Produced By - Inside Customer Success: Fourteen Years in SaaS | 152: Kristi Faltorusso

Starting point is 00:00:00 I've been doing this for a long time, but I think the thing that's kept it very interesting for me is the intention to evolve myself as a professional. And so let me explain. When I started my career, I started as a subject matter expert. I was a product expert. And I went into this company, right, where I knew their product. It was easy for me. I learned all the things I could about customer success. Five and a half years later, though, I moved to another company in a different market, doing something completely different. And I learned something incredibly new, right? I took on all new challenges. And I kept doing that. So over those 14 years, I had five different jobs, five different companies, building, scaling, transforming customer success, and every single company, not only did the

Starting point is 00:00:36 scope of my role look very different, the work that we had to do, the customers, the technical complexities around my product, everything was different. And so I had to keep reinventing myself and keep learning new things. And so I think over the years, that has really helped keep me sharp. It kept me engaged. I've also had like promotions along the way in those different companies. So I think the intentionality about how I designed my career has helped. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:01:11 Hello, Christy. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited for our conversation today. Likewise. And Christy, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself? Absolutely. So my name is Christy Faltaruso. I'm currently an advisor, consultant, educator, and coach in the customer success space. I've spent the past 14 years building, scaling and transforming customer success in the B2B SaaS space. So working with companies series A all the way to pre-IPO.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Sounds impressive. And Christy, before we dive more into it, was like the background. How did you discover your passion for such area? Oh gosh. So there was no discovery. It was more like an accident. So before the 14 years in customer success, I was actually in marketing for 10 years and specifically digital marketing. And I had been using a software for probably about four years at two different companies. And I really loved it. I got so much value out of it. It was something that I used every day. And so I reached out to the CEO one day and I said, hey, listen, if you guys ever open an office in New York, you let me know, I want to come work for you. And, And in 2012, they opened an office in New York and I was their third hire. So I accidentally fell into customer success, but it was not intentionally and definitely not by design. But I think that's actually a good point that if you don't ask or if you don't say that, people don't know, but you've been proactive and mentioning that, then maybe they remembered and that's how it happened, isn't it?

Starting point is 00:02:46 Listen, you don't get what you don't ask for. And if you don't ask, of course, they may reject. but it's still better than if you afterwards kept thinking about, oh, what if I asked, what if I made that for a step? But if you don't do it, you won't find out. So that's a great lesson. Absolutely. And Christy, when we talk about CRM or the people who have no idea, never heard the term,

Starting point is 00:03:08 can you somehow briefly explain what does it actually mean? So I think we're talking about customer success. So CS specifically, this is anything. Sorry, I missed up that abbreviation. That's okay. That's okay. It's funny because we use CRMs very heavily in our work. But I knew what you were talking about.

Starting point is 00:03:25 So customer success refers to everything that happens after an initial deal is closed, typically in a SaaS ecosystem. So SaaS is software as a service. So it could be any cloud-based technology that someone is using. Anything that happens after the close is what I refer to it as. And so this could be helping your customers get onboarded onto the product. it could be helping them get value and expand use cases, helping them as you roll out new products, start to figure out how they can adopt it and integrate it into their workflows,

Starting point is 00:03:58 managing them through change management. And then, of course, obviously getting those customers to stay and grow over time. So I like to think that it's kind of all-encompassing. It's a very strategic, it's very tactical, it can be technical, very commercial role. So you're wearing a lot of different hats. And I assume that, of course, it depends on the company, on the customers and everything, But is there like a specific time span, for example, to get an idea if it takes weeks, months, years, or it never stops? Oh, gosh.

Starting point is 00:04:27 I'm going to give you sadly my answer to everything, which is it depends. Everything is so nuanced, right? Like, if anyone who's listening is familiar with a product like Calendly, where it's a scheduling tool where you can help book your meetings virtually through links, makes collaboration a lot easier, booking meetings easier. That's a very simple tool, right? you probably don't need a lot of training, education, enablement. So that might have a very different motion than if you're using a CRM, so like a Salesforce or a HubSpot or something like that, if you're familiar, those are going to be much more complex and probably need a lot more guidance and support and a different motion.

Starting point is 00:05:03 So I give those two examples because I think they're at opposite ends of the same scale, but help you understand that like customer success looks different because every product, every market, every company, every set of customers, they're all different and they need something designed specific for them. And is there specific area that you focus on? And like a niche? Oh, no, not really, because I've kind of done it all. I've done everything from, like I said, early stage seed companies all the way to pre-IPO. So I've done, you know, early, late stage. I worked with small SMB customers. I worked with large enterprise customers like GE. I have led account management, customer success, onboarding, services, community, marketing. So all of that can actually

Starting point is 00:05:49 fall under the remit of a customer success or customer experience leader. And so I've kind of got my hands on a whole bunch of things. And I don't really, maybe I'm not an expert in any specific area. Maybe it's the Jack of All Trades Master of Nun sentiment. But I like to think that my career has given me a lot of range. No, I mean, it's understandable because you mentioned 14 years of experience. and I actually saw on your website, I don't remember a specific number, but the number of clients or the companies that you worked with, impressive number. I don't remember a specific one, but it was huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:23 So, I mean, I've done a lot of training, education, enablement as part of just all the work that I've done. And even more recently, my last company, before I went out on my own and now I'm an advisor and I own my own practice, before that I was a CCO, so a chief customer officer at a customer success management solution company, and I oversaw their entire post-initional sales team. But what that meant is that I also did a lot of training and education through that. So I would design these webinars, which we referred to as our boot camps, customer success leadership boot camps.

