In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Tim Schurrer, author of The Secret Society of Success: Stop Chasing the Spotlight and Learn to Enjoy Your Work (and Life) Again!

When we think about success, there are a number of messages that have been given to us that say, “If you want to be successful, you have to step into the spotlight, you have to climb the ladder, you have to become the boss, you have to be ambitious, you have to hustle. You have to focus on and chase success, or else you won’t reach it.”

But what if there’s another way? What if there’s something different we should focus on and be chasing?

That’s exactly what Tim Schurrer teaches.

Tim is the former Chief Operating Officer of StoryBrand where he worked alongside New York Times bestselling author, Donald Miller to launch and operate two brands, StoryBrand and Business Made Simple.

Today he’s the host of the Build a Winning Team podcast, where he interviews top business leaders to bring you actionable advice to help you improve your leadership.

And Tim’s the author of The Secret Society of Success - it’s out this week!

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• Why what we've traditionally been taught about success may not be right
• How our culture's primary message around success we hear makes us exhausted
• What the spotlight mindset is and how to avoid it
• The value of surrounding ourselves with others whose strengths complement our liabilities
• The question we should be asking ourselves instead of "What's in it for me?"
• The value of recognizing people who report to you, and people who you report to, for their work

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

• Tim's site
• Tim's book - The Secret Society of Success: Stop Chasing the Spotlight and Learn to Enjoy Your Work (and Life) Again
• Tim's podcast - Build a Winning Team With Tim Schurrer

Adrian’s one of the leading voices in the Customer Experience industry. As the host of the CXChronicles podcast, he talks with customer-focused business leaders from around the world to share their perception of Adrian’s Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process, and Feedback.

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• Focusing on developing and managing the right team is foundational to your Customer Experience operation
• How making “happiness as a habit” is integral to your customer experience and employee experience
• The leading principles on customer experience are the same for employee experience
• Breaking down organizational silos helps executives buy into and invest in a customer experience mindset
• It’s not just customer-facing teams that impact the customer experience
• Adrian’s Four CX Pillars that are the essential building blocks of a winning customer experience operation
• The ideal habits and values needed to thrive as a customer experience leader

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Adrian's LinkedIn profile
• Adrian's website
• Adrian's podcast - CXChronicles
  
  

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Jon Picoult, author of From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles For Turning Customers and Employees Into Lifelong Fans!

We know customers will leave after a bad experience. But we don't stop to realize that they also leave for an okay experience - a satisfactory experience.

Think about it. You may keep buying from a brand because they’re meeting your expectations, and you feel okay as long as they continue doing that. But what if you find a brand that'll exceed your expectations? What if you find a brand that'll deliver a remarkable experience every time?

Now combine that with how easy it is to switch brands today. Buh-bye satisfactory experience!

And that’s just what your customers are doing with your satisfactory experience.

That’s why I was happy to talk with Jon Picoult this week.

Jon’s the founder of Watermark Consulting. He’s a keynote speaker and one of the most noted authorities on customer and employee experience. He’s been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, NBC News, and Forbes.

And Jon is the author of From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles For Turning Customers and Employees Into Lifelong Fans.

Jon and I discuss his lessons around building customer loyalty through his 12 customer experience principles. What’s great is that these principles can be applied to most any type of business. And they can be applied to your employee experience to build more loyalty from your people.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

• Jon's book: From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles For Turning Customers and Employees Into Lifelong Fans
• Watermark Consulting
• Jon's Annual CX ROI Study

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Carmine Gallo, author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World's Greatest Salesman!

This episode is Part 2 in my two-part series with Carmine. You can listen to Part 1 in Episode 91 here.

Carmine’s here to talk about his latest book - The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman.

In this episode, Carmine and I go further with his lessons and dig into more tools you can use to simplify your communications. And we talk about some of the habits that leaders instill to help them continuously improve how they communicate to and motivate their teams.

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• Simplifying your communications is counterintuitive but powerful
• Reducing the number of words you use gives your message a stronger impact
• The ability to take something complex and make it simple will help you stand out in your career
• BLOT (Bottom Line On Top) is an effective way to help save your audience’s time in your writing
• The best leaders know that they’re never done learning and improving
• The best communicators are voracious readers
• Improving your communications doesn’t happen overnight - it’s an iterative process over time

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

• SIMPLE brand #91 - Part 1 of this interview
• Carmine's website
• Carmine's book - The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets from the World's Greatest Salesman
• Carmine's book - Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds
• Carmine's book - The Storyteller's Secret: From TED Speakers to Business Legends, Why Some Ideas Catch On and Others Don't
• Carmine's book - The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience

This week's episode features a "from the vault" discussion with Dan Gingiss.

