies, started just getting to know specific companies. Like there's so many tech world companies like you have, you could get so lost in that. So like even narrowing down into like an industry that you'd like to be in. Like I read a ton of books on cs, I networked with people in the space that would answer my questions. Then introduced me to other people as well, which was super helpful. Then they also got to know my story and would share things back like, you know, jobs they saw or things. I also did the C S M level one Success Hacker course and just attended a bunch of webinars as well and just took notes and like started learning that way. So yeah, I did a ton of things to then like get, gain my knowledge in cs, but then also like then when I really started understanding that was when it started connecting me. Like, oh this is what I did in teaching. Oh this is how it relates in cs. And then, then I could tell my story better when I was like in interviews talking to people cuz you know, they don't know, like maybe they don't know about teaching and what teachers do, especially in special education. So I needed to tell that story so they understood like how I could be successful in the
Speaker 1:Job. Amazing. And I completely agree, like figuring out how to market or sell your transferrable skills is key when you're looking at a new role or a new position or transitioning. But you did mention something that I want to dive in a little bit deeper to is the networking piece. I think that's super powerful. I think having a, a strong community around you of people who are either like-minded or doing similar things to what you're doing, it helps a lot. But again, it can be so overwhelming and, and very lost in the, in the sea of information you might find on LinkedIn. And you mentioned that peer group or that that small group of people that were transitioning. How did you start that network or, or where did you even go to start beginning to look at peers that are doing similar things to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was the one of the things I actually forgotten to mention. Like, I just started figuring out LinkedIn, like I started utilizing the platform to my advantage and I had been applying a little bit with a resume, but I felt like a lot of people were just seeing like, you know, she has education experience and no business experience, like we're gonna, we're gonna pass her over. Like a lot of people were just applying. I wanted to do different things, like I needed to find a way to stand out. So started posting on LinkedIn, like sharing things that I learned, sharing about my journey. Also just started following like different like newsletters in CS and, and people that were in the space like you know, Christie Feltus, so people from success hacker, people from client success, people from um, met John Johnson, he's someone in the CS space that I know has helped me a ton. Um, and just just started reaching out to those people and see if they'd hop on a 15 minute call with me and like did my research on them and made sure like my questions weren't something I could Google and just so that I knew that they knew that I was valuing their time. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Yeah, it just kind of was like whoever I, I started following their, their, their pages and like commenting on their posts and things and learning from them and then I was able to, to hop on calls with them and also like the CS space is super, super nice and like willing to help. So obviously that's the nature of the job too. Um, and so they were all really, really helpful and still are helpful today if I have any questions.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. And I think taking that first step towards reaching out is really intimidating to a lot of people cuz you see these people sharing, you see them talking about, you know, their decades of experience and customer success and you're like, how are they gonna give me 10, 15 minutes of their time to discuss how I can even apply into this world, into this space? But like you said, being personal, making sure you're regularly engaging, learning how to use LinkedIn, all of these are key traits that I think you really need to figure out and once you do it, it becomes a little less scary, which is really important. And I think you also touched upon the fact that sending out your resume with just all the teaching experience on it, it didn't exactly spark all the excitement for people to say, Hey, we need to interview this woman about this position cuz she doesn't have any, any previous customer success experience. So how did you sell those transferable skills or what are some of the skills that you did highlight on your resume or in your cover letter or even in the first interviews where you were able to showcase, hey, if I transfer from teaching into customer customer success, these are the skills I have on day one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And I also think it's important to mention that I used my LinkedIn as like a way to market myself. So I shared my story of how I was wanted to transition into customer success and my about me section, I have my like tagline, you know, and I have my cover photo and like people knew that I was like going to be in cus wanted to be in customer success, right? So I think that's important too because like as I was commenting and things like they were going to my page and then seeing my story and like were curious and wanted to learn more in terms of resume and being able to communicate my story. So how I got my job at Dole though was how just commenting on the director of customer success at the time, she's the VP now, um, a post of hers and I had just had a curious question about like the AE to see us handoff. Hmm. And so then I like messaged her in her direct messages and we were having the conversation back and forth and she's like, Hey, we