Customer Success: Pivot Your Career

What can't a resume tell you about a candidate? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Rebecca Novetsky, a customer success leader who builds CS functions from the ground up at early-stage startups and the creator and host of the Next Hire podcast, joins the Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast with co-hosts Alex White and David Lokietz. Rebecca's career has looped from product development to...

Guest Sudi Navile, Chief Customer Officer at SID Global Solutions , joins the Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast with co-hosts Alex White and David Lokietz. Sudi shares lessons from a career that started in enterprise sales in India and grew through technology consulting into global customer success leadership. The conversation digs into how AI is rewriting the playbook, bridging language...

In this bonus episode of the Customer Success Pivot, David Lokietz and Alex White interview Amber Monroe, SVP of Customer Experience at Paradigm, about pivoting from hospital operations into customer success and technology in healthcare through mentors, communities, and domain focus. Amber discusses the shift from treating all customers the same to a segmentation model, defining segment-based SLAs...

In this episode of the Customer Success Pivot Your Career Podcast, hosts Alex White and David Lokietz welcome Layton Chaney, an 18+ year customer success veteran for a candid, unfiltered conversation about burnout, mental health, and redefining success. Layton describes how he recently paused and labeled a personal failure, only to find relief and clarity. The discussion explores how SaaS grind cu...

In this bonus episode of the Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast, we welcome Alex Raymond , founder of Amplify and founder & former CEO of Kapta, to discuss his book, “The Growth Department”. We discuss how post-sales teams need to change the narrative from “glorified support” to a core growth engine. Alex explains why CS is often underrecognized despite being responsible for the majori...

We welcome Stephen Wise , founder of Monocle —an AI-powered executive assistant built for customer success teams. Stephen explains how Monocle is designed to reduce the “invisible work” of CS through embedded, human-centered AI. Request a product demo at https://www.snowise-monocle.com/

Hosts Alex White and David Lokietz provide an overview of each episode from 2025 and discuss what's ahead for 2026. Guests in 2025 included; Carly Agar, Carol Crowe, Drew Cather, James Lawson, Chris Fernandes, Sri Vidya Annapragada, John Huber, Matthew Rinker and Caroline Grant.

In this episode of the CS Pivot Your Career podcast, join hosts Alex White and David Lokietz as they welcome special guest Caroline Grant, Sr. Director, Strategy at Concentrix . Caroline dives into her extensive experience with evolving customer needs in the Customer Success landscape.  She'll share actionable strategies for navigating these shifts, offering practical advice on managing custom...

Guest Matthew Rinker, Enterprise Customer Success Manager for DocuSign , joins the Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast with co-hosts Alex White and David Lokietz.  Matthew shares insights from his journey from consumer hardware to SaaS, highlighting the importance of consultative selling, strong customer relationships, and the evolving roles in customer success. Learn what it means to be an...

Guest John Huber, founder of Customer Success Architects, joins the 'Customer Success Pivot Your Career' podcast with co-hosts David Lokietz and Alex White. John shares his extensive experience in customer success, which spans over 20 years and includes roles at five different B2B SaaS companies. The discussion covers various aspects of customer success, including Leadership on Demand serv...

Sri Vidya Annapragada , Head of Technical Program Management, Device Cloud at Google discusses the unique challenges in the retail industry , the importance of cross-industry learnings, and strategies for effective digital modernization. There is a diverse topics such as navigating priorities in enterprise-level customer success , and the importance of empathy and agility. Sri emphasizes the signi...

In this special anniversary episode of 'Customer Success: Pivot Your Career,' hosts David Lokietz and Alex White celebrate one year of podcasting. Guest Chris Fernandes discusses how AI is revolutionizing how people work, how to get started with AI and more importantly the impacts on customer success and how it can turn your focus from reactive to proactive relationship building. Get out o...