Starting point is 00:06:55 And that was actually probably one of my most famous series that I led for years. And I would do them every quarter, and it would be like five webinars, six webinars in each series. And they did so well. I mean, we would have thousands and thousands of people. attend these things. So not only register, but actually attend live. And so it really gave me a large scope of influence over the customer success community. I can imagine it must be, of course, when it's successful, greatly rewarding, but at the same time, it must be such a pressure.

Starting point is 00:07:26 You know, as you say, thousands of people, companies and everyone, and it's on your shoulder. So what does it feel like for you? You know, it's a very interesting question. I think, listen, at some point in my life and in my career, maybe I had stage fright or I would be more timid about certain things like this. But I think over the years, I felt so comfortable in talking about the work that I do, the failures that I've made, the successes that I've had. And so it became really natural. And honestly, the fun thing about doing things virtually, like a webinar or something like that, is you can't see anybody. And so I could have thousands and thousands of people in the room and maybe I only see my co-host. So for me, I think that made it less intimidating,

Starting point is 00:08:09 but also became the entrance point to me taking much larger stages at live events. And so, you know, because I got so comfortable doing all that virtual content and had the reach that I did, by the time I made it to big stages, standing in front of thousands of people no longer became intimidating. It's actually great point because it's like a preparation in advance. And it's Absolutely. It is like the training wheels of public speaking. It sometimes feels like that, I don't know if it might be useful one day, but you never know actually. And let's be honest, like with life speaking, it's for most people, terrifying. So having kind of preparation in advance for something like that that many people are afraid of, that's very helpful.

Starting point is 00:08:51 It's a great way to like get comfortable being public with things that you're thinking or ideas that you have or your successes or failures. even say to people, if you're someone who is looking to get started on like social media, for example, the number one thing I hear from folks all the time is like, oh my gosh, I'm so scared. I am scared that if I go write this post and I go put it out there, what are people going to think? What are they going to say? And my answer to them is always like, who's going to see it? Like what LinkedIn's algorithm anyway, you can go post every single day and maybe 10 people see it. So like just post, just share. If you have something important to say something that someone can find value in, don't worry about how many or what this.

Starting point is 00:09:31 scope is or what will people think or what will they say or how will they feel? Who cares? Honestly, the scope of influence so early on is so small anyway. So get started with just being comfortable articulating things and putting it out there. And then your audience as it grows, you're more comfortable and it kind of all falls together. It's so true. I can only agree. I heard it many times and never forget that even if you post, it's a bad post, but you're still way ahead of that person who's waiting for the perfect moment, who's scared or just that. doesn't hit that button. So even if it's bad, just post and go from there. Absolutely. And Christy, coming back to what you do, I can imagine as we discussed, it's like a long process,

Starting point is 00:10:12 but is there like a specific part that you particularly enjoy, like your favorite part? Ooh, somebody asked me this recently. Well, actually, they asked me the inverse of your question. They asked me, what is the work that I don't enjoy doing? So now you're asking what is the work that I enjoy doing. To be very honest, you know, there's so many asked. of the work that I do. I do advisory work where I'm helping companies and then I do coaching where I'm helping people. And so I think the work that I love the most is the coaching only because it wasn't a resource that I ever had. When I was coming up in customer success, there were not LinkedIn influencers, there were not podcasts, there were not resources and templates and webinars

Starting point is 00:10:54 and ebooks and there definitely wasn't AI. And so I had to figure it all out on my own, right? And I definitely struggled and I floundered and I failed. And I became very comfortable with doing so. But now I'm just like, be the resource that I never had. Right. That's kind of my mantra. And that's why I share so much content is because I want to provide resources and information and insight and learnings to folks because I never had those things. And I also believe very strongly that if I did, my career, my success may it look very different. So I think it's the coaching if I had to pick one. That's, yeah, I understand. And it was actually a great point. How did you then learn when you started? It was like from the boots, from other people, trial and error. Oh, gosh. Well, there definitely were no books on it either. So probably, I got to be honest with you. I think that the best teacher I had, I had a leader early on who was a former McKinsey consultant. And he very much taught us the way of his world, right? Like, what did it?

Starting point is 00:11:58 look like through the lens of consulting. And if you think about customer success, it's actually, it takes like a playbook out of the consulting book, right? Like it's, so it's, we're leveraging a lot of the same frameworks and the work that consultants did that was wildly successful. So for me, I feel like I learned very early on what great look like. And he set a very high bar for me. I will be very honest with you. I never felt like I was ever good enough for this person. He, he was very tough on us all. But I also say working for, for him five and a half years, I felt like I got my PhD in customer success. So he led from the front. He showed us what good looked like. And so as tough as he was, he demanded excellence.

Starting point is 00:12:39 And I think it allowed us to rise to the occasion, right? We pushed ourselves harder and faster and further than we would have otherwise. And I'd say outside of that, honestly, it was the trial and error because I didn't know, right? I didn't know what was going to work and what wouldn't work. And honestly, it was like, fail fast, fix your mistake, learn from it, and move on. And so I feel like I spent a lot of my time. with like a broom trying to clean things up. But the failure is actually, one, they make for much better stories. So for my content, the failures are great.

Starting point is 00:13:08 But also, I feel like, you know, when you learn through failure, that learning sticks a little bit more than when you learn through success, in my opinion. Right. Like, think about it. If you touch a stove and it's hot and you burn yourself, you're never going to touch that stove again. So it's like those little things I think of. And I'm like, no, you know what? I probably wouldn't have remembered that and learned as much as I did if it wasn't so bad.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Yeah. Great points. And very happy that you met such a person that although it might have been demanding. And I assume that at that time, it may seem maybe like too much, but looking back, it's priceless when there is someone who kind of guides you. Absolutely. I totally agree. In the moment, it was hard. It was hard every day.

Starting point is 00:13:50 But he and I are actually still very close. And we just talked even like two weeks ago. So it's nice that even so many years later that he and I. are still in touch. And like I said, he was a tough leader, but a wonderful one. Yeah. Yeah. And you probably kind of answered it already, but is there like anything else that you would say that changed when you compare the industry or that area before to now? Of course, you kind of answered it before and we have AI, but is there like something else that you see that shifted, evolved or is different? I think the big shift that I've seen across customer success is that there is more,

Starting point is 00:14:27 clarity now on what needs to be done, I still think that there is the learning curve of how to do it. Now, I think that is where AI comes in beautifully is it does help with the execution part. You know, oftentimes people running into bandwidth and stuff like this, but in the beginning stages of customer success, there's just less clarity, right? Like, we knew kind of what we were trying to do and maybe why we even existed as a function. But now I think there is a lot more clarity around the objective, the purpose behind it, the value of having it and making those investments. And so that has definitely transcended over time, is that clarity. And I think now what we're going to see is that really big shift that AI is going to help

Starting point is 00:15:08 be the catalyst for. And would you then say that thanks to AI, it makes things easier or maybe the opposite that it gives you like more options. So at the same time, there is more to do. So easier or harder or kind of in between. You know, I think this is a nuanced one because while I think that AI will inevitably be helpful, right now I think people are still in a learning phase, right? Like people don't actually know all of the things they can or should be doing it. Not everyone has a background in AI.

Starting point is 00:15:40 So if a lot of people, right, they're new. They're learning. They have to immerse themselves into it. For some people, that is actually requiring a lot of time. And so that time is taking you away from the other work that you're going to do, which makes the job harder because there's more that has to happen. So I think there will be a time where everything will feel better as a result of AI. I still think that it's too early to say that we're there. I also feel like that it keeps evolving so much and all the time is something.

Starting point is 00:16:08 Oh, gosh. I know. Listen, my Claude, even as I look at it now, it's like, okay, ready to update again. I think I must relaunch my Claude desktop app like twice a day because it's always like, okay, update it again. I'm like, all right, guys, what's new? I know, I understand. And when there was like when AI started, what was it like for you?

Starting point is 00:16:28 Where do someone open, excited or scared? Oh, gosh. I feel like I'm not afraid of anything now at this point in my career. I think that's what 25 years of working. Like you've seen a lot. So it's like it's not scary. And I do believe that like, listen, this is the innovation that so many of us have actually seen before.

Starting point is 00:16:48 Think about it as simple and silly as this. at one point Excel came to market. And I still honestly believe that Excel is probably one of the most powerful tools in the universe. I'm not good at using it, but I watched my husband. He is very talented in Excel. But think about it this way. Excel comes to market. And every accountant who had been doing everything by hand on paper with the calculator,

Starting point is 00:17:09 they all panicked, right? Everyone thought, oh my gosh, I'm out of a job. No. There was an evolution of the work that they did. Right? now you could be a master at Excel and accelerate that craft. And I think that's the same thing we're seeing here. Right. It's like with any innovation over time, this cell phone, you know, I feel bad for beepers before that, but like, you know, we had pagers and then you had a cell phone and everyone just,

Starting point is 00:17:35 you learn to adopt. And that's what, that's what change does. Right. I don't know, I don't listen to the radio anymore. I listen to Spotify in my car. This is just like, you know, it's just the way, right? something new happens, innovation happens, the best thing you can do is lean in, not lean out. And so for me personally, I'm all in. I'm trying to figure it out. I've got a lot to learn. I'm not a super, super technical person. But I'm like not afraid to break things. And so I feel like that makes me probably dangerous. But also, I'm leaning in the right ways. I like the mindset and the approach because there is like this, you know, people are afraid that AI is going to take over their work. But

Starting point is 00:18:15 It's not the AI that will take your work, but the person who knows how to use the AI. Absolutely. It's a right approach to embrace it, test it, try how it works. And always remember that it's never late to start, explore that or to learn it. You know, I think that's the thing right now is that the market in all industries is flooded with this like fud, right? This fear, uncertainty and doubt that if you don't, like, it's moving so fast. And if you don't embrace it, you don't do all these things today, you're going to be left behind. And so there's this urgency, right? And I do believe, yes, we have to move fast. We cannot wait on this. But I also don't feel like we should be scaring people because, no, like not every single person has figured out AI and is transforming their business. It's not happening as fast as people want to claim that it is or should be. And so I think we need to just embrace the fact that everybody is going to be learning it at a different pace. And hopefully,

