Your Customer, Your Success

Gary Marra
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Your Customer, Your Success is a business leadership podcast focused on how client-centric strategy drives sustainable business growth. Hosted by Gary Marra, Client Strategy Advisor, the show features candid conversations with founders, executives, and operators who understand that leadership behavior, operational discipline, and client focus are part of the same growth engine. Each episode explores the connection between customer experience, employee experience, governance, and financial performance. Guests share practical lessons on building durable client relationships, scaling with clarity, and leading organizations that grow through trust rather than transaction. This podcast is for business leaders who believe that client strategy is not a department. It is a competitive advantage. If you lead a team, advise clients, or build businesses that rely on long-term relationships, this show is designed for you and your success.

  1. Inside the Entrepreneurial Garage: Marketing and Customer Success Alignment

    19H AGO

    Inside the Entrepreneurial Garage: Marketing and Customer Success Alignment

    Summary In this episode of Your Customer, Your Success, Gary sits down with Tim Hines — fractional CMO, four-time founder, keynote speaker, and author of The Marketing Starter. This conversation explores a critical leadership reality: Marketing does not stop at lead generation. Customer success does not begin at onboarding. Alignment between the two is what protects retention and enables growth. They discuss churn as a marketing metric, customer success enablement, intrapreneurship inside larger organizations, and how leaders can build innovation without breaking operational discipline. This episode reinforces a core principle of the show: Client focus is a growth strategy. Alignment drives retention. Retention drives scale. If you lead a team, manage client relationships, or are building something of your own, this conversation will challenge how you think about ownership, accountability, and growth. The question isn’t who owns the customer. The question is whether your organization is aligned enough to keep them. CHAPTERS CHAPTERS01:10 Introduction 02:38 What’s the first sign that marketing and customer reality are misaligned? 06:32 Where does marketing trip up and increase customer effort? 11:55 What does it mean to think like an entrepreneur inside a company? 14:19 The Entrepreneurial Garage and creating space to innovate 20:43 Do leaders hit a wall on implementation? 23:29 Delivering hard truths to leadership and letting the data prove it 26:28 Which metrics should marketing obsess over to support Customer Success? 29:20 One operating principle that would save founders frustration 31:52 Does It Hold Water? 38:10 Chip Shots Tim's Book The Marketing Starter Tim’s Books Mentioned The Referable Speaker (Michael Port) Start With Why (Simon Sinek) Connect with Tim: tnhines.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnhines/ 🔗 Connect with Gary Marra: · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/ · Marra CX Hub: https://marracxhub.com/ · YouTube: YCYS YouTube Page 📣 🎧 Please Listen & Subscribe 💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode! 👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy. Want to be a guest on Your Customer, Your Success? Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4 #CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #FractionalLeadership #GrowthStrategy #TeamAlignment #Podcast #BusinessLeadership #CustomerExperience

    48 min
  2. CX, EX, and Dancing With The Dragon: