Welcome to a new episode of CX Leadership Talks! The podcast for CX leaders who want to spice up their leadership. 

In this inspiring episode, your host Nienke Bloem dives into an incredibly valuable conversation with global keynote speaker, educator, and "burger lady" Sally Foley-Lewis. Together, they explore the true power - and challenges - of leading from the middle.

Discover why the best is in the middle, how to influence without formal authority, and how to proceed until apprehended.

00:00 Introducing Sally Foley-Lewis 

 Here you can find the survey Sally invites you to fill in. 

About Nienke: 

She helps CX leaders move from doing customer experience to leading it by building strong CX strategies, crafting compelling CX Stories, and driving measurable business impact. Spicing up CX Leadership 

Nienke is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), and a Recognized Training Provider of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). 

With over 20 years of corporate experience, she combines business strategy, leadership, and customer experience to help organizations turn CX into real results. 

Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned or visit her website  for more information! 

Her mission is simple: Make Customer Experience Work. And yes, she always wears her signature blue dress 😊

Do you know how to use every presentation to actually move people? Not just inform them or update them, but make them remember, feel something, and take action.

Because every time you step into a room, you have that opportunity as a CX leader. To create clarity, build energy, and influence decisions and direction.

And yet, most presentations don’t land. They don’t change anything. Not because the content is wrong, but because the design is. We start with slides, data, and content instead of starting with intent.

In this episode of #CXLeadershipTalks, Nienke Bloem CCXP takes you into one of the most underestimated leadership skills in customer experience: how to prepare your presentations so they create real impact.

The good news? It doesn’t have to be complicated. It starts by answering four simple, powerful questions!

Grounded in research on memory, decision-making, and behavior, and built on her experience working with hundreds of CX professionals, this episode shows you a simple but powerful shift.

From intention to presenting information and creating movement.

So you don’t just share CX. You strategize CX and Lead it.

Timestamped overview:

00:00 Do you know how to move people with your presentation

10:00 Question 1: Who is your audience

22:00 Why “any questions?” kills your impact

Extra information:

Want to receive the CX Presentation Playbook with the four questions and a practical checklist?

You can download it here. You’ll receive the playbook and will also receive Nienke’s weekly CX Leadership updates.

And of course, never end your presentation with a Thank You Slide, watch her incredible valuable Youtube Video here.

About Nienke

Nienke Bloem is a global Customer Experience (CX) thought leader, keynote speaker, and educator.

She helps CX leaders move from doing customer experience to leading it by building strong CX strategies, crafting compelling CX Stories, and driving measurable business impact. Spicing up CX Leadership

Nienke is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), and a Recognized Training Provider of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA).

With over 20 years of corporate experience, she combines business strategy, leadership, and customer experience to help organizations turn CX into real results.

Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned or visit www.nienkebloem.com for more information!

Her mission is simple: Make Customer Experience Work. And yes, she always wears her signature blue dress 😊

What does it really take to win four International CX Awards, amongst which three GOLD?

In this episode of CX Leadership Talks, Nienke Bloem sits down with Irene van Hoorn, CX Leader of the Year and Brand Experience Transformation Lead at Eneco.

Irene shares how she moved from marketing and product roles to building and professionalizing CX as a discipline, and ultimately winning three Gold and one Bronze at the International CX Awards.

This is not a trophy story. It’s a leadership story.

About building authority without formal power.

If you are wondering whether you are “ready” to step up, take visibility, or go for recognition? This episode is for you.

Because imposter thinking is common.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Trust the process.

Timestamped overview:

00:00 Welcome Irene – introducing the CX Leader of the Year

Extra information:

Connect with Irene on LinkedIn:

Interested in the International CX Awards?

Visit: https://internationalcxaward.com/home

Recommended by Irene:

About Nienke:    

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress.     

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.    

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations.     

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned.

In this episode, Nienke Bloem takes you behind the scenes of one of the biggest moments in her speaking career. Standing backstage at the Global Speaker Summit, about to deliver the closing keynote. A moment filled with excitement and doubt.

And it led to a powerful realization.

Because that exact same feeling shows up for CX leaders every single day.

Not on a stage.

But in leadership meetings, boardrooms, and stakeholder conversations.

That moment where you think:

In this episode, Nienke combines her personal experience with insights from psychology, including Identity Theory from Peter Burke and Self Efficacy Theory from Albert Bandura, to explain what is really happening in that moment.

This is not just about confidence. This is about identity.

And about how you step into your role as a CX leader before you fully feel ready.

This episode will help you move from doing CX to truly leading CX.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN

TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW

00:00 "From Hesitation to Leadership"

05:49 "Leadership and Doubt Moments"

09:22 "Crafting Your Leadership Identity"

10:37 "ANI Model for Strategic Leadership"

13:49 "Identifying Ideal Self Moments"

19:13 "Transforming Doubts Into Impact"

21:26 "Free CX Strategy Webinar"

24:37 "Global Leadership Greetings"

READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP?

Nienke is hosting a series of free webinars in April on CX Story and CX Strategy. Book it HERE:

https://www.nienkebloem.nl/en/cx-educatie/webinar-create-your-best-cx-story-ever/

In these sessions, you will

ABOUT NIENKE

Nienke Bloem CCXP is often called the Customer Experience expert in the blue dress.

She is a global CX thought leader, educator and keynote speaker who inspires leaders and organizations to spice up their customer experience leadership and create real business impact.

With over 20 years of corporate experience, Nienke speaks the business language of CX transformation. Through her keynotes, education programs and mentoring she helps CX leaders become more strategic, influential and effective in driving customer-centric change.

She is the host of the CX Leadership Talks podcast, creator of the CX Story Blueprint, and a Recognized Training Partner of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA).

Her programs, including the CX Masterclass, CX Leadership Masterminds, and CX Story Sprint, help CX professionals strengthen their authority, align strategy and turn customer experience into measurable business results.

Feel free to reach out [email protected] and more on www.nienkebloem.com

In this new episode of CX Leadership Talks Host Nienke Bloem CCXP introduces the CX Leadership Energy Matrix. A simple quadrant tool that helps you decide where to focus your time and energy as a CX leader.

The model maps your activities based on two dimensions: business impact and personal energy. By looking at your work through this lens, you can make more strategic choices about where your leadership truly makes a difference.

You’ll discover the four zones of the matrix, the Sweet Spot, the Playground, the Strategic Duty Zone, and the Energy Drain, and why managing your energy is just as important as managing your time.

Click here to see the visual of the model

00:00 Welcome to CX Leadership Talks and recording from Sydney
02:00 Discovering the value–energy model from Taki Moore
04:00 The reality of CX leadership: endless improvement opportunities
07:30 Why leadership energy matters more than working longer hours
08:00 Research insights from Harvard Business Review on energy management
11:00 Introducing the CX Leadership Energy Matrix
13:00 The CX Leadership Sweet Spot: high value and high energy
16:00 The CX Playground: high energy but limited impact
17:00 The Strategic Duty Zone: important but draining work
18:30 The CX Energy Drain: low value and low energy activities
20:00 How to evaluate your own calendar using the matrix
21:30 Three reflection questions for CX leaders
23:00 Why your energy fuels CX transformation

Nienke Bloem CCXP is often called the Customer Experience expert in the blue dress.

She is a global CX thought leader, educator and keynote speaker who inspires leaders and organizations to spice up their customer experience leadership and create real business impact.

With over 20 years of corporate experience, Nienke speaks the business language of CX transformation. Through her keynotes, education programs and mentoring she helps CX leaders become more strategic, influential and effective in driving customer-centric change.

She is the host of the CX Leadership Talks podcast, creator of the CX Story Blueprint, and a Recognized Training Partner of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA).

Her programs, including the CX Masterclass, CX Leadership Masterminds, and CX Story Sprint, help CX professionals strengthen their authority, align strategy and turn customer experience into measurable business results.

Feel free to reach out [email protected] and more on www.nienkebloem.com

Imposter syndrome does not destroy your competence. 

In this episode of CX Leadership Talks, Nienke Bloem dives into the psychology behind imposter syndrome and connects it directly to the three authority dimensions every CX leader needs: Personal, Positional and Relational Authority. 

Drawing on research and the widely known model of Dr. Valerie Young, Nienke explores the five competence types – The Perfectionist, The Expert, The Natural Genius, The Soloist and The Superperson – and shows how each of them quietly weakens your leadership influence. 

This episode is about understanding your internal competence rules and deliberately strengthening your authority so you can lead with confidence and impact. 

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

Timestamped overview: 

00:00 Imposter syndrome and the authority gap 

Do you want to receive the CX Authority worksheet? Reach out to [email protected] and just ask for it 😊. 

Do you want to learn how to be a better CX Storyteller and scaler of your message? We have a new one day CX training: CX Storytelling, the first time will be in Dutch. You can read all about it here.  

About Nienke:     

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.     

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations.      

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned. 

CX leaders are great at content.