Starting point is 00:19:14 the right people in the right roles and the right industries, they pick up the paces they need to. But like, let's just be honest, right? We're all humans trying to do our best and we're all trying to learn this new thing and lean into the best of our ability. And some people are going to move faster than others. That is true. And you never know like what's other people's background, context in the story. So everyone is different. You are unique. So don't compare ourselves to others. And you said that really well. And Christy, before we move on, I want to ask you, again, considering your experience in what you do, I assume that you still enjoy your work after all those years. And if so, what is it like that helps you to keep enjoying it, even so much of experience,

Starting point is 00:19:55 clients, work, stress, although, of course, even very rewarded. But what is it that, you know, helps you to keep showing up and enjoy it? You know, that's a great question. I've been doing this for a long time. But I think the thing that's kept it very interesting for me is the intention to evolve myself as a professional. And so let me explain. When I started my career, I started as a subject matter expert. I was a product expert. And I went into this company, right, where I knew their product. It was easy for me. I learned all the things I could about customer success. Five and a half years later, though, I moved to another company in a different market, doing something completely different. And I learned something incredibly new, right? I took on all new challenges. And I kept doing that.

Starting point is 00:20:38 So over those 14 years, I had five different jobs at five different companies, building, scaling, transforming customer success. And every single company, not only did the scope of my role look very different, the work that we had to do, the customers, the technical complexities around my product, everything was different. And so I had to keep reinventing myself and keep learning new things. And so I think over the years, that has really helped keep me sharp. It kept me engaged. I've also had like promotions along the way in those different companies. So, I think the intentionality about how I designed my career has helped. And then it's these important pivots, right? I talked about my first part of my career. I did a decade in marketing. And then I pivoted and I did 14 years in customer success. Well, I've now left my operator role effective at the beginning of this year. And so now I'm a consultant, right? And so I'm pivoting. I'm still focused on the same work. I'm still doing a lot of the same things. But if anything, now I think I'm doing a hybrid of customer success and marketing, which is interesting. So I've taken two parts of my life. And and combined them into the third act of my career.

Starting point is 00:21:41 So I think it's a little bit of like keeping it fresh, right? I try to avoid mundane work where it's the same thing every day, day in and day out. And fortunately for me, customer success has never been like that, especially again, now, again, we're operating in the world of AI. So like no two days ever look the same. But I think that's helped me stay excited about the work because there's always a new challenge ahead. There's always something going on.

Starting point is 00:22:05 and I do try to be a master of my craft. And I think that it takes a lot of work to get to a stage of mastery. So I'm not eager to just try something and move on. I do want to try it. I want to perfect it. I want to learn it as a craft so I can be really good at it. And so hopefully I can teach other people how to do it. And then that obviously keeps me really engaged.

Starting point is 00:22:27 That's a really nice answer. And I really like it because not only it's kind of recipe, how to enjoy it, never stop enjoying that. but also great message for the audience because when you keep doing something the same way, after time, of course, it becomes routine and it's easy to feel bored and maybe even experience burnout, which of course we don't want to, but with such a mindset, I really like it and I hope it inspires people. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:22:52 And also, since you deal a lot with customers and the clients, we know that it's not always easy to deal with the people, especially with the customers because you want to make them happy. So what is it that gives you patience or helps you if there is like a tough one or someone that you cannot stand? It must be really hard, especially with so many. So got any secrets for that? A lot of empathy. I think the best thing you can do in this role is try to put yourself in the other person's shoes. Now, listen, I am not going to defend and pretend like there aren't just some people out there that are just jerks.

Starting point is 00:23:30 There are some people that are just mean that you're never going to make them happy. they're always going to be grumpy. Fine. There's absolutely those people, but they're the exception, not the rule. And so when you're dealing with customers who are frustrated, they're upset about something, they have high expectations, high demands. Honestly, I often just put myself into their shoes. And I say, like, you know, try to understand where is this coming from? So I think that's the first thing is leading with empathy. The second thing is I learned how to compartmentalize. I think early in my career, I took everything personal. I thought everything was a personal attack on me. that I was the worst thing in the world. I was the reason why everyone was mad. I learned that at the end of the

Starting point is 00:24:07 day, it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do about the situation. And so being able to compartmentalize and say, you know what, this isn't about me. They are frustrated. I'm here to listen. That is my job. They're not yelling at me. They're yelling in general. And so my job is to, right, like defuse a situation, figure out what's going on, come up with the solution, align with them on it and move past it. So I think just being able to be present in a moment, remove, myself from it and understand that there is a reason in a situation we're here. And it's maybe, I'm going to say most of the time, it's not my fault. And so my job here, though, is to get them to a solution that feels good and resolves the issue. And I think when you can do that and really

Starting point is 00:24:47 change your mindset, it allows you to be more productive in that moment also. I like it. It's good. And there are people who, like, from the audience, sort of like freelancers or people with agencies and stuff like that. So I'm sure that this will be helpful. when dealing with difficult clients, because everyone has such clients, so let's be honest. Everyone has difficult clients, for sure. And is there, Christy still like a dream client that you'd like to work with, whether it will be like a specific person or a company or something that you just, someone who haven't worked with yet? Oh, man.

