Fast Leader Show | Customer Experience Leadership

204: Matt Beckwith: I almost left the contact center

December 19, 2018 09:30 - 35 minutes - 48.3 MB

Matt Beckwith considered leaving his contact center job because he felt bogged down by the things he didn’t like about the job. He almost left, and then his boss asked him some very insightful questions that helped him find clarity almost instantly.

203: Nick Friedman: I wasn’t going it alone

December 12, 2018 09:30 - 32 minutes - 45.1 MB

Nick Friedman started to franchise his company, College Hunks Hauling Junk in 2008, and then the economy collapsed. Nick and his partner struggled to move on. Then he found the confidence to keep going through a peer community of other leaders battling the same challenges.

202: Hamish Knox: I just stopped learning

December 05, 2018 09:30 - 34 minutes - 46.8 MB

Hamish Knox had the worst 20-minutes of his life. He was on a prospecting call with a senior vice president of a chemical company and he failed miserably. He knew all of the content he needed to know, but that was not good enough. Hamish realized he stopped learning and was unable to add value.

201: Steve Farber: I couldn’t bear the moral dilemma that I had

November 28, 2018 09:30 - 34 minutes - 47.3 MB

Steve Farber had a moral dilemma with the business that he owned. So, he got out. But he had nothing to go to. Eventually, he flipped his radical leap into a 30-year career of helping leaders to move onward and upward faster.

200: Dan Gingiss: There’s really only one thing to do here

November 21, 2018 09:30 - 41 minutes - 57.6 MB

Before becoming a social media expert, Dan Gingiss decided to join a friend in taking the GMAT. On standardized tests he typically does better on the math side and struggles on the verbal side. But during the test Dan got stumped on a question that caused him to not complete the math portion of the exam. That left him with only one choice.

199: Brannon Beliso: Achievements and success are two different things

November 14, 2018 09:30 - 29 minutes - 40.2 MB

Brannon Beliso had no choice when he was a child, he was a victim. At some point Brannon the man had to make the better choices in his life that have led to greater self-discipline and founding one of the most successful schools in the martial arts industry.

198: David Hiatt: At what point am I going to take myself seriously

November 07, 2018 09:30 - 26 minutes - 37 MB

David Hiatt had friends that convinced him to enter a speech contest. He did it half way but soon realized that when he got into it, he was really good at affecting people and helping them to do better in their life. That’s when he decided to do something of excellence.

197: Bill Gessert: The skills sets to be a leader are completely different

October 31, 2018 08:30 - 33 minutes - 46.7 MB

Bill Gessert was a highly successful sales rep and was then promoted to become a disastrous sales manager. Bill eventually realized he was not a bad person, he just didn’t have the skills sets to be a leader. But he learned them and went on to be a leading expert in sales, customer service and customer experience.

196: Alessandra Cavalluzzi: Obviously, this didn’t resonate with people

October 24, 2018 08:30 - 26 minutes - 37.1 MB

Alessandra Cavalluzzi planned an event where her company was going to give back to their local community. She planned for a huge turnout but it was disappointing at best. Instead of giving up, she learned and succeeded and now she helps organizations develop Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs to create a culture of giving that engages employees.

195: Glenn Elliott: Get on with it and stay resilient

October 17, 2018 08:30 - 37 minutes - 50.9 MB

Glenn Elliott was trying to grow his company by building a sales team. He had six false starts, received tons of advice and counsel, hired a guru that nearly bankrupted him just to find out that the answers he was seeking could be found by falling flat on his face.

194: Phyllis Weiss Haserot: The degree of frustration I felt is enormous

October 10, 2018 08:30 - 30 minutes - 41.6 MB

Phyllis Weiss Haserot shares the leadership skills she has had to lean on as her husband’s Parkinson’s disease rapidly progressed while she is passionately pushing forward her work in cross-generational conversation at work.

193: Aaron Edelheit: I’m going to turn off

October 03, 2018 08:30 - 26 minutes - 36.7 MB

Aaron Edelheit was grossly over-worked, over-whelmed and way too connected. He found himself becoming less and less productive despite investing more and more time. Not only was work suffering so was his family and friends. Finally, Aaron decided he was going to turn off.

192: Simone Vincenzi: I basically made myself homeless

September 26, 2018 08:30 - 33 minutes - 46 MB

Simone Vincenzi decided to quit his job and go to school to learn how to run his own business. Tragically, his grandfather pasted away and Simone decided to travel back to his hometown in Italy from London every two weeks to comfort his grieving mother. Quickly, his savings was exhausted, but he continued to travel home to his mother and made the choice to become homeless.