In this episode of CX Leadership Talks, Nienke Bloem dives into why communication is not a soft skill, but a core CX leadership capability. She explores how CX leaders can move from one-off presentations and workshops to a repeatable, multi-channel communication rhythm that creates real organisational impact.

This episode is about turning your CX story into a movement - not a moment.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

00:00 Scaling leadership communication impact

Want to learn more about CX stories, this is the link to the episode "From CX Story Blueprint to impact: Crafting your CX leadership change narrative".

About Nienke:    

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.    

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations.     

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned. 

In this episode of CX Leadership Talks, Nienke Bloem is joined by James O’Connor, one of the early architects of customer experience as a professional discipline. 

James brings more than 20 years of experience working at the intersection of customer experience, strategy, operations and technology. He was one of the first CX advisors at Forrester, where he worked closely with CX leaders and executive teams across global organisations. Later, he continued his work in advanced analytics and customer strategy at Bain & Company. 

In this conversation, Nienke and James dive deep into a topic many CX leaders struggle with: technology. Not tools for the sake of tools, but how technology can truly accelerate CX leadership, business impact and decision-making. 

They talk openly about why CX technology so often disappoints, why imperfect technology sometimes works better than “Ferraris”, and what CX leaders should focus on if they want technology to actually deliver value. 

This is a practical, honest and strategic episode for CX leaders who want to move beyond dashboards, vendors and hype, and start using technology as a real leadership accelerator. 

Timestamped overview 

Books mentioned in this episode 

Video’s on the Future of CX Leadership 

Connect with James 

About Nienke:     

Nienke Bloem is often called the Customer Experience speaker in the blue dress.      

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.     

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations.      

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned.

This first episode of 2026 is an invitation for CX leaders to pause, reflect and look ahead. 

In this episode, Nienke Bloem CCXP explores why CX leadership is entering a new phase and why 2026 asks something different from those leading customer experience in complex organizations. Instead of jumping to tools or quick fixes, she starts with the real challenges CX leaders face today, from lacking strategic mandate and struggling to scale CX, to feeling constantly pulled into operational firefighting. 

From there, Nienke introduces the big CX theme for 2026 and shares a clear, practical model that helps CX leaders reflect on their role at three levels: strategic, tactical and operational. With personal stories, concrete examples and a powerful lighthouse metaphor, she shows how CX leaders can move from being busy to being intentional, from reacting to steering. 

This episode is for you if you want to lead CX with more clarity, confidence and impact in 2026, without losing the joy and playfulness of the work. 

By the end of this episode, you won’t have a long to-do list. 

Are you ready for the next level? 

Timestamped overview: 

About Nienke:    

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.    

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations.     

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned. 

How do you want to lead in 2026? 

In this episode of CX Leadership Talks, Nienke Bloem helps CX leaders move from intention to direction. Not by creating a long to-do list, but by making conscious, strategic choices about where to focus. 

With 2026 themed as Strategizing CX, this episode is an invitation to slow down, zoom out, and design your year with clarity. Nienke guides you through five must-win battles every CX leader should define for themselves: impact and results, strategy vision and purpose, engagement and cultural change, personal growth and development, and work-life balance and well-being. 

This is not a quick listen. It’s a working session. You’ll be encouraged to grab a journal, think bigger than you normally do in CX, and translate ambition into concrete focus. Along the way, Nienke shares personal examples, lessons from CX leaders she mentors, and practical questions to help you decide what truly matters and what can wait. 

The episode closes with a powerful exercise: writing a letter to yourself from the end of 2026, already successful. 

If you want to lead CX more strategically, align your work with what really matters in your organization, and still protect your energy and joy, this episode is for you. 

Press play, take your time, and start shaping your 2026 with intention. 

Timestamped overview: 

About Nienke:    

She's a global CX thought leader, educator and a global keynote speaker who inspires audiences with best practices and proven methodologies. She leads a speaking practice, a CX game company and a training business; she breathes Customer Experiences and is author of two CX books.    

Her two-day Customer Experience Masterclass is known as the best program to prepare for your CCXP and she is the go-to person for CX leaders who want to advance their leadership and bring direct results from their Customer Experience transformation programs. Since 2020, she hosts a CX Leadership Masterminds program and helps leaders spice up their leadership and deliver an engaging CX Story including a solid CX Strategy. Besides, she is a modern-day pilgrim and found the parallel with leading customer centric transformations.     

With her over 20 years of corporate experience, she speaks the business language. Her keynotes and education programs in Customer Experience are inspiring and hands-on. She is one of the few Recognized Training Partners of the CXPA and it is her mission to Make Customer Experience Work and help you deliver business results. Subscribe to her weekly CX Greetz to stay tuned.