The Customer Success Leadership Podcast

In this episode, we're walking through a four-part framework for building your personal brand as a Customer Success leader without becoming a full-time content creator, starting with the two foundational questions almost every CS leader skips.

You'll learn:

 ✅ Why your WHY comes before any tactic
 ✅ How to decide what you want to be known for
 ✅ How to set your positioning 
 ✅ The moves that build internal visibility
 ✅ How to build external visibility like a leader
 ✅ A realistic LinkedIn rhythm that fits a full-time CS leader

This episode is for CS leaders who know they should be more visible in the industry and inside their own company, but who are tired of the content creator playbook and want a real, sustainable way to build a brand that opens doors without taking over their calendar.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

This episode is for CS leaders who want a real playbook for protecting accounts through sponsor and champion transitions and who want to coach their teams to treat these moments as the sales cycles they actually are.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

Ready to build the leadership muscles behind all five directions?

Lead2Scale is Angeline's 12-week live cohort program for CS leaders serious about growing into the seat. You'll build the leadership muscles behind great CS with a small room of peers doing the same work, and walk out with a defensible plan for your CS strategy that your CEO will fund and your team can execute.

Learn more and enroll at csrevspeak.com/l2s

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

The most common problem I hear from CS leaders is that their CSMs build strong relationships at the user and champion level, but weak or nonexistent relationships with the people who actually decide whether to renew, expand, or cut. And by the time the renewal comes up, the CSM is trying to build trust and prove value at the same time, in a compressed window, under commercial pressure. 

In this episode, we break down how to build a real relationship with the decision-maker deliberately, from the moment the account lands through every quarter after that.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

Most CS teams operate as the cleanup crew for decisions they were never consulted on. Sales closes bad-fit deals, product makes changes that create customer friction, and CS is left to manage the consequences without the authority to prevent any of it. 

This episode is a full breakdown of why CS needs veto power, where it actually matters, and how to build the credibility and positioning to earn it without becoming the function that always says no.

You'll learn:

• What veto power actually means for a CS function and what it doesn't
• The four specific areas where CS should have veto power and how to make the case for each
• The four credibility moves that earn the authority CS needs
• How to use veto power well so it grows over time instead of eroding

This episode is for CS leaders who are tired of being asked to fix problems they were never consulted about and who want a practical approach to building the kind of authority that prevents those problems in the first place.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

Most CSMs are stuck in coordination mode (e.g. running activities, managing tasks, and keeping things organized) when what their customers actually need is someone who can shape decisions, hold a perspective, and help them navigate ambiguity. 

This episode breaks down the most important capability shift happening in Customer Success right now: the move from coordinator to advisor. 

You'll learn what the difference actually looks like, why most CSMs default to coordination, what mindset and skills separate advisors from coordinators, how to spot where your team currently sits, and how to coach the shift through the conversations you're already having.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

Dee Kachra has built a career across procurement, consulting, speech therapy, and customer success — always centered on people, problems, and outcomes, with a close eye on how CS connects to revenue. When she joined the AI for CS Leaders Executive Bootcamp, she was on an intentional sabbatical, upskilling at the intersection of AI and customer success.

In this spotlight, Dee shares how the program moved her from thinking about AI as an email-drafting shortcut to redesigning the entire CS operating model and why the strategy, not the tools, is where leaders need to focus.

Ready to join the next cohort of the AI for CS Leaders Program? The next one opens again in August. Get on the VIP waitlist here for an exclusive discount and first access.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

Beth Huckerby has spent 15+ years in customer success across IT, telecoms, and health and wellbeing. Like a lot of CS leaders, she came to AI asking one very honest question: how do you even get started? 

In this spotlight from the first AI for CS Leaders Executive Bootcamp cohort, Beth shares why the program clicked for the way she works, the framework that gave her a clear starting point, and why she's convinced AI doesn't replace CS work. It makes room for the deeper thinking that's always been the job.

This episode is for big-picture CS leaders who feel the pressure to "do something with AI" but want a concise, end-to-end way to think about maturity: where to start, what to build, and what to hold until the timing is right.

Ready to join the next cohort of the AI for CS Leaders Program? The next one opens again in August. Get on the VIP waitlist here for an exclusive discount and first access.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

Suzanne Hitcho has spent her career at the intersection of customer success, go-to-market, and value realization from Pfizer, Coca-Cola, and Disney to six years in B2B SaaS. So when she joined the AI for CS Leaders Executive Bootcamp, she wasn't starting from zero. She'd already stood up an AI center of excellence and a shared prompt library at her last company. 

In this spotlight, she shares what still shifted for her, and why she believes AI in CS only pays off when it's treated as a cross-functional operating model, not a set of siloed experiments.

This episode is for forward-thinking CS and go-to-market leaders who know AI is now part of their mandate, and who want a structured, strategic way to apply it without the stress of figuring it out alone.

Ready to join the next cohort of the AI for CS Leaders Program? The next one opens again in August. Get on the VIP waitlist here for an exclusive discount and first access.

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...

Compensation plan design is one of the most consequential decisions a CS leader makes, and one of the least discussed. In this episode, we break down how to design CS compensation plans that reflect your team's responsibilities, drive the right behaviors, and scale as your org grows.

You'll learn:

• The three principles that should underpin every CS comp plan
• How comp structure and variable percentages change across the three Revenue-Driven CS Models 
• Specific base versus variable splits for each model and how those ranges shift as commercial responsibility increases
• How to weight metrics inside the variable pool for each model
• How to differentiate comp across CSM tiers
• The five most common CS comp mistakes and what each one signals to the team

This episode is for CS leaders who want the practical numbers and structural thinking to design a comp plan they can defend, communicate, and evolve as their team grows. 

Ways I Can Help You Level Up Customer Success:

1. Free CS Leadership Template Library: the templates I use with the CS leaders I coach, from the CS charter to the board report. You’ll also get The Customer Success Leadership Newsletter. Get the templates
2. Lead2Scale: build the strategy and operating model you can defend at the executive table, with me and a small group of CS leaders. Apply at csrevspeak.com/l2s
3. 1:1 coaching: work through a specific challenge, like a reorg, a headcount case or a new role. Book a strategy call
4. Team Enablement:  Two training programs for your CSMs. More details here.
   1. The Strategic CSM builds your team's strategic thinking and business acumen.
   2. The Commercial CSM builds their commercial confidence to drive renewals and expansion.

Let's Connect on Linkedin:  Get weekly insights, templates and real talk on CS leadership. ...