Women in Customer Success Podcast

148 - AI And Empathy In Customer Success

• Marija Skobe-Pilley • Season 5 • Episode 148

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What happens when you move your CS career from London to Dubai and rebuild your playbook from the ground up? 

We talk about that with Jomilsa Sousa, Customer Success and Account Management consultant & coach, and the Founder of The Success Studio, where she helps Customer Success professionals and businesses unlock their full potential. Currently, she also serves as Account Manager at Cirium (and when this was recorded, she was CS Account Manager at LexisNexis Middle East)

In this episode, Jomilsa unpacks how digital transformation in the Middle East collides with a culture that prizes in‑person trust, and why that mix is changing how teams design onboarding, renewals, and growth. AI is powerful for churn prediction and business reviews, but the story that convinces a stakeholder to stay is still a human one.


We explore:

  • Cultural nuance shaping CS across the Middle East
  • AI for churn prediction and reviews, humans for narrative and trust
  • Rising demand for CS Ops, technical CSMs and community roles
  • Empathy as a strategic advantage
  • Building systematic visibility: weekly updates, impact docs, public wins

We also dig into the mindset that sustains momentum: pivot quickly when the signal changes, lead without the title, and make someone’s day easier as a daily north star. 

If you’re navigating AI, global accounts, or a big move of your own, this conversation offers a clear, human map for what works (& what doesn’t).

And if this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a teammate who needs fresh tactics, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find us.



💚 This episode is brought to you by Deployflow: https://deployflow.co/

___________

👉 Follow Jomilsa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jomilsasousa/

👉 Learn more about The Success Studio: https://thesuccessstudio.coach/

👉 Learn more about Deployflow & P-Suite by Deployflow and get a quick squad estimate at: https://deployflow.co/p-suite/



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About Women in Customer Success Podcast:

Women in Customer Success Podcast is the first women-only podcast for Customer Success professionals, where remarkable ladies of Customer Success connect, inspire and champion each other.


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Women in Customer Success

Host Marija Skobe-Pilley

Check out our Courses:

  • The Revenue CSM - https://womenincs.co/the-revenue-csm



Setting The Stage: AI And Relationships

SPEAKER_01

There's a big boom in digital transformation here. So we're noticing that a lot of clients have been using AI, but also still upholding relationships as well. When we're looking at AI, it's great essentially for being able to predict churn or you know, tell you for customers at risk or build business reviews. But what it can't do is actually paint the story that you're trying to tell with the data that's available, and that's where CSMs are really important. AI can give you the tools that you need, but that feeling aspect is so humane and it can't be replaced. We're scared to try something new because we think we're going to fail. So I think just being out there and trying to actually learn, just keep moving basically and learning is such a big thing because it gets you to that path where you now know something new. You've learned, you're continuing to grow, and you're still moving. Pivoting is such a big thing. If something isn't working, try another path. It doesn't always have to work, you just have to learn from it.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the new episode of Women in Customer Success Podcast. Today, it's a wonderful opportunity to present one of the ladies that I have known for quite a few years now because she joined Initial Power Up Mentoring, and that's when we first connected. I've been following her journey. And I've been very proud of her journey in customer success, and I'm really super excited to introduce her to everybody today. She is Customer Success Account Manager at LexisNexis, Jamilsa Souza. Hey Jamilsa, welcome to the show finally.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with you and thank you for the great intro.

SPEAKER_00

I'm sure the audience is dying to know. Where are you currently based?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm currently based in Dubai and have been here for two years now. So quite a change. Quite a change from what? Yeah, so I was previously in the UK in London and also a little bit in Birmingham as well, and suddenly made the move to Dubai about two years ago. And it's just been incredible, but so different as well in terms of you know the world of customer success. So I'm excited to talk a little bit more about it.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I'm really looking forward to diving deep into it, the move, and how you orchestrate kind of career move and location move within the same company. Before we dive into it, I wonder what's your story in customer success? Like, what is the reason that the audience should stick with us in this conversation? What can they get out of it?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, good question. So much. I've had such a journey when it comes to customer success. I've been working in customer success for I'd say eight years now, but I started within customer experience and customer service. And that was maybe 15 years ago, working as a receptionist at Premier In, if anyone knows the hotel. Yeah. And that's where I actually learned how to think a little bit more strategic. One of our like part of our roles essentially was to look at occupancy within the hotel, have a look at repeat customers and try to understand how that ties in with revenue. So it made us think a little bit more strategic. And that's where I understood that there's a role outside of customer service or a little further than customer service. But how I actually jumped into it is I applied for an account management role, got to the interview, and they told me, oh, this role is actually a customer success role. And at the time I thought, what is that? What is customer success? I have no idea what this is. So when they explained it, I understood that it's something that I'm quite passionate about, which is problem solving, helping people achieve their outcomes and just being part of their journey as well. So I kind of fell into it, is what it is.

SPEAKER_00

And at the time when we connected, you've been in the UK. You just told me the happy news about moving to Dubai with the same company, getting the opportunity. And I know that that is a dream for so many people out there. Moving to different locations, just exploring different cultures and and and different ways of working. And when it's possible within the same company, it's absolutely amazing. Talk us through the process. What was the opportunity? How how did you even come into the conversation for that particular location? How did you go about it? Like, did you orchestrate the whole process because you were interested? Did it come from somebody else? I I would like to understand the process for everybody who might be in this point in their life thinking, oh, I would really like to move somewhere else. How did it work for you?

Cultural Nuance Reshapes Customer Success

SPEAKER_01

Good question. Yeah. So I currently work with Lexus Nexus, but I worked with them, I want to say five years ago. So I actually wasn't working with them in the UK when this move came about. I was working with another company, but I was just on LinkedIn searching about because I got to a place where I really enjoy work, but sometimes I feel like I need a change. And you know, I needed a change of environment, is what I was feeling at the time. So I was just on LinkedIn and I saw that there's this big trend of everyone moving to Dubai and living in the sunshine. And I got quite jealous, I'll be honest. I thought, I want to live in the sunshine too. So I started just looking around and the job actually popped up that you know they were hiring for a CSM. And funnily enough, the hiring manager was someone that I actually worked with in the UK at the time. So I popped through a message saying, Hey, I'd be interested to hear a little bit more, and the rest is kind of history. So luckily enough, they took care of everything in terms of the move. But from my end, it was a little bit stressful in terms of well, just understanding how customer success actually works here, but also the actual logistics of getting up and moving, right? To a whole new continent. Hadn't actually been to Dubai before. Uh yeah. Oh, yeah, it was just a crazy move, very impulsive, but it it worked out.

SPEAKER_00

I love that, very impulsive. So you moved to a new continent with a kind of old but new company in the new role. So, what were some initial either cultural shocks or shocks in customer success? Because it is a very different environment. So tell us more about what surprised you.

SPEAKER_01

I think there's so much that surprised me from like a cultural nuance um perspective, but also like a kind of industry perspective as well. Like with customer success, we know it's so different from company to company. But um, obviously moving to Dubai, I've noticed it's different region to region now as well. Even within the Middle East, you know, Egypt can have one definition of what customer success is, and Saudi can have something completely different. But what I've noticed is because um the Middle East is going for a big digital transformation piece, customer success can look like customer service in the very beginning. And then in some companies it looks like a dual role, which is what I'm doing now of customer success and account management, where you own the renewals, you own the upsells and the cross-sells because there's such a big focus on the growth piece. So it looks very different. But I think one of the biggest pieces that I've learned here is that cultural nuance. We're so used to communicating via email or Teams and Zoom, for example. Whereas here it's the complete opposite. Like if I don't pick up the phone to call a client, they're just not getting back to me at all. Or if I don't go to see them, they're not renewing, for example. So there's just so many different things, even down to working patterns as well. You know, coming from the UK, it's Monday to Friday, 95 or 96, you phrase it. Whereas here, you know, depending on the countries, you can be working, I don't know, let's say Sunday to Thursday and different hours. Some people don't even work the full day on Sunday, for example, or Thursday. So it's just really interesting because it affects the way that you communicate with your customers and the way that you actually build a relationship with them too.

Rewriting Playbooks For The Middle East

SPEAKER_00

And it's interesting how very often teams, let's say custom success teams from the UK, are managing EMIA, including Middle East, including Dubai, and all of the Middle Eastern regions, which are incredibly different among each other. It's interesting when you're speaking from the perspective of, you know, from UK moving there and then understanding all of those nuances and how it is it is crucial to really be aware of those. And and unless you are geographically present there, I think it's very difficult for people in the rest of Europe, especially the world, to pick up on all of those little signals and understand how it actually works. So have you seen that your company, for example, wanted to push particular playbooks that are used in the UK or somewhere else there? Or did you have much more freedom to really figure out what works in the region? Yeah, I wonder what have been the actual way of working through the playbooks and processes. Like, did you need to change anything based on the experience that you have been gaining there?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think I've been quite lucky with the Nexus Nexus because they're a global company and they've got offices everywhere and interact with customers all over the world. They understand from the very beginning that it can be completely different. So walking into this role, it was a complete blank slate, really. You know, make of it what you will. I think what we did understand is relationships are very important. So one thing that I noticed here is the budget is a lot bigger for you to go out and see customers versus the UK, for example, because we know how important that is in terms of you know getting your revenue through. In terms of playbooks, for example, onboarding is very different here. It does take a little bit more hand holding sometimes, depending on who your clientele is. And sometimes it does have to be in person again and not so much online. So I'd say there's more of a physical presence when we're looking at processes. So it's not as automated as you'd like it to be. It's not as, you know, time constrainted as you'd want it to be. Because you know, when you're building processes in times, you're like, okay, let's build out the customer lifecycle. Within the first 30 days, we're gonna do this, and then on day 35, this it just doesn't work like that here, unfortunately, because yeah, it's just nuanced, very nuanced.

AI’s Role And The Irreplaceable Human Story

SPEAKER_00

I actually really like it. And you made me think about something just the other day, I was at one conference, and of course, every single session had the element of AI, either how it's changing careers or how it's changing customer success in playbooks, etc. So when I think about the evolution of customer success around 10 years ago when I started, it was so normal to have those relationships with customers and visit them and speak to them regularly and have that one-to-one high touch. And then suddenly the pandemic came, everything needed to be remote and automated, and and customer success was just constantly going into all the directions of the scales and digital, and high touch almost became like, oh, you know, oh, you're still seeing customers are talking to them. We have everything automated, you know, that's the way forward. Of course, it's companies would have, you know, a proportion of the highest customers that they would provide one-to-one service. And now as AI is coming, or it's there already, again we're seeing the ship how yes, perfect. We have everything automated. Now we have even agents and an extra layer of AI on top, meaning that CSNs can be even more efficient. But now again, we're going back to square zero, and we started evaluing those actual human relationships and and calls and going on sites and visits. And that's how I see now the shift happening, because we are starting to see, okay, finally, you know, we can't automate everything. This is now a competitive advantage to have those relationships. But now maybe it's just me because seeing in some other environment and and and with different culture, it just works differently. And it's interesting to see how they, you know, might have just kept that whole part of scale and digital. And, you know, let's let's carry on that relationship because it works.

SPEAKER_01

Definitely, definitely. And it is quite funny because they've been able to balance that relationship aspect with AI here really, really well. Like I mentioned earlier, there's a big boom in digital transformation here. So we're noticing that a lot of clients have been using AI, but also still upholding relationships, and even with us as well, it's been pretty much the same. And I think with when we're looking at AI, it's great essentially for being able to, let's say, predict churn, for example, or you know, tell you for customers at risk or build business reviews. But what it can't do is actually paint the story that you're trying to tell with the data that's available, and that's where CSMs are really important. It's you know, AI can give you the tools that you need, but that feeling aspect is so humane and it can't be replaced. So it's been amazing to see how roles have really like been growing essentially with the rise of AI and how our roles as CSMs and you know CF leaders have been changing alongside AI as well.

New CS Career Paths In An AI World

SPEAKER_00

So, how do you see those roles shifting in the next few years?

SPEAKER_01

That's a great question. Yeah, a very big question as well. I think originally there was always two career paths, essentially, for you know, CS professionals. So you either go into leadership, going into you know, VP, CCO, etc., or you stay as an individual contributor, going into strategic and you know, enterprise CSM and more. But I think now with the rise of AI, we're seeing quite a lot of bigger roles in customer success operations, for example, especially when there's AI involved within CRMs as well. We're seeing a lot of rise in that. But I'm also seeing a lot of growth within um community managers as well to help people actually manage the change when it comes to using AI-driven tools, because that's been pretty big. But I have also seen a lot of rise in technical CSMs as well, where before technical CSM might have been, you know, playing around with APIs or back-end systems to you know onboard clients and help them implement things. Now it's gone into you kind of need to understand how to use AI because this is the future. So the roles have changed a little bit. It's created a lot of growth, I think, and quite a lot of new roles is what we're seeing, like customer enablement managers, specifically for AI, CSOps, like I mentioned. Yeah, it's it's been a big boom, I think, and it's gonna be great, I think, for the industry.

Rising Bar To Enter Customer Success

SPEAKER_00

Oh, it sounds absolutely great because there are so many different job titles that now we can go after and and just different types of skills that we should acquire. Again, back in the days when I entered customer success, one of the reasons that I entered is because I think the entry barrier was a bit lower. I came from project management at that time, which was again good and it was very related to implementation and onboarding, but it didn't require a huge technical aspect, which I was really pleased with because my background was creative and music. However, now with all the changes we are seeing, again, those new roles shifting towards, as you said, very much technical because the products are becoming increasingly even more complex and customers need that hand holding from CSMs. Or on another hand, probably something similar to what you're doing at the moment, which is the commercial aspect of CS. So anything in the middle seemed to be going away, anything only relationship management, because we still need to bring the revenue and we need to retain the revenue, and we can't just you know be friends with customers and have that relationship as part of the role. Like it's nice to have that. Like we need so much more to it. So it's interesting to see the evolution of all of those roles. And I wonder, as you're seeing also the evolution of the roles from different cultural uh standpoints at the moment, have you seen that the barrier or barrier to entry customer success has changed now since like when you started in customer success? Is it easier? Is it more difficult? What is different? Today's episode is brought to you by DeployFlow, your partner for digital transformation. Do you need to build an MVP fast? Whether it's a new product, APIs, configuration for your CRMs, or modernizing your cloud apps. P-Suite gives you a team, senior squad of full-stack engineers who plug into your team and hit the ground running. Designed for founders and CTOs who want to move fast with AI-powered tools and clear sprint-based outcomes. No more long-term logins. So if a sprint doesn't deliver, you can just walk away. For a cost and squad estimate, head over to deployflow.co slash p suite and take the quick quiz. Deployflow.co.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's a lot more difficult if I'm being completely honest. I think when I started eight years ago, as long as you were client-facing and you know friendly enough and you know driven enough, then you'd be perfect for customer success. Whereas now I do think that technical aspect has become a little bit bigger. We need to be technically savvy. We also need to be quite driven in terms of commercial aspects as well, because we are seeing a lot of fusion in roles between customer success and sales is what we're seeing as well. So I think it's changed. And I think it's just because of the growth in the market and the way things are moving. What that means though for people that already work in CS is that there's a lot of growth to happen within their existing roles. So I know that sometimes people, you know, leave sometimes because there's not enough pros where they feel like they've done everything they can in that role. But where the industry is evolving so much, you now have a new learning path, I think, with AI coming through because you get to learn about how to actually be a little bit more technical or work with different pieces of software that maybe you didn't work with before. So it actually fine-tunes your skills and it gives you so much more added value into your actual curriculum, is what I'd say, and your skill set that it's it's just fantastic for growth without having to actually, you know, find it somewhere else. You just find it within yourself and within your organization.

SPEAKER_00

What would you say is currently the most underrated skills or great CSMs versus the good ones?

SPEAKER_01

Empathy, I think.

SPEAKER_00

I love the topic.

SPEAKER_01

It's such a big one, yeah. I think you need to understand what your clients are going through in order to be a good CSM because your your whole role is to actually go in and problem solve, right? And try to get the outcomes that they desire. And in order to do that, you need to understand what their challenges actually are. And sometimes a challenge could be, you know, I struggle to wake up from bed for a golf. It could be something so simple. But you have to simplify. But it's important. Yeah, it's important, right? It might not be important to me, but it's important to you. And I need to get you through this mucker, right? So empathy is such a big thing because without it, you just won't understand why this problem is so big to them and you know what they're trying to overcome.

SPEAKER_00

And I suppose it's even greater in your environment when you're seeing customers and you're seeing them in person and you're speaking with them regularly rather than only, you know, working b with the data sets and trying to make sense of it, where very often there's not much space for empathy in the data, right? And that that's the beauty that it's now the new competitive advantage of of CSMs, right? Yes, AI is perfect, we should know it, but then AI can't actually empathize with customers and we can, so let's use it in our advantage.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly, exactly. Helps you paint the story a little bit better, doesn't it?

Pivoting Mindsets And Strategies

SPEAKER_00

Throughout your career in customer success, what do you think are some of the maybe lessons or some principles that guided you throughout your career that you feel everybody should learn at some point?

SPEAKER_01

I'll be honest, I think it's the ability to just pivot and just be able to kind of move around. I don't even mean like jumping from job to job, but I mean in terms of pivoting in strategy, for example, and being able to grow. Sometimes I think we're scared to try something new because we think we're gonna fail. So I think just being out there and trying to actually learn, just keep moving basically and learning is such a big thing because it gets you to that path where you now know something new, you've learned, you're continuing to grow and you're still moving. Pivoting is such a big thing. If something isn't working, try another path. It doesn't always have to work, you just have to learn from it.

SPEAKER_00

I really love how you put pivoting in the context of even strategy because I do believe that in most of the companies, strategies have been changing in the last few years, like almost constantly. Even the big companies are changing strategies every single, you know, half year or so because of the changes that are coming. I have personally seen lots of kind of barriers to change and lots of reluctance in change. But when you're putting it this way, yeah, it's it's just a pivot. Yes, strategy is changing. So what? Like deal with it. It's it's a good learning opportunity. We can't always think of but what we did before was was good. Like, why are we changing? Change is just coming. Let's just you know get on a bandwagon. It's gonna happen anytime. So this is really, really amazing lesson. Yeah, pivot not only different career jobs, which is again great, but even within your strategy and within your teams.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly, exactly. Goes a long way.

Visibility And Tracking Wins

SPEAKER_00

Okay, Jamilsa, you've been involved a lot recently in mentoring and also coaching customer success. What are some of your advices or strategies that you are sharing with CSMs in terms of their career development and growth and how to pivot and how to change those different roles? As you mentioned, there are so many different ones. What are you seeing in the market?

SPEAKER_01

Two main things actually, one being visibility, and the other one is actually just keeping track of progress. So when I say visibility, I mean it really matters essentially to actually be seen for what you're doing. I think sometimes CSMs specifically do so many amazing things, but there's no visibility into it, and there's no visibility into the impact that it's had. And that leads me onto my second point about you know, tracking your progress. If you're actually tracking some of the things that you're doing and the impact it's had and you're sharing that with other people, you're seen as a thought leader internally, actually. You're you're seen as the go-to person because you understand, you know, all the effects of being able to do different things and how that's enabled you to grow and the customer to grow as well. So I think being able to track your wins and your losses as well is such a big piece, but also tracking your learnings. I always like to say to people that I mentor, for example, especially if it's a new job, track your first 30, 60, 90 days, like all of your learning across that, because there will be someone else that's new and they will now listen to that, you know, document that you've created and think, oh, this person's a genius. I can't believe they know all these things. And you know, it's it's amazing to pass down that learning because you're helping someone, number one, but two, you're also creating um operational efficiency, actually, because everyone's now following the same. Footsteps you are, but then again, you're just supporting the way of working at work, and you're also seen as a thought leader as well, and supporting the way of working. So, um, yeah, visibility and tracking progress.

SPEAKER_00

I love it. When I'm listening to it, I'm putting the head of a leader immediately thinking, oh yeah, that is gonna give you some you know extra bonus points in the eyes of your manager because you're doing some great things, and then you're helping others who are next to come, which is always awesome. It's like promotion material checklist immediately 1.0. How do you create those visibility opportunities?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, documentation is probably one. I document everything, but in terms how do you share it then?

SPEAKER_00

Like how how do you make it available for everybody, like in your in your face? Because just because they're documents somewhere doesn't mean people will read it. So yeah, tell us more.