actually have a position, like let's, let's hop on a call. And so I didn't actually have to send like a resume or anything, but then, um, when I was, so I like after this point, like I was trying to be like getting away from the resume and just trying to get to that first conversation so that I could actually get in front of people. Cause at that point I was like, I've done like a lot of research on it. Like obviously I don't know everything, but I'm at this point where I'm like, I want to just like get in there and start learning. So I was just very hungry. But anyway, so then when I got into the interview process and like anytime I was on like conversations with people in CS space, right? Because those are all opportunities, I was like just sharing my story and like why I wanted to transition, explaining success and like the background I've had with success, like outside of like cs mm-hmm.<affirmative> success. Um, and how I just really like seeing people achieve success. Yeah. And then, um, I also was just talking about what I did in special ed and how it transferred into cs. So like just a few things. Like I also was working remotely for a little bit during the pandemic, so I had a lot of experience like working on the computer, like running meetings like IEPs are, are big in special education, individual education plans. So I was like running meetings like very, very, um, like important meetings with parents online. So like I'm running all these meetings in CS as well. Like I have experience with that. Um, you know, writing agendas, facilitating meetings, but also I wrote a lot of plans for students for like a year's time with goals. And so it's very similar to success plans. So like I was communicating all of these things and really painting the picture for them, um, so that they understood like, you know, I have some skills here that are transferrable, obviously like I gotta work on like my business vacuum and all this stuff, but like I'm hungry and I'm willing to learn. So just like give me a chance, you know,<laugh>.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. But I also love that you got your role in a non-traditional way. But I think about this and I speak to lots of recruiters and a lot of people in the space and I've heard, and this is not exact numbers, but I heard about like 90 or 95% of jobs are actually placed through your network and not through an application. So you essentially did that, but you did that with the network that you were growing mm-hmm.<affirmative> at the same time. So not even an existing network, but something you were working on and engaging with. And like you said, you had a conversation that you weren't looking for a job at the end of it maybe, or you were just curious and you were just asking questions and you asked the correct question at the correct time that led to, hey, we have a role, do you wanna chat about it? Because you're starting to show a little bit of domain expertise in your own way and you're starting to show interest, which at the end of the day, I think a lot of these SAS and tech businesses, they are looking for people who are hungry, like you mentioned, but someone who's willing to learn and has some curiosity of the role, the, the I guess industry you're working in, which is critical and, and really important. And I think that that's so cool that you landed something without a CV really, or, or a resume because I think a lot of people get hung up on that. But we can go into a rabbit hole about CVS and resumes, but I wanna talk a little bit more about now the interview process. So we talked about building your profile on LinkedIn. We talked about reaching out and engaging all amazing, but I think the first interview can be quite intimidating, especially when you're not in the business world and you're coming from a a totally different world. How did you prepare for your first C s m interviews and and how did you look at them or how did you see success out of them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So some of the things that I did prepare were like, get a, a baseline of questions that I for sure was gonna be able to answer, right. Research the company, understand the tool at a basic level, right? Also research the people in the company, the people that you're gonna work with. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, um, see if you can talk with them beforehand. I think I had connected with a lot of them prior, so that helped me as well. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. But yeah, just so you can get the vibe of the culture as well. What is really different from teaching is this, the conversation about money. It's something that teachers ex I'll just talk about teachers because that's my experience of transitioning, but like that's a conversation we really don't have in teaching as much. So like being able to really understand like what the baseline is for like your, your role that you're looking in in terms of like salary, be able to have those negotiations. Um, something that can get brought up pretty early. So that's also kind of new. Um, but then also in terms of like the CS stuff, like just the questions also connect with other people that have had interviews, how the process went. Like do your research U YouTube. I was also just talking with people in the little community that I was in. So I think like, and I, I like connected with some of the people that were like my mentors and they were like guiding me through the process. That was really super helpful. Dooley's interview process wasn't very long, so I was, I was fortunate for that. But yeah, it was just, it was just basically like one conversation with the director of CS and then I had like a assessment type type situation. And then after that I was like explaining my assessment, had a conversation with some of the, the teammates that I work with. And then it was that it was the offer.