James Lawson, Chief Customer Officer at Service Genie and founder of the River Consultancy Group, shares his insights on the 'Customer Success Pivot Your Career' podcast. CS as a competency, not a department Concept of peak to end Focus more on direction vs impacts Use marketing in CS, both externally and internally CAT model for scaling startups The discussion explores how James’ marketin...

In this episode of the CS Pivot Your Career podcast, hosts Alex White and David Lokietz speak with special guest Drew Cather, General Manager at Trace3, emphasizing the significance of building long-term client relationships by acting as trusted advisors. Drew shares insights on managing client expectations, handling project challenges, and leveraging educational initiatives like a mini-MBA to emp...

The Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast’s guest, Carol Crowe, a Customer Success Executive at Google, shares her journey from technical support to CS leadership. Carol emphasizes the importance of building trusted advisor relationships both with customers and internal teams. Key topics include communication, empathy, and leveraging AI for efficiency. The discussion also highlights how to ma...

Carly Agar is founder and CEO of Carly Agar Training, who specializes in career coaching for CS job seekers. Carly shares common pitfalls in the job search process, and the importance of refining job seeking skills. Key topics include optimizing resumes and LinkedIn profiles, using AI effectively without over-relying on it, and the value of drawing parallels from previous roles. Actionable advice...

Our final episode is 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW! If you are new to our podcast, this provides highlights from all our 2024 interviews so you can go back and listen to the episodes that resonate with you. In the Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast, hosts Alex White and David Lokietz provide an overview of its first-year episodes, discussing insights and key takeaways.  Guests included Steve Pino, N...

In this episode of the CS Pivot Your Career podcast, hosts Alex White and David Lokietz speak with John Gussif, Managing Partner for Customer Centric Solutions. John shares his journey into customer success and emphasizes the importance of a well-defined customer experience strategy. He delves into the bowtie model, which connects acquisition and expansion phases, and the importance of maintaining...

Part2 of our conversation with Elizabeth Italiano. In the Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast, hosts Alex White and David Lokietz discuss customer success strategies with Liz MacAulay (Elizabeth Italiano), Founder & CEO of the consulting firm, What Not To Do (WNTD) Partners. Discussions include the impact of Gen AI, developing truly personalized customer engagements and evolving custome...

In the Customer Success Pivot Your Career podcast, hosts Alex White and David Lokietz discuss customer success strategies with Liz MacAulay (Elizabeth Italiano), Founder & CEO of the consulting firm, What Not To Do (WNTD) Partners. Discussions include the impact of Gen AI, developing truly personalized customer engagements and evolving customer success into a revenue center. Elizabeth also sha...

In the CS Pivot Your Career podcast, we have a conversation with Jennifer Albrecht , a Customer Success SVP and Revenue Leader for Higher Ed SaaS companies. She shares valuable insights on change resilience, highlighting the importance of embracing mistakes, maintaining transparency, and fostering a feedback-driven culture. Key topics include expanding your "Lego set", outcomes vs output...

The 'Customer Success Pivot Your Career Podcast' hosts Alex and David have a conversation with Pranav Parekh, Chief Customer Officer at Imply. Pranav shares his philosophy on customer success, emphasizing the importance of being customer-centric, building high-performing teams, and fostering a collaborative culture. They highlight how true leadership makes others better both in the leader&...

In this episode of the 'Customer Success Pivot Your Career' podcast, hosts Alex and David discuss job-search strategies with Noah Little, a Senior Enterprise Customer Success Manager at recharge & CS Coach for landing your next CS opportunity. Noah shares insights on navigating job markets, crafting compelling resumes, and leveraging storytelling in interviews. He emphasizes the import...

In the first episode of the Customer Success: Pivot Your Career podcast, hosts Alex White and David Lokietz have a conversation with Steve Pino, SAP National VP North America, Cloud Success Services focusing on data and analytics. They discuss the importance of relationship building in customer success, the evolution of customer success from on-premise solutions to enterprise cloud software, and t...

Welcome to our new podcast! Learn more about us and our podcast in this 6 minute introduction.