The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast | Customer Marketing, Career Growth & Community

Customer references have a strange problem. In some companies, they're treated like emergency supplies — kept somewhere safe, occasionally remembered, and pulled out when a deal desperately needs saving. In others, the same three customers are asked to join every call, support every deal, answer every urgent request, and somehow remain enthusiastic about doing it all over again next week. Unde...

What looks like a simple reference call is actually one of the most complex, human, and revenue-impacting systems in customer marketing. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with customer advocacy expert Timothy Newborn to unpack the entire lifecycle of a customer reference — from that urgent "we need one now" ask to the invisible moments...

For the first time on The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass is joined not by one, not two, but four powerhouse voices in customer marketing and advocacy. More perspectives, more lived experience, and just enough delightful chaos to keep things honest. Because if advocacy has ever felt like that charming guest who brings energy to every party but somehow disappears when the bill...

You don't need a six-figure budget to build a six-figure advocacy engine. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Christina Garnett to get real about what it actually takes to build a customer advocacy program from scratch — especially when you don't have endless resources or a fancy tech stack to lean on. They talk about starting small —...

There is a quiet shift happening in marketing. Not loud, not obvious, but undeniable once you notice it. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass is joined by Rich Fitzmaurice — operator, global team builder, and founder of Paartner — for a conversation that moves beyond tactics and into the uncomfortable, necessary questions shaping modern customer marketing. To...

This episode is different from anything recorded before on The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast. There are no marketing frameworks, no conversations about customer loyalty, and no professional playbooks. Instead, this is a personal reflection that felt necessary to say out loud. Over the years, many of us become the people others rely on. The dependable ones. The steady center. The person that families, fr...

What happens when your creative oxygen meets customer obsession? What happens when the tool that shaped your creative DNA steps into its AI era? If I had to sum it up in one line: Two women from Canva. One AI revolution. Infinite customer love. In this very special episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, I sat down with not one but two powerhouse women from Canva , Mel Cornford and Crystal Anderso...

What if customer marketing is not a function, but a force? And what if the women shaping it are not waiting for seats at the table, but building entirely new rooms? In this electric episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Gianna Scorsone, co-founder of ChampionHQ — the platform redefining customer advocacy, loyalty, and customer-led growth with both strat...

What if the real reason your customer marketing feels hard isn't your strategy, your customers, or even your team? It's the invisible maze behind the scenes. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Paola Johnson from Grafana Labs to go beyond the shiny tools, glossy demos, and promises of automation — and talk about what actually makes cus...

Customer marketing careers are evolving fast — and the path forward is no longer linear. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Irwin Hipsman, founder of Repetitos, to unpack how customer marketing, advocacy, and lifecycle marketing roles are changing as we move deeper into 2026. Together they explore why job titles are shifting, how data fluency...

Communities are no longer a nice-to-have. They are the heartbeat of loyalty. But in 2026, that heartbeat is not sustained by louder messaging, smarter algorithms, or endless incentives. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Gabrielle Herrera from HubSpot for a grounded, honest conversation on what it actually takes to build customer communities...

What if your next advocate isn't the person filling out your surveys or shouting on social media — but someone quietly cheering for you in the background? In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Shannon Howard, Senior Director of Customer & Content Marketing at Intellum, for a conversation that redefines how we see customers, loyalty, and...

Community has become one of those words that everyone uses and no one defines. It shows up in strategy decks, Slack channels, and CRM fields — yet rarely captures what it is meant to hold: real human belonging. In Part One of this special two-part series, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass dives straight into the heart of that tension with Zach Hawtof, CEO of TightKnit.ai — a platform rewriting what digi...

Community has become one of those words that everyone uses and no one defines. It shows up in strategy decks, Slack channels, and CRM fields — yet rarely captures what it is meant to hold: real human belonging. In Part One of this special two-part series, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass dives straight into the heart of that tension with Zach Hawtof, CEO of TightKnit.ai — a platform rewriting what digi...

What happens when the heart of customer marketing gets buried under perks, points, raffles, and rewards? In this solo episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass picks up where episode nine left off. If you caught the conversation with Jeni Asaba, you'll remember how energising it felt to explore the idea of weaving charitable giving into customer communities. That disc...

Community is not a tactic. It is people, purpose, and the quiet belief that small actions can create lasting change. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Jeni Asaba from Jamf to explore how a single trip to rural Uganda turned into Building for Bridget — a nonprofit, a school, and a promise that no child's fire should fade for lack of oppor...

Your employees are your most authentic brand ambassadors but the way they share, connect, and influence is evolving fast. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass is joined by Debra Squyres, Chief Customer Officer at Bonusly, to unpack the trends redefining employee advocacy and explore how they're making a measurable dent in employer branding. In 2026, emplo...

Pour yourself a cup. This one's ten minutes — and every one of them counts. In this solo episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass goes behind the curtain into the mind of a customer marketing program manager designing a points-based advocacy program from scratch. We've all done it — rolled out shiny points, badges, and leaderboards, thinking we're fueling cus...

Some guests don't just change how you think about customer advocacy. They change how you think about the craft of marketing entirely. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass welcomes Pascale Royal, Director of Customer Marketing at F5 — with an extraordinary track record spanning Coupa, ServiceNow, and Citrix — to talk about what it truly takes to build glob...

Customer advocacy is one of the most rewarding — and most demanding — parts of marketing. Between scaling love, proving ROI, energising champions, and fielding constant asks, burnout has a way of creeping in quietly. For us, and for the people we rely on most. In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Dave Hansen, Global Customer Advocacy Manager at...

Inheriting a customer advocacy program that feels more forgotten than functional? You're not alone. In this solo episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass breaks down what actually happens in the first 90 days after you step into a dormant advocacy program and why most of them aren't dead, just waiting for the right person to walk through the door. If you've e...

What does it feel like to sit on both sides of the review table? In this episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with Kaitlin Hess, Director of Customer Marketing at G2, to explore the art and science of review management within customer marketing. Together, they unpack how online reviews shape brand reputation, why customer feedback is the lifeblood of a thri...

Aren't we all just trying to make the blocks fit? In this no-fluff, all-fire episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass sits down with the legendary Bill Macaitis — the marketing maestro behind Slack, Zendesk, and Salesforce — to talk about what it really takes to align Sales, Demand Gen, and Customer Marketing into something that actually works. Bill has built some of...

What do you do when you have no tools, no tech, and no budget — but a whole lot of belief? In this debut episode of The Loyal-Tea Talks Podcast, host Aparna Sharon Isa Dass takes you back to the very beginning: where her journey with customer advocacy started, long before there were platforms, gifting partners, or a playbook to follow. No automation. No tech stack. Just Excel, heart, and hustle. A...