Dan’s an international keynote speaker and customer experience coach who believes that a remarkable customer experience is your best marketing strategy. He’s had a 20-year professional career where he’s held leadership positions at McDonald’s, Discover and Humana. He also hosts the Experience This! Show podcast and The Experience Maker Show.

And Dan is the author of The Experience Maker: How To Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can’t Wait To Share.

In The Experience Maker, Dan teaches us how to focus on and create a customer experience that will actually retain customers so we can focus more on them than having to spend time, money and resources on constantly trying to gain new customers.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

• Dan's book:The Experience Maker: How to Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can't Wait to Share
• Dan Gingiss's Site
• The Experience This! Show
• The Experience Maker Show
• Brittany Hodak’s Podcast: Creating Superfans
  
  

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Carmine Gallo, author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World's Greatest Salesman!

I’m doing something a little different with this interview. I’m releasing it as a 2-part series. My interview with Carmine is jam-packed with so many lessons on improving your communication that I don’t want you to get overwhelmed by having to digest it all in one listen. My hope is that splitting it up makes it a simpler listen for you.

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• Learning to write well is actually hard
• No matter your skills, you need to constantly be growing in them
• Using metaphors is a powerful tool for helping your communications resonate
• The questions to ask before you start to invest in customer service technology
• Developing great writing and communication skills are valuable for all of your employees, no matter their role or function
• Why Jeff Bezos banned PowerPoint in Amazon meetings
• Focusing on the “big idea” first will help your audience more easily buy into your message
• How “simple is the new superpower”
• For your communication to be effective, write for an 8th-grade-level audience
• Using short words helps create simple, and more powerful, communications

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Carmine's website
• Carmine's book - The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets from the World's Greatest Salesman

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Joel Bines, author of The Metail Economy: 6 Strategies For Transforming Your Business to Thrive in the Me-Centric Consumer Revolution!


We’re at a point in time today where consumers are armed with more information, more technology, more access to alternatives than at any point in history. And all this power has pretty much inverted the traditional power dynamics in the retailer-to-consumer relationship.

Basically, your customers are now in charge. And they expect a lot more from you.

And if you want to survive and thrive in this new economy, then you have to recognize, embrace and adhere to new consumer demands. That can feel pretty intimidating.

And that's why I was happy to talk with Joel Bines this week.

Joel co-leads the Global Retail Practice at AlixPartners. He’s a frequent contributor to major media outlets like NPR, CNBC, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. And he’s now officially a published author.

Joel’s first book is out this week! - The Metail Economy: 6 Strategies for Transforming Your Business to Thrive in the Me-Centric Consumer Revolution.

Joel and I talk about this new retail industry power shift where the consumers are essentially now in charge. But thankfully, Joel shares his methods that brands can use to connect with the Me-centric consumer and thrive in this new world.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

• Joel's book: The Metail Economy: 6 Strategies for Transforming Your Business to Thrive in the Me-Centric Consumer Revolution
• The Metail Economy site
• AlixPartners

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Greg Kihlström, author of House of the Customer: A blueprint for one-to-one, customer-first, employee-driven business transformation.

Greg’s a speaker, entrepreneur, and consultant to top companies on marketing technology, customer experience, and digital transformation initiatives.

He’s the host of the Agile Brand podcast.

Greg and I discuss:

• What customer-centric brands do that are different than all the others
• How customer expectations continue to rise
• Too many brands misunderstand what it means to create a customer-first approach
• Focusing on intrinsic and extrinsic values motivates employees to focus on the customer
• Agile principles help create an employee-driven culture
• The value of creating a culture of experimentation
• Greg’s 4 North Star goals that brands should have for a customer-first experience
• Where most brands get personalization wrong
• The 7 elements of Greg’s "House of the Customer" blueprint
• Greg’s take on who in an organization should own and govern the customer experience

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Greg’s site
• Greg’s book - House of the Customer: A blueprint for one-to-one, customer-first, employee-driven business transformation