Speaker 1:So. Awesome. Awesome. And I think that that's great that you were able to leverage the community and network. I think that that's like the core part of what we keep coming back to, which is really important. I think it's really great to see people like yourself, but just a lot of people sharing how to transition and, and break into customer success. And I think that you also mentioned you were taking some courses or doing some additional things outside of networking in order to I guess accelerate your transition into cs. Can you speak a little bit more about that? What did you do outside of networking that accelerated the career change?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and another thing before I get on that that I wanna highlight is being able to tell your story in effective way. Like being able to sell yourself, like that can be uncomfortable for people, but you really have to, and then like at the end of my dually interview, something that I literally got from LinkedIn that was like some questions, like that's another thing too, like follow LinkedIn. Like obviously not everything's fact on there, but like there's some people who are putting out like questions that are great to ask. Also be a good question asker. That's a great, that's a great trait too. Just there's a ton of information on LinkedIn, but one of the things that I did in the dual interview that I think was was impressive to the director at the time was like, I asked, I basically closed the interview, like, was there any reason like why you wouldn't hire me? And so like, I think she was like, oh, you're closing the interview, that's so cool,<laugh>. And she like said that and then she, she's like, oh, I don't think so. What we do here is like, we basically say like, if everyone's an ffl, like then we want that person to work here. So it was just, it was an interesting experience. It was the first time I ever did that. So, um, but then, okay, so back to the certification. So Success Hacker, I had seen this up, this was during like Black Friday and it literally was like 20 bucks to buy on Black Friday for like, um, all these different things that I could just get a baseline of learning on. Hmm. So that was really helpful because then I could again speak to my knowledge of like what I did in teaching and how it related and it just like, yeah, it just build up my like ACU for C s m so, or customer success. So yeah, it was, it was like not expensive and it just gave me a lot of more info. I wouldn't, I don't advocate that people need to go like take 17 different certifications, right? There's a lot of free information out there that you can just learn about, but it did um, like guide me and help me and, and just learn more about the, the industry. So
Speaker 1:Definitely, and I think that that's a key piece that you just brought up. You can definitely pay for things and get certifications, which I think is great. And I think Success Hacker Hacker does a brilliant job of a course and you know, level 1, 2, 3, I think up to four or something where you can be certified in C S M. But like you just said, there is a number of resources out there, podcast being one. But in other ways there's, there's webinars, there are YouTube videos, there are blog posts. There is so much that the CS world is sharing out there, like you just said. And the one great thing about customer success or CSMs is that we're willing to share. And I think it's a matter of you taking your own initiative and going in there and saying, Hey, I wanna go find out the most I can in order to accelerate my career transition into customer success. How do I do that? Okay, well I can just start by googling a few things and clicking here and clicking there and eventually you find a whole bunch of documentation, webinars, you know, key tips or any sort of like playbook or anything like that. It's all out there as well. And it's up to you how you interpret that and how you sell your story, which is what I wanna ask a little bit more about. How did you get good or better, I should say, at selling your story? Cuz it sounds like you have a great story and you've worked really hard on, on, on telling it. What, how did you practice that? Or, or what, what skills did you bring into telling your story?