Starting point is 00:25:23 I don't know. It's possible that there isn't. Possibly? I don't know. Maybe there is. Like, I have, I've had the, I've had the pleasure and privilege of working with. with so many great companies and so many wonderful professionals. I don't know if there's anybody on the top of my list. I would say I'm excited about the customers that I have today that are in front of me.

Starting point is 00:25:42 They give me a lot of opportunity, a lot of challenges to learn and grow through them and with them. But there's nobody that's top of mind where I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's my dream client. It's probably just because I'm too busy right now to even think about taking on more. Or it's also possible that you had them, that you are happy with all the experience that you had and work with so many. So it will be a good scenario as well. Quick one, before we get back to it. If you like this kind of conversation, I've started sharing short videos on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:26:11 where I break down what I've learned from more than 150 episodes. Content, podcasting, personal brand, no fluff, just what actually works. Just search Produced Buy on YouTube, or don't. And keep figuring out the hard way. And I think, Christy, that you probably, again, maybe kind of answered it before, but you have a strong brand on LinkedIn and even on other channels as well. And we discussed it before that you wanted to kind of provide the resource that you didn't have. So is that the reason why we started?

Starting point is 00:26:47 Or was there like a different reason why we started posting online? So, you know, it's so interesting. So when I started talking about customer success, especially on LinkedIn, nobody was talking about it. So I didn't really, I wasn't out there like telling people what to do or what to think. I wasn't offering advice, I was putting out there an invitation for a conversation. I would pose things and say like, hey, here's what I'm doing. Here's how I'm doing it. Is this right? Is this wrong? Is somebody doing it better? What do you think? And so I think early in my social media career,

Starting point is 00:27:18 right? Like I just started using it as an opportunity to engage with other professionals who were like me trying to solve similar things. But then I also became very comfortable with sharing, right? I think there was probably a point in my career where I thought that like if I shared everything I knew, it would make other people more competitive to me, right? Like if I gave away all of my resources and all of my knowledge, it would take away my value and it would give them more power. Right. And like that's probably how I thought and it's a horrible way to think. I think it's over time. Sorry to interrupt.

Starting point is 00:27:52 I think that's actually something that many people might strike with and I heard it before as well. It's like, oh, I give them kind of my secrets. What if they become better than me? So that's a great point that you mentioned. Right. And so I know that it wasn't an uncommon fear or an uncommon thought. I knew that it wasn't like a crazy thought. But it was how I felt for a long time.

Starting point is 00:28:12 Like, God, like I was a hoarder of my ideas and my success. Like, no, no, no. What I actually learned is that by sharing it and making everything available, it amplified my brand. And it made me more trusted and more credible. And people just loved. that. And they felt like they were getting something from me that nobody else was giving, and especially in customer success. So I built a platform on what I refer to as selfless giving. I don't ask for anything in

Starting point is 00:28:37 return. I don't want anything from these people. Obviously, I have customers who pay me to do work, and that's different. But I make a lot of things readily available. I put out there for free. My newsletter is free. It goes out weekly with not only a lot of content and stories. I give resources away in there, like downloads I make free for periods of time. They can go. learn like little use cases around AI, access to additional content. So my newsletter every week. I post on LinkedIn every day. I post on TikTok a couple times a week. I do webinars and podcasts. Anytime I'm invited to go participate in anything, I say yes to everything. I make sure I'm on all the community events so I can just give and share. And I don't have any ego about it. I don't think that I'm

Starting point is 00:29:19 always right. I don't think that I have solved all of the customer success questions in the world. I have a point of view. That's it. I have my experiences and my expertise and my point of view. I'm always happy to share that. I'm always happy to hear if somebody has an opposing thought, right? Like I also welcome conversation. And so I think that's really what's helped me build a brand. I don't like the word influencer because I think that feels funny.

Starting point is 00:29:44 I'm not Kim Kardashian. But I like to think that I have built a community of folks around me who appreciate that I share so freely. and have grown and have seen success by using the things that I make readily available. I really like it. That sounds great. What we discussed before when you said kind of fear of giving out the stuff that people may use or benefit from, I think a kind of great byproduct or the way how to think about is that if you give it, it helps you to also establish yourself as expert in the field and build authority,

Starting point is 00:30:22 which is very important. And then you talk about community, I think it's just self-explanatory how important it is to build your community, especially on LinkedIn, like of the people to support you and support back. It makes all the difference as well. Yeah, it's served me well. So if anyone wanted an idea or tip, I think giving people what they need is a great way to go build your brand and to show that you're a credible resource in the space that you're in. Yeah, I agree. And Christy just told us so many things that you do, which was actually the question I wanted to ask you. Because you are a content creator.

Starting point is 00:30:59 You got your work, podcast, and everything. How do you manage to do so much on such a high level as well? Oh, my gosh. I don't know. I ask myself that every single day. Not well, I would say I, it is a juggling act. I would say the biggest challenge that I obviously face as a result of that is I want to do everything. I want to be everywhere.

Starting point is 00:31:18 I want to give to everyone. And that is proving to be a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. And so to be honest, it's been tough. I try to prioritize what's most important. For me, honestly, it is my customers. But it's not lost on me, though, that most of my customers have found me through social media. So I do need to prioritize that because that is the channel which people find me. It's the channel that people turn to. It's where I'm known best. So I still need to prioritize and maintain that. So I think is trying to find a balance of what do I need to prioritize. And I will just say my priorities change. I would say day to day, but it really feels more like hour to hour. Yeah, I understand. Priorities and

Starting point is 00:32:00 what's the most important. Would you then say, Christy, that LinkedIn is your main platform? I would have to say, yes. LinkedIn is definitely where I have the most followers and about 60,000 followers, which is a lot in customer success. I don't, you know, my topic is not a broad topic. I'm not like a LinkedIn influencer. I'm not teaching people how to use LinkedIn. I don't have a broad reach. It is finite, right? Like there's only so many people who do customer success.

Starting point is 00:32:28 And so, you know, even that, I don't capture the market majority. But I think for customer success professionals who are engaging on social media, they've probably come across my content. And I appreciate that I've built a space for them. No, I was going to say that it's an impressive number, even outside of the niche. You know, 60K is a lot. It's great. I don't know these days. Every time I click on someone's profile, I'm like, oh, they have like 200,000 followers. Okay. Not me, not today. Just trying to get to 60.

Starting point is 00:32:57 And I was actually about to ask you because I don't know the space that well. So I know you have a lot of followers. But what is it like on LinkedIn? Like, for example, with the competition of your niche. if there are, I assume that before, there weren't that many people and it evolved over time. But what is it like now? Do you feel like there are many people in your niche or not? There's definitely many more people. I think what's been interesting to watch is that, you know, social media allows everybody to have a voice. And I think that's the problem. It allows everybody to have a voice. It's really hard to decipher quality work and what's been proven versus people regurgers. vegetating what they've heard from somebody else or having AI write their content. Yeah. So it's it's hard. And so what I tell everybody is like there are a lot of people saying a lot of things. Before you take what they're saying as law,

Starting point is 00:33:55 can you go click on their profile and validate that they've done the work? Because there are a lot of people that have built a very strong following in customer success specifically on LinkedIn who have never worked in customer success a day in their life. And to me, that's crazy. Like, how are you seen as an expert in this field and you've never done the job? I don't get it. So that's where I think social media becomes a little dangerous. It's an opportunity, right? And I'm not trying to steal anyone's opportunity. That's where I'll never name names and point fingers. But I just encourage everybody. I'm like, validate. Right? Just go validate your sources. check your sources.

Starting point is 00:34:33 I agree and understand because not to guide anyone, but for example, if you imagine someone on LinkedIn with polished profile and posting beautiful infographics or something, it's kind of understandable that their account is going to grow because there's the content and LinkedIn pushes and people like, but then you don't know if they actually have the experience or if it's like from someone else or pulled out of AI. So it was a great point that you never know. Yeah, it takes two seconds to go and check. And I also, it just reminds me, I had to look at your experience.

Starting point is 00:35:04 And oh my God, I saw that experience on LinkedIn. You are presenting so many, I don't know, businesses and ventures and everything. So again, it just speaks for itself about your experience. So really well done. It's funny. My profile definitely becomes very saturated. It's because I am an investor in a few different firms. I hold advisory roles in different organizations.

Starting point is 00:35:26 Obviously, I'm the kind of CEO and principal consultant of my own firm. But if you scroll down a little bit, you start to see all of my operator roles, right, where I was chief customer officer for five years. Before that, I was VP of customer success for a number of years. And I was, you know, an individual contributor for a period of years, right? So I moved from CSM to CCO in 10 years. And then I spent the remaining, you know, couple years thereafter as CCO. So I have built my platform on authentic experiences. And that's really what I tout is that I would. would never tell somebody to do something that I hadn't done myself. And I'm speaking from a place of experience. Yeah, I'm really happy to hear that. And if people have any doubt, have a look. It's all there. You just got to scroll down. You just got to keep scroll. And Christy, I need to ask you, because it's for the audience, like, have you got any advice or recommendations or how to grow your profile on LinkedIn? Because the audience is people from LinkedIn. And you can be, you know, I can be asking that all the time. But there is still

Starting point is 00:36:30 someone looking for those grow hacks or tips, etc. So do you have any advice? If you would have asked me like three years ago, sure, these days I have zero advice. I don't know. I run my post through Claude. I've created a bot like just to help me to do my analysis on my analytics on all of my content. Like what performs? What doesn't perform? Do I use images? Should I use carousels? Should I just use text? Should I use video? Should I post in the morning? Should I post at night? Should I, how many characters? Like honestly, I am exhausted. all of the analysis. It is definitely analysis paralysis now at this point of how much I have tried to learn what the algorithm likes. I have no idea. On Sunday I posted a picture of my daughter's Easter

Starting point is 00:37:11 basket with the little story of what happened to me where I was a target. See? And that post took off, right? I've got like hundreds of people engaging with it. The impressions are through the roof. That's not a post that I would think would take off. Right. And then there's some things where I'm posting really good, valuable content about customer success. And it's like, LinkedIn's like, nope, here's 3,000 impressions. I'm like, how don't you have 3,000 impressions when I have 60,000 followers? Like, the math doesn't math. So it's just, no. So to answer your question, no, I don't have any advice. I guess my only thing that I would say is just post. If you have something to say that is meaningful, that would be valuable to even one person, post it. And don't worry about the