Internal And External Personal Brand

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you have to put yourself out there, which is such a tricky thing to say because I find that quite a lot of people in CS are actually introverts, which is quite funny, and we don't really put ourselves out there sometimes, but you have to put yourself out there. And what I mean by that is actually speaking up in meetings or actually taking the initiative to share some of your documents in email or group chats, and actually, I think the wording around it is quite important as well. Whatever you're sharing, you actually have to put wording around it so that people understand the impact of what you're sharing as well. So I think visibility is actually putting yourself out there, so making sure that you're sharing and communicating with the right people, speaking to the right people. And sometimes there's this almost vision that, you know, if you're an individual contributor, you can't actually speak to maybe managers or maybe speak to, you know, different teams sometimes. So it's actually just being able to be open and communicate with other people about how you can help with their roles and how they can help with your roles and work together as one community, but put yourself out there, reach out to other people, understand what their pay points are, and maybe you already have solutions to them and just work together to share through there as well.

Finding Daily Meaning In Helping Others

SPEAKER_00

You're giving us few, few different tips in one, which is awesome. Yes, speak with other people. That's how you learn their departments. We like to joke sometimes that customer success roles is almost like a mini MBA because you get actually to hear what other departments are doing and what are their KPIs, what matters to them, so you know how to potentially help them and how mutually you can help each other by different ways of approaching situations. So, yes, go and speak with those people and make your work visible. I always like to tell people, especially CSMs, your work will become very visible, very visible in escalations because that's where everybody will start looking into your work. But unless they are escalations, there is not that many opportunities for people to intentionally go and see your work unless it is a performance review cycle. So when it's it's just a psychology, when everything seems to be going okay, no one pays much attention. But when something is wrong, then they are all hands of deck, which is then for one hand amazing for CSM. Yeah, showcase its escalation, what has been done, what is the problem, what do you suggest next? Like bring again that knowledge of your customers because somebody very high up is going to look at it, and it's an it can be an amazing opportunity for a good visibility.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. I think it's so funny that you mentioned, you know, when things go wrong, everyone's looking at the CS professional. And yeah, I think one thing that we need to get better at is actually shouting out about our wins, and it doesn't always have to be uh we got this renewal or we've got this success story. It doesn't always have to be that. It can actually be celebrating the small wins of this person achieved this goal or this person got their first aha moment, you know, we need to celebrate it a little bit more. And I think, you know, the best companies that I've been at personally has involved quite a lot of like different chats and things for different wins. I know that one of the companies I worked at, we used Slack quite a lot. And there was a channel just called wins, and I love that it just motivated so many people to just continue working and you feel inspired as well because you're like, oh, this person did this. Oh my god, this is amazing. I I should be doing that, or maybe I should be doing something else that relates to that. So I think it just creates such a positive environment of you know, things that you can do to continue winning with the customer, but also winning internally, and it just creates a great buzz.

Lead Without The Title

SPEAKER_00

Oh, absolutely. And then you can see how many different types of wins are there, not only renewals. You know, when the salespeople close the deal, typically there is gong in the office, right? Like there used to be, at least. Uh, I know there were always lots of jobs. What do we do with new renewals? Do we then, you know, the gong make the sound? No, no one does it. But yeah, you have to make a gong online as well as and make sure that it's visible any of the wins. When I'm coaching people, sometimes I I I suggest writing a weekly update, which I used to do in some of the previous companies, where even as a CSM, you just write a pager or even less with the wins of the week, some positive feedback from customer, anything good that happened, and then also challenges like what isn't going well, like where do you need help with? And managers really love something like that because at the end of the week, they gather visibility, and then from week to week, when you show up with you know three paragraphs of most important things that happen during the week, that creates so much positive psychology in the eyes of your managers that they have much more visibility into what's happening and when the performance lifecycle comes into the place you already prepare that evidence of your achievements, and it's just an easy and simple way of putting yourself out there and just showcasing that visibility. I wonder how are you showing visibility externally as well? I've seen you taking part in lots of different events, etc., which is great. What are your thoughts on your personal brand and visibility?