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't remember who, who like sparked this um, idea in my head, but it might even, Claire is someone in the text space that I connected with. I, I forget her na last name right now, but she was someone that I connected with and she, I think she had posted something about like, make sure you have like a little elevator pitch that you're kind of like, you know, you not like it's something like super salesy, but like, basically like I took that as like be able to tell your story. And so for me, I'm like, if I wanna be able to explain why I wanna be in customer success, like, okay, I'm gonna talk about success. Like success is something that I can relate to and it's something that I've like, had experience with in my life in terms of sports and things. So I, that's kind of, I was like, oh, I wanna be able to like quickly cause everyone's, everyone is saying this when I get on a call, right? So, and I realized like, this is what they're gonna say in interviews. So a lot of people were like, you know, tell me your story, like Y Cs, like tell me your story Y Cs. And so like, then I just got really good at when I was on networking calls and then I also realized like, this is something I can use for interviews. So I got really good at just like saying it in a short amount of time, but making it, um, you know, making it kind of like a wow factor where like people are interested in hearing more, you know, think like, think writing a LinkedIn post, you know, you gotta engage'em with the first few lines. Like that's kind of how you do it when you speak. Same with podcasts, you know. So
Speaker 1:Definitely I completely agree and I, I, I would say if you can figure out three sentences on your elevator pitch, like you said, and really be able to know that like inside and out and know how to correctly say it to the right audience, then you're in a very, very good spot. Because I think everyone asks why Cs or why this job or why duly or you know, why, why, why? But if you had those three sentences just ready to go and you know them and that's almost like your mantra or your<laugh>, it's like, it's like your core beliefs, this is why then, then it makes complete sense and you're not necessarily selling it, but you're just bringing people into the fold of believing what you believe really. So, um, I really love that. And you mentioned questions that you prepare for, but also questions that you're ready to ask in interviews, which I think is critical and really shows curiosity, interest in the role. You mentioned closing out the, the interview, which was a great way to land the job, but are there any other questions that you would think are important for anyone asking or, or making sure they ask in the C s M interview process?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. I'm not sure if anything's com coming straight to mind right now, but who is really good at providing good questions? Oh, Carly Agar.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, Carly's great.
Speaker 2:She just put out this LinkedIn post recently that was like all these vague questions people often ask mm-hmm Like how is your culture? Or something like that. But she has like all these other questions that are more detailed that explain a great way to like, um, how you can set yourself apart, right? Like they're not only interviewing you, you're also interviewing them. So like you can stand out by asking really good questions because it's also a great way to show that you did your research. Hmm. And so I think that's really good. Uh, I, I should direct you to her page on LinkedIn. Carly Agar, she, she have like a post where it's like a bunch of questions that are super detailed. Yeah, I think if you can ask really good questions and like sit down before your interview and like write a few, at least like five to six that you wanna make sure to ask. Yeah, I think that'll set
Speaker 1:You apart. Definitely. I completely agree and I couldn't, I guess echo the statement even more or more clear is that you are also interviewing that company so you definitely need to do your due diligence, your homework and ask questions of what you really want. Because I think a lot of people forget that this is a human on the other side of the zoom call and they will tell you if you ask the right question, what it is you're looking for like about culture or staff turnover or you know, what does your benefits look like or you know, if you were to re-interview for this company and this role, would you or why would you not kind of thing. All these types of questions are great to ask cuz it gives you a better picture of the type of company you are joining, um, which is really important. Um, moving into something different but also topical. I know a lot of people who come from non-tech backgrounds into customer success or tech or SaaS when they transition into tech, they think they have to code or they have to be super technical. Like how did you go about breaking that stigma? How did you go about like, let's say not being scared of that stigma as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think at first when I heard like the tech industry, I'm like, well I'm not techy
Speaker 1:<laugh>, but
