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If your Customer Advisory Board feels like a presentation, you’re doing it wrong. Irene Yam joins Alyssa to explain why the most effective CABs ditch the slide deck and prioritize real conversation. Drawing from 20+ years of experience leading executive programs, Irene shares what makes CABs work—from building trust to making room for off-script moments that change the game.

Whether you’re mid-market or enterprise, you’ll walk away with a clearer blueprint for turning your CAB into a strategic growth lever—not a checkbox.

Irene Yam is the author of How to Build a World-Class Customer Advisory Board. She’s spent over two decades designing strategic customer programs for high-growth startups and global enterprises, working with clients spending $20M+ annually. Irene’s approach emphasizes human connection, customer-led feedback, and creating spaces where strategic conversations can thrive.

Key Takeaways:

• The best CABs feel more like jam sessions than board meetings.
• You don’t need enterprise dollars to get enterprise-level insights.
• Real feedback starts when you give customers permission to be honest—and stop trying to impress them.

Key Moments:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:28 Irene's Origin Story
01:44 Customer Advisory Boards vs. Focus Groups
03:12 Value of Customer Advisory Boards for Mid-Market Businesses
06:24 Starting a Customer Advisory Board
07:44 Successful Customer Advisory Boards
16:58 Virtual Customer Advisory Boards
18:07 Innovative Meeting Ideas
21:18 Conclusion and Contact Information

Follow Irene on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ireneyam/

Welcome to The Growth Signal, where we’re throwing out the old playbooks, and reimagining the Customer Experience.

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When the pressure’s on, most leaders default to speed—but moving fast without thinking clearly is what gets companies stuck. In this episode of The Growth Signal, Alyssa Nolte talks with Charles Browne, a seasoned executive and leadership coach, about the overlooked cost of rushing to solutions. Drawing from decades in the Navy, nuclear ops, and national labs, Charles shares a framework for slowing down strategically, aligning your values, and empowering your team to make better calls—faster. If you're leading a growth-stage org, this is your playbook for sustainable scale.

Guest Bio:
Charles Browne is a leadership expert and deputy director at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he leads complex, high-risk initiatives. With a background in nuclear operations, Six Sigma, and executive coaching, he specializes in helping technical leaders become high-impact decision-makers.

Main Topics Covered:

1. Why Speed Isn’t Strategy – How defaulting to action creates shallow solutions—and what to do instead.
2. Building a $2,000/Hour Leadership Mindset – The mental shift leaders need to stop doing $20/hour work and start building scalable systems.
3. Authenticity at Scale – How defining your values (and sticking to them) builds trust across teams and with customers.

Key Moments:

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:15 Charles' Origin Story
02:24 Current Roles and Responsibilities
03:47 Common Leadership Blind Spots
12:00 Defining Core Values and Decision Making
16:32 Implementing Core Values in Business
19:15 The Pitfalls of Micromanagement
19:49 Defining Business Focus: Customer, Product, or Operations
20:38 Southwest Airlines: A Case Study in Operational Decisions
22:14 The Importance of Consistency in Leadership
25:41 Aligning Personal and Company Values
28:48 Serving the Customer with Integrity
30:45 Identifying and Serving Your Ideal Customer
33:09 Adapting to Change and Seizing Opportunities
34:34 Final Thoughts and Resources

Welcome to The Growth Signal, where we’re throwing out the old playbooks, and reimagining the Customer Experience.

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In this episode of The Growth Signal, we sit down with Bob Mathers—customer success coach, keynote speaker, and host of The Growth Mixtape—to explore the emotional toll of working in high-pressure CS environments. What starts with a conversation about trauma, perspective shifts, and boundary-setting quickly evolves into a deep dive on why CS professionals are hitting peak stress younger than ever, how our work habits are reinforcing the burnout cycle, and what it really takes to reclaim our energy and impact.

If you’ve ever found yourself answering Slack messages at 9PM or wondering why your “relationship-driven” role feels more reactive than strategic, this episode is for you.

Guest Bio:
Bob Mathers is a customer success coach, keynote speaker, and podcaster with decades of experience helping CS leaders—from scrappy startups to $100M SaaS companies—build sustainable, revenue-driving customer organizations. Known for his no-BS insights and deep empathy, Bob brings clarity to one of the messiest, most misunderstood functions in SaaS.

Main Topics Covered:
Why CS Burnout Is Getting Worse, Not Better – And how the “always on” culture and lack of clear ownership are accelerating it.

The Real Role of CS in Revenue – Why being “relationship-first” doesn’t mean avoiding the number—and why pretending it does is hurting the profession.

Designing Your Calendar Around Energy, Not Urgency – Bob’s framework for mapping energy highs and lows to the right kind of work, and why it might boost your productivity 30%.

Key Moments:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:15 Personal Stories of Overcoming Challenges
03:37 Work-Life Balance and Boundaries
07:39 Customer Success Insights
17:12 Productivity and Energy Management
23:37 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Welcome to The Growth Signal, where we’re throwing out the old playbooks, and reimagining the Customer Experience.

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Apply to be a Guest at TheGrowthSignal.com