The Success Studio And Closing

SPEAKER_01

Great question. Yeah, as you can tell, I'm very passionate about customer success. So I put myself out there. I'm involved with quite a lot of different people. But an example is Customer Success Collective. I write a lot of content for them, been part of their podcast as well. Power Up with You, for example, is something that I've been part of as well. And it's just the pure love and joy of it, really, being able to connect with other people and share your experience, but also be part of this community, which I think is so unique. So visibility, I'd say put yourself out there and understand how you can actually be part of the community. You don't always have to contribute towards it by, you know, speaking out. You can actually just be part of it and maybe be part of, let's say, the messaging forum element of things and contribute in so many different ways. So just going back to the whole introvert, extrovert thing, I think quite a lot of introverted people think, okay, I like that people are doing this visibility thing and posting on LinkedIn and you know doing podcasts and etc. But I don't feel comfortable doing this. And that's absolutely fine. There's other ways to be visible. You can write content, you can comment on LinkedIn. So you don't even have to talk, for example. You can again create content in many different ways, whether it's writing an article, whether it's even putting points together for a podcast, and you know, you contribute towards that. So there's many different ways to being visible. It just depends on what kind of impact you want to have, whether it's your front and center or whether you're contributing behind the scenes. But yeah, I think visibility is so key because people understand what your impact is, they understand your thoughts as well, and it's thought leadership at the end of the day and helps you create a brand for yourself.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. So, Milsa, what has been the biggest passion in customer success for you in a way that, you know, at the end of the day, you would say, Oh, I did that, or this happened. That made it a really good day. What would that be?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I have this philosophy in life in general, which is you should always try and make someone's life a little bit easier throughout the day. And it could be just making them smile, or it could be just, I don't know, someone's holding heavy shopping, maybe helping them out, for example. And I actually take that through to customer success. So I think my day has been successful if I have made one person's life easier, whether it's just watching them have that side of relief because you helped them pick the mug, or you know, they can now log into the platform, or whether it's okay, we're on track with our goals, okay. But you know, that meeting when you come out of it and they're like, okay, we're on track, it feels good. And you're like, oh, okay, I'm safe. I'm okay. They're not gonna, you know. So it's it's that aspect of making someone's life easier. And, you know, we we say customer success and we always think of clients, but sometimes, you know, if you're in leadership, your actual stakeholders and clients is your team. And when I was a team leader, I always used to think, how can I make my team's lives easier today? And if it's, you know, that that weekly list that you made of challenges, I would pick one out, for example, and say, okay, how can I help them work towards a challenge and remove that as a blocker? So I think for me to have a good day, it's you know, how can I make someone's life a little bit easier today?

SPEAKER_00

That's such a wonderful principle to have as a leader and as a customer success professional. Jamil Sadif has been wonderful. I wonder as we are wrapping up this episode, is there any message that you have for aspiring leaders and customer success or anything else that you feel we haven't covered and it's really passion of yours and important for the audience?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'd probably say just remember that you don't need a title to be a leader. You can be a leader in so many different ways. You can influence in so many ways. I'd also just say there's so many people in CS, which is so amazing, and we've been seeing how people have been given back to the community. It's actually made such a big impact. Growing up, I didn't know that, you know, a role like CS could even exist. So it's just made it so much accessible by so many people speaking about CS and sharing, you know, the knowledge that they've had and how they got to where they are, especially through your podcast, for example. So I would say continue sharing is is my biggest thing. It's just open opening up so many doors for people from different backgrounds. So thank you, Maria.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, thank you, Jamilton. Thank you so much for joining me today in this conversation. I really loved it and I love what you're doing and your involvement. And what is next for you? Yeah, but the sky is the limit for you. But like if you pinpoint on one next thing, what are you working towards?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm actually building my own brand called the Success Studio, where I coach professionals, but also do consulting work as well for businesses that are looking to expand in CS and looking to move their operations into the Middle East, for example. So a lot more coming on that, but it's a big project of mine that I'm working on.

SPEAKER_00

That's awesome. I'm so excited about you. Congrats on it. I love it. Uh so please, everybody, have a look at Jamilta's LinkedIn profile and get in touch because I know that she can guide you throughout your career. Thanks, Ariel.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much, Maria. I appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for listening to today's episode. I really appreciate you taking time to learn something new and propel your career in customer success and beyond. If you like this episode, share it with your colleague, with your team member, with someone you know needs to hear it today. We appreciate your support, so please follow us and subscribe to our channels so many more women can hear about it.