Speaker 2:I'm like, but then I started realizing like CSMs, yes they should be product experts, but they're not engineers, right? So I think that scared me a little bit at first as well. But I just started realizing like, I think what scared me most starting out is A A C S M was more of like, I feel like they're gonna ask me a bunch of questions that I don't know the answers to, obviously, right? Like I'm starting out and then it's like I have to know all these answers, but it's like, no, you don't, you have to be good at saying, okay, I don't have the answer right now. I'm gonna go check with my team, I'm gonna figure out the answer, this is the timeframe that I'll respond in and make sure you hold up to that timeframe that you promised for the customer. So obviously over time like you get more comfortable, you can ask more questions on calls and you learn more about the product and everything. But I was just a little nervous about like not being able to answer all their questions, but then it's almost like, well, why would I know all the answers? So just kind of like talking myself down on that, you know,
Speaker 1:<laugh>,<laugh> definitely. And I think I tell all my, like previous CSMs I've hired on my teams as well. Like you're not gonna have every answer, but just know that if you say, I'll go check and find the answer for you, like you said, hold yourself accountable and make sure you go check and find the answer. And no one's an expert, not even your head of director, VP of customer success knows all the answers and not even your, your, you know, product team will know all the answers, but what you can do is at least provide some sort of guideline or help or some sort of answer that leads them towards what they're looking for without just leaving them, you know, hanging and no, no answer in sight. But that's the important part is being able to hold yourself accountable to finding some sort of an answer and making sure that you're, you're doing as much as you can when it comes to product knowledge and, and equipping yourself to answer those questions. But no one's got all the answers. If we did, we wouldn't know what else we would be doing if we wouldn't be able to actually go research the answers<laugh>. But looking back at your transition and how you've done it and everything you've just talked about today on the podcast, is there anything that you regret about the process or anything you would've done differently? Or if you had to do it again, what would you do?
Speaker 2:I don't really believe in regret, right? Because I feel like everything happened for a reason and how it was supposed to happen. But if I would do it over, I think I would spend less time in the stage of like not having a plan and like plan, have a plan sooner. Like I think what happens when people transition is they're, or wanting to transition is they're like, I gotta action, action, action, action this. And it's almost like, like meaning like they gotta have a conversation or they gotta do something on LinkedIn or whatever, but it's like maybe you could just sit back for like a few days or even a week and just like plan out what, what you're trying to do. Like have an action plan, you know, so like, um, really research all of the different job types that you're interested in so that you can really understand like what you really wanna go into so that when you're networking with people you can really tell them what you're looking for so that they can help you in return. Um, I think a lot of people, that's a problem, that's a mistake a lot of people make. They're very vague in networking conversations and people are like, I don't know how to help you and I also don't have time to ask you 10 more questions to figure it out. And then also just like, yeah, your plan of action like 10, 10 companies you're looking at, start strategically networking with those people. Start commenting on people's posts. Like if you're gonna go in the the LinkedIn way, um, yeah, have your accomplishments laid out, know your story, be able to tell it in three, three sentences like you said. Yeah, those are all things that you could do like as you're starting to, to figure this out versus just like randomly not having a plan and kind of like going at it scattered brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I completely agree. I think everything in life, especially looking for a new job should definitely have a plan and it doesn't have to follow an exact plan, but having loose guidelines really helps you first understand what you're looking for and second, make sure you actually land in what you are looking for. Because like you said, if you're just loosely going about commenting or applying or with no intention, you're gonna get the same sort of reaction back because whatever you do in life, the energy you put in is the energy you receive back. And so I think it's really critical, like you said, to be mindful and really think about your plan of action when it comes to transitioning into a customer success role. And on that, I do wanna keep talking, but I'm gonna ask the final question on this topic before we transition into quickfire section. So for everyone that's listening to this episode, likely they are transitioning into customer success. What is your biggest piece of advice or kind of your biggest learning that you'd wanna share with our listeners today?