Starting point is 00:37:55 impressions. Like, I think there was definitely a time where I got hung up on that, because every post I used to post would get hundreds of thousands of impressions and now I'm like happy if it gets 5,000. I stop obsessing about the numbers and I'm going to encourage anybody who's new to posting, ignore the numbers. Think about it this way. If one person saw your content, liked it, commented on it, saved it, even just one person, there was value in what you put out there. So don't get hung up on the numbers. And I always put the perspective of this. If somebody asked you to speak in front of 500 people, wouldn't, you? you'd be really proud to have had the opportunity to stand in front of 500 people? Yes, is always the

Starting point is 00:38:35 answer. Yes is always the answer. Nobody says no. So why are we getting so mad when your post has 500 impressions? I don't know. That's 500 people that had an opportunity to experience your voice, your experience, your point of view. So ignore the numbers, post the darn content. Don't worry about what people are going to think. Chances are, nobody will see it anyway, so I don't worry about it. And just start doing it. And just keep showing up because, as you said, before Christy, you post every day if I'm not mistaken. You've been showing up for a long time. And don't overthink it.

Starting point is 00:39:07 Just post it, see how it works. And don't compare yourself to others as well. I think you sound like really well. That's the big thing, right? Like, do not compare because there's always somebody else doing more, more followers, more impressions, content has more likes. All of it is just noise. if you have something valuable to say, post it, share it, don't worry about anything else,

Starting point is 00:39:27 just keep going. And have fun. That's important as well. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Yes. I forgot what it's like to have fun with posting. But yes, there is a time where that was the thing.

Starting point is 00:39:37 So yes, if you can enjoy it too, enjoy it. And Christy, just to be aware of time, want to ask you kind of lighter questions by the end. So what is it that you like to do in your free time or what are some of your hobbies? I work all the time. So the only thing I make time for outside of my family, which absolutely gets prioritized. I have a 17-year-old daughter who's getting ready to go off to college and my husband and my parents and our family and friends. But outside of that, I would say running or working out, fitness and exercise and running. Last year, I ran the New York City Marathon. That was my first marathon. It was an amazing experience. I was working for it. Really well done.

Starting point is 00:40:17 So like training for that last year was an incredible experience running the marathon, running the marathon with my husband. That was incredible. I took some time off of running to just heal mentally, physically, emotionally from that experience. And then I just started running again this year. And so now I'm back to running and I've got two half marathons coming up in May. So just trying to get back to that. But I do think that intentional body movement is really important for everybody. And it doesn't need to be running a marathon.

Starting point is 00:40:46 it could be walking a mile. And so for me, making time for physical fitness is critical. That'll never not be something that doesn't get prioritized in my life. I honestly feel the same. Although I have no experience with marathons, but like physical exercise, it's something that helps you mentally, like switch and a break and just part of the life and something that's kind of non-negotiable. Yeah. Running is the only time I don't have a device in front of me, right? Even when I do strength training and I'm like lifting weights in my garage. I, you know, in between sets, I'm on my phone and I'm checking Slack and I'm checking email. When I am running, it is the only time my phone goes into my belt and I don't touch it.

Starting point is 00:41:27 So if I'm running for an hour or two hours, that's an hour or two hours of completely being present in the moment. Maybe I have some music going on. Maybe I'm chatting with my husband. But like outside of that, it is a complete opportunity to disconnect. I just don't get that a lot. So I think running for me heals me in different ways because of the ability to just turn things off. I like it.

Starting point is 00:41:51 And impressive with the marathon and good luck on the next ones or next one. What are Chris some of your favorite books if you read? Have you got any recommendations? I would say always top of my list is Atomic Habits. I think that is a book that you can use to optimize your personal life, your professional life, your relationships. I think it's just everything about it, I think, is applicable in all areas of life. And if you are somebody who wants to see growth in any area, developing the habits to get you there are going to be critical. And that book does a great job of laying the foundation.

Starting point is 00:42:26 So I always say that that is a top book. And then there is another book called Make Your Bed. It's a very short book by Admiral. I forget his name. It's on my bookshelf. I could see it, but I can't read it. An officer in the, I believe it was in the Navy. And he spoke at one of the colleges.

Starting point is 00:42:42 did a commencement speech. It was beautiful. But he talks about making your bed and how in the military, the importance and the relevancy of making your bed. But it translates really beautifully into everybody else because if you think about it, if you wake up in the morning and you make your bed, you've already accomplished something for the day. You have done something, right? You've started that kind of trajectory of completing something for the day and how it just changes your mindset and sets you up for success throughout the rest of the day. And so I really, really love that book. I think it's a great story. It's something that me and my daughter have read together. And we really do take that stuff seriously. I do think that if you, it's a snowball effect

Starting point is 00:43:21 with all of the things that are great in our lives, right? And so they all start with small steps. I don't think there's a step smaller than making your bed, maybe brushing your teeth. But I would say making your bed is a great, a great metaphor for that transformation. Firstly, Atomic Habits, amazing book I highly recommend to people as well. And secondly, that book is great recommendation too. It's similar to what we discussed before the recording, that, for example, we like to start a day with exercise, which kind of sets the tone for the day and the low win. And this one, make your bet, is the easiest thing that you can do. So great recommendation as well. Then, Christy, can you please summarize where people can find you,

Starting point is 00:43:58 follow you, and promote any of your services? Absolutely. Well, the best place to go find me, if you're on LinkedIn, which I believe probably most people are these days, you can go check me out on LinkedIn. The name is Christy Felteruso. I am the only Christy Felteruso on there. So even if you spell it wrong, you're probably going to find me. And then the next best place to find me would be my website, which is again, super easy, just Christy Falteruso.com. And honestly, those are your two best ways to get in touch with me. I'd love to connect with you and hear and learn from everybody else out there doing great things. I will always add any links to the show notes. And also, we cannot forget that Christy does

Starting point is 00:44:36 podcast. I'm sorry that we didn't have time to discuss it. Because you know that if it was podcasting it will be another hour or even longer. But Christy, please promote the podcast as well. Yes, I do have two podcasts. The first podcast is called She So Sweet, which is about women in the C-suite. And so where I interview women on their career trajectories, it always starts the foundational story of like, what do they want to be when they were a little girl? And then how do they get to where they are? And most of these women are high-achieving, really accomplished successful women. So their stories and their learnings along the way, obstacles they've overcome, challenges they face successes that they've had, and they give a ton of advice. So if you are somebody

Starting point is 00:45:14 who just is inspired by career growth, that podcast is a wonderful one for you. These women are fantastic. And then the other one that I just launched this year is called After the Close, which is a conversational style podcast where we talk about everything and anything that happens post close in a SaaS organization. And so it is sometimes these are solo episodes. just me monologuing and ranting about something that I feel very passionate about. Other ones I invite some guests on and we have a little coffee talk and chat about things that are really near and dear to our hearts or things that we're feeling excited or confused or stressed or passionate about.

Starting point is 00:45:49 So it makes for great conversation and the sessions, I think the episodes go by really fast. So hopefully either of those hopefully is a good fit. And either wise, you know, check them out and maybe pass along to a friend. I agree. And now we edit a few more things to Christy's plate. if it's only that she doesn't do much, no, even more. And Chris, you mentioned before that, for example, you will be planning another marathon.

Starting point is 00:46:14 I know that you do a lot, but still, are there like any goals, ambitions or anything that you are planning for the future that audience can be excited about? Oh, my gosh. Well, I am doing so for those who are less familiar with, like, the major marathons, which is like New York and Berlin and Boston, Chicago, London, Tokyo. those are really hard to get into. I am fortunate to live in New York, and so I have a cheat code to get into New York, which is I do the 9 plus 1, which is New York Roadrunners who runs the New York City Marathon. Nine plus 1 is you run nine qualified races, which are also very hard to get into, and you volunteer at 1. So this year, my focus is again, complete the 9 plus 1, which is how I got into the marathon last year, and run the marathon in 27. I am looking for. for a redemption run. I did good my first marathon. I did 4.30 and I felt really good about my time

Starting point is 00:47:10 and my pacing and my training and everything was great. Day was beautiful. My time could be a little better. I could probably have not fallen apart as I did after mile 22. So my goal is to have a better run in 2027. That's what I'm going to work towards. I'm pretty sure you are just underestimating yourself. It's impressive and really well done. Then Christy, any final piece of advice message or anything. If I forgot to ask you something, is there anything you would like to leave the audience with? No, I think I would just say, listen, if you're out there, you've got something to say, say it. I think that should be everyone's mantra. It doesn't matter if it's video form, written form. You want to do a blog. You want to do a newsletter. You want to go post on social media.

Starting point is 00:47:48 It doesn't matter. These platforms today have given us the ability to share in a very real and authentic way. And so go share something. It's just somebody will benefit from you doing so. And just because you think maybe I'm not at the top of my industry, right, or I haven't experienced all these things, it doesn't matter. Every single person, I don't care, young or old, has something that they can share and something that's valuable. So don't get hung up on any of the nonsense. You have something to share. Go share it. The only other thing I would just add to that is, please, make it your voice.

Starting point is 00:48:20 Don't add more AI slop to the internet. You have something to say, you say it. Don't let AI say it for you. I like it. I like both. Don't overthink it, post it. and don't be afraid of the judgment and spotlight effect because people are not really waiting for it to post it and criticize. It's not really how it works.

Starting point is 00:48:38 Exactly. And the point with AI is true as well. After all, your voice is what makes you unique. So embrace it. I think then, Christy, genuinely enjoyed it. It was pleasure, as I said, not only to speak with a podcaster, but also with someone from completely different area. I'm pretty sure that I've never spoken with anyone from there. I know my questions were basic, but it's for me and for the.

Starting point is 00:48:59 audience as well. Genuinely enjoyed it, I can see that you are experienced podcaster as well. So thank you so much for that. I encourage people to follow on LinkedIn, check out the podcast and even reach out if they need. Thank you so much. We'll be excited to see about the marathon in the future and wishing you all the best for the future. Thank you so much. This is a wonderful opportunity. Great conversation today. Thanks for listening to Produce by with comment. Check the show notes for all the links. And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon.

Produced By - Inside Customer Success: Fourteen Years in SaaS | 152: Kristi Faltorusso

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