191: Pete Williams: What was a massive win became our shackles

September 19, 2018 08:30 - 29 minutes - 39.9 MB

Pete Williams built a company selling phone systems but gradually learned he was not getting any repeat business. That’s when Pete and his team began to discover and implement the seven levers that companies use to create a cadence for business growth.

190: Ralph Welborn: What role do we play in business ecosystems

September 12, 2018 08:30 - 34 minutes - 47 MB

Ralph Welborn was working on a wicked problem with the Department of Defense, CEO’s, and Chief Security Officers of many different organizations. He had to get them all to be in service to fight the bad guys. Ralph now takes the lessons he learned to move beyond customer-centricity to ecosystem engagement.

189: Brad Deutser: I’ve never looked back

September 05, 2018 08:30 - 26 minutes - 37 MB

Brad Deutser had a business partner for many years and he finally realized that the partnership didn’t work for him. He kept giving and giving and finally let go of the circuit breakers and the things that were holding him back - he embraced clarity.

188: Howard Partridge: I was a terrible leader

August 29, 2018 08:30 - 35 minutes - 48.5 MB

Howard Partridge had the vision for a turnkey business. What he did not realize was that his strong out-going task-oriented, demanding, direct, defiant personality was really turning everybody off. That’s when his bookkeeper took him aside and shared with him some words of wisdom.

187: Whitney Johnson: It’s not that I turned it around

August 22, 2018 08:30 - 32 minutes - 44.3 MB

Whitney Johnson was a star analyst working on Wall Street and she had a fantastic year, except when she got the feedback from all her peers. It was really bad. So, she got a coach and turned it around. And after 15-years she’s still learning lessons from that experience while helping others to avoid the same mistakes.

186: Danita Bye: This is not about complaining - it’s about doing

August 15, 2018 08:30 - 36 minutes - 50.5 MB

Danita Bye and her husband decided to buy a snowmobile sleigh manufacturing company. Then El Niño moved in and stayed for three years. Danita was angry at everyone. Then a mentor told her to stop playing the blame game. That’s when she developed the catalyst question.

185: Connie Malamed: You have to want to give to them

August 08, 2018 08:30 - 30 minutes - 41.3 MB

Connie Malamed wrote a book about visual language for instructional design to achieve quick and effective communication - but she had to speak about it. Considering herself more of a writer and not a speaker, she was terrified of public speaking. Eventually, she found a tactic that helped her to move onward and upward.

184: Jack Bergstrand: It was an over-my-dead-body conversation

August 01, 2018 08:30 - 34 minutes - 47 MB

Jack Bergstrand was a young executive at Coca-Cola working on changing the distribution network to gain efficiency and lower costs. But his plan negatively impacted manufacturing, which he was not in charge of. Jack had to go head-to-head to make headway.

183: Art Coombs: You label you

July 25, 2018 08:30 - 36 minutes - 50.3 MB

Art Combs overcame being labeled as lazy and stupid to becoming a CEO. Along the way he started several businesses, wrote a few books and traveled the globe as a contact center expert. He now starts companies focused on customer service problems that he faced as an operations manager.

182: Jonathan Low: If it fails, it’s not me failing

July 18, 2018 08:30 - 32 minutes - 44.2 MB

Jonathan Low worked 80 hours a week for two and a half years. Then his body collapsed and he began to doubt himself. It took him an entire year to recover and learn to change his perspective on what is success, how to fail and to be a happy person and to find gurus to inspire you.

181: Chris Dyer: In mid-air you change directions a few times

July 11, 2018 08:30 - 31 minutes - 42.9 MB

Chris Dyer quit his job and started a business in 2001, just two months after the biggest terrorist attack in American history. He took inspiration from tragedy. He rented every room in his house to pay the mortgage, created a backup plan and took the risk.

180: Greg Young: I needed to reframe what I considered to be successful

July 04, 2018 08:30 - 27 minutes - 37.2 MB

Greg Young needed to make changes quickly and radically to prevent losing market share. But he was ending each day with beating himself up because he was not completing his to-do list and it was getting longer each day. That’s when he realized that he needed to reframe his day.

179: Jeff Piersall: It cost me a tremendous journey

June 27, 2018 08:30 - 31 minutes - 43.8 MB

Jeff Piersall was in a 14-year business relationship with who he thought was a good friend. But it ended in a betrayal. Despite another partner betrayal later in his career, Jeff holds on the belief that ethical capitalism is what the majority of the world believes in, desires and practices.

178: Olga Mizrahi: I publicly thanked them for the negative review

June 20, 2018 08:30 - 32 minutes - 45.1 MB

Olga Mizrahi knows that reviews are part of the gig economy and the future of work. So, after reading a negative review about her book she had three choices that we all can choose to take. After much contemplation, she decided to respond publicly in a way that’s surprising and bold.

177: Eric Kish: They gave me 90 days to crash and burn

June 13, 2018 08:30 - 32 minutes - 45.1 MB

Eric Kish was placed in an oil refinery to turn it around. Overloaded with debt and crippled by equipment that had failed inspection, Eric thought he had no option but to go bankrupt. That’s when in desperation, Eric’s work to make a major cultural shift paid off and it fueled a historic turnaround.

176: Dave Mattson: I’m forever grateful for my road to excellence

June 06, 2018 08:30 - 38 minutes - 53.4 MB

Dave Mattson had the opportunity to buy into an established business but was unable to secure the funding he needed. After being rejected by several bankers and taking a hit to his self-esteem, he thought all was lost. But without his knowledge, Dave’s parents put everything they had on the line for him.

175: Cash Keahey: I had to win their respect as a leader

May 30, 2018 08:30 - 31 minutes - 43 MB

Cash Keahey was facilitating strategic planning for corporate executives when he realized he wanted to try leading people. He was placed in an operations role and was seen as a corporate outsider to many on his new team. Listen as Cash describes the tactics he used to move onward and upward faster.

174: Jim Knight: I’ve got to be the shield and set the example

May 23, 2018 08:30 - 29 minutes - 40.8 MB

Jim Knight was asked by his CEO to deliver on a project with an extremely aggressive timeline. Despite all of their effort of working 18-20-hour days and on the weekends, Jim began to realize the task was larger than first assessed. So, Jim reported to the CEO and ultimately learned a vital lesson about transparency.

173: Doug Sandler: I had no system and that’s the problem

May 16, 2018 08:30 - 30 minutes - 42.5 MB

Doug Sandler was hired to be a DJ at a party hundreds of miles from his home. He was feeling on top of his game but within 15-minutes of the four-hour event, he realized why he was really hired sight unseen. He also realized that everything he had done in his career to that point was just about being lucky.

172: Lori Bocklund: Life’s too short to live this way

May 09, 2018 08:30 - 34 minutes - 47.5 MB

Lori Bocklund and her husband lived in the Washington DC area during 9/11 and then the anthrax scare and the DC sniper. She was living in constant fear. Despite loving where they lived, they decided to move. But they didn’t know here they wanted to live. After finally figuring that out, she took an even bigger risk which paid off in her becoming one of the leading authorities on contact center technology.

171: Michael Gale: The ship we were part of building is no longer relevant

May 02, 2018 08:30 - 33 minutes - 45.5 MB

Michael Gale owned a number of trademarks on journey mapping when they built the methodology 14 years ago. But now he has to admit it’s no longer relevant because you can’t fit a journey map into a world of moments. With organizations now needing to digitally transform and customers being in complete control, Michael explains you must think and do things differently.

170: Jennifer Moss: It’s been a driver of my happiness

April 25, 2018 08:30 - 36 minutes - 49.9 MB

Jennifer Moss had two young kids when she founded her company and then her husband became almost fatally ill. They thought he would never walk again, but after a six-week recovery where he focused on gratitude, they realized they found a new passion that changed their narrative.

169: Ian Golding: This is my reason for being

April 18, 2018 08:30 - 27 minutes - 37.7 MB

Ian Golding felt like he beat his head for 17 years working in an organization as a champion for the customer. Over the past 6 years he has traveled to over 60 countries and worked with organizations to help support those that thrive on the customer experience to be heard, recognized and supported. Listen as Ian shares insights on the future of customer experience as a discipline and profession.

168: Gabe Alves: This isn’t something that changes easily

April 11, 2018 08:30 - 32 minutes - 45 MB

Gabe Alves was working on a project that was going to digitally transform the way a hundred-year-old company managed its workforce. After weeks of presenting, Gabe finally got approval. Just prior to going live a vital component didn’t arrive. That’s when Gabe learned an age-old lesson that saved the day.

167: Heather Younger: I think I found exactly this place

April 04, 2018 08:30 - 30 minutes - 41.9 MB

Heather Younger was leading the entire client facing team for a company that was going through a big merger. After about a year into the merger the company culture took a nosedive. Heather went to the head of HR, even though she was leading the customer experience, about making changes to improve the employee experience. Heather ended up being responsible to managing the experience for both.

166: Jillian Medoff: My career had hit the skids

March 28, 2018 08:30 - 29 minutes - 41 MB

Jillian Medoff was a business consultant with a passion for being a novelist. After having sold a few novels she was unable to sell her next manuscript. That’s when the editor of her first novel gave her some advice that she thought was crazy. But it paid off and Jillian is now following her passion of writing about corporate life.

165: Tal Shnall: I fell on my face taking that position

March 21, 2018 08:30 - 26 minutes - 36.2 MB

Tal Shnall was promoted to managing a staff that was more than double the size of his previous role. But Tal did not realize that he was missing a lot of manager and leadership skills that would allow him to be successful. Tal struggled and paid the price. Eventually he found his way forward and now helps others from repeating his experience.

164: Debi Mongan: I was totally wrong

March 14, 2018 08:30 - 25 minutes - 34.5 MB

Debi Mongan decided to take a break from her career to raise her daughter. After five years had passed Debi decided to go back to work. She thought she was going to re-enter where she left off. Once she realized that wasn’t going to happen she took a step back, which helped her to take a leap forward.

163: Jenny Dempsey: I took on this superwoman role

March 07, 2018 09:30 - 24 minutes - 34.3 MB

Jenny Dempsey was working more than 50 hours per week, she rarely took breaks, and had the highest amount of vacation in the entire company. She kept stuffing her emotions down and wore a smile. Then one day she had an anxiety attack. A few years later, it happened again. Finally, Jenny realized that she had to make changes.

162: Dean Lindsay: I do now own my entire bio

February 28, 2018 09:30 - 23 minutes - 32.6 MB

Dean Lindsay had a client that hired him for sales training. Everything went great and participant feedback was high. But once the client learned that Dean had some minor roles as a professional actor, he terminated the remaining sessions. This caused Dean to make some changes that had some unintended consequences.

161: Steven Keith: I really didn’t know how to fix it

February 21, 2018 09:30 - 33 minutes - 46.3 MB

Steven Keith was hired by a creative agency to build their digital consulting practice. As Steven began to build his team, he was hiring people and managing the team in a culturally different way than the legacy business. It wasn’t working. The CEO sat Steven down and told him he needed to fix it fast. Ultimately, Steven found success by getting the entire agency to focus on this one thing.

160: Christine Comaford: I had to reach to a deep place inside myself

February 14, 2018 09:30 - 29 minutes - 39.9 MB

Christine Comaford fell to the ground and her body couldn’t stay standing. She had just found out that her step son died unexpectedly at college. While trying to cope with this tremendous loss, she had to fulfill numerous professional obligations. But she was unable to function. That’s when she found something that she had never realized before that has allowed her to experience an entirely new existence.

159: Jeffrey Shaw: I was going to dominate the world

February 07, 2018 09:30 - 34 minutes - 48 MB

Jeffrey Shaw was tops in his class and returned home to launch his new business. Ready for success, Jefferey spent three long years moving down the path to failure. After he gave his best sales pitch ever, he realized how off he was trying to promote the message of his business. He was unable to speak the lingo of his customers. That’s when Jefferey launched his transformation and went from overlooked to overbooked.

158: Darrin Poole: It was a challenge to my leadership

January 31, 2018 09:30 - 32 minutes - 44.2 MB

Darrin Poole was challenged as a leader. He had to engineer a mindset shift. He suspended the normal drills and implemented a game changing tactic that dramatically changed their performance and helped everyone get over the hump.

157: Andy Swann: I got no satisfaction from my job

January 24, 2018 06:20 - 26 minutes - 35.8 MB

Andy Swann was at a barbeque when he congratulated a guy who said he was at his job for 10 years. The man said he hated it. Andy realized he was that man and decided to make a resolution to do something about it. Now, Andy helps people to be rescued from the same fate.

156: Kimberly Davis: I really melted down

January 17, 2018 09:30 - 31 minutes - 43.1 MB

Kimberly Davis had an anxiety attack. Days before she was to give a TEDx talk about being brave she lost her brave. She began to fear the spotlight, failing to connect to her audience and missing out on capturing her opportunity. But Kimberly knew what do to squash her own anxiety. She retrieved her brave.

155: Peter Lisoskie: Sure, I’ll bet my job on it

January 10, 2018 09:30 - 33 minutes - 46.2 MB

Peter Lisoskie bet his job on a new idea. After numerous failures, Peter finally obtained 7 patents for his effort. Since then, Peter has focused his innovation on artificial intelligence and emotionally connected user interfaces to create interactive conversational brand experiences to shape customer experiences for companies and their customers.

Fast Leader Show | Customer Experience Leadership

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