Speaker 2:I would say think about what everyone else is doing and think about how you can do the opposite and, and stand out. Cuz at one point in my journey I was thinking about like, okay, everyone's applying to jobs like the standard way and that's like how we were conditioned, right? But I was like, okay, I'm gonna do something different and try to stand out in a unique way since I don't have the like, typical background. Um, and so that really helped me. Well I know it's like a unique way, but it helped me and it ma helped me learn a lot. Like I got super uncomfortable and found ways to just navigate the system a little different way. And I think making a plan, like I just said, a super important, reflecting on it, revising as you go, but like at least having some sort of strategy that you follow so that you're just, you're not wasting time that you could be actually making progress moving and moving forward. So
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I completely agree and I think that everyone is unique and special in their own way. No matter how many people are applying for that job. How many hundreds, if not thousands in today's market are applying for that one job? How can you, you know, be different because you're the only one, you're the only Julie Rader, there might be 10 other people applying, but how are you different? And I think that that's super critical and important to remember as you, as you send that job application. So thank you for sharing that. Um, I wanna transition into our quickfire question round, which is a challenge for all of my guests to try to answer the next few questions in one sentence or less. I'll be honest, I have yet to come across very many people that are able to do this, but are you ready to take on the challenge<laugh>? Yeah, don't be nervous. We could do this. So your first question is, what do you think is next for the CS industry?
Speaker 2:I believe more programs should be put in place for CS in terms of being able to put more programs in place and for segments so that like, it's not all just like one-to-one touch, it's more like being able to service people as like a group and a community and, and being able to create programs for those different segments. I definitely blew the the one sentence thing, but I wanna be able to explain that
Speaker 1:<laugh>. That's fine. Yeah. But I agree that there is definitely more out there when it comes to customer success, whether it's digital tech, touch one-to-one, one to many, you name it. There's a whole different ways that you can service your different segments of customers, but I think that you hit the nail on the head where we're at a point in customer success where we have to service different customers based on different needs. So Amazing. Next question is, what is your favorite app you cannot live without? It can be on your phone or your
Speaker 2:Laptop. My favorite app is the Notes app.
Speaker 1:Oh wow. That's like super basic, but I can see how powerful that is as well.<laugh>
Speaker 2:Yeah, I use it a lot for writing. Yeah. Like if I'm on a walk and I'm like getting ideas and I put in, uh, a little like few ideas so that I can write later on,
Speaker 1:I feel the same. Like I have a note for literally everything in life, but I I I always feel it's underrated that people think like, oh, I can just quickly jot something down. But it's like having a notepad right? Right. All the time with you. Amazing. Next question is, what SAS product can you not live without as a customer success manager? This
Speaker 2:Is super basic, but I cannot live out without Gmail.
Speaker 1:Very true. We, we cannot do our<laugh> our work day in, day out without our email<laugh>. But that's, I also, I love Gmail too, but both personally and professionally, I think it's an extremely powerful, uh, email client. So yeah, basic but effective. I love your, your layer answers so far,<laugh>. The next question is, where is your favorite place to learn more about customer success? Whether it's a book, a community, a person, where do you learn the most?
Speaker 2:I'll say that I just really like learning, well, one of my favorite books that I've read so far, and I'm still reading it through, but on Onboarding Matters by Donna Webber, was a really good book that I like to learn from.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great book and Donna's a great human being and there's so much in there about how important onboarding is in the customer journey. So I love that book. Great recommendation. And my final question for you today is what is your favorite part of customer success or being a C S M?
Speaker 2:I love asking curious questions and being able to like dive deeper into the customer and really understand their problems and their, their different learning about their unique businesses and just being able to understand and learn more about the customer in general, like building that relationship.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so much Julie, for sharing all your insights, tips, tricks, best practices about transitioning into customer success. We could honestly keep going cuz I'd love to ask you more and more, but for time's sake, we're gonna bring this to an end. But if any of our listeners have anything more that they have questions on or curious about or wanna learn more from you, where's the best place to find you?
Speaker 2:The best place to find me is LinkedIn, just Julie Rader. Yes. You can search me and I'll be on LinkedIn there.
Speaker 1:Amazing. And I'll make sure to link that down in the show notes. But thank you again, Julie, for your time. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having
Speaker 1:Me. 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 the show notes. Thanks again for listening and tune in next time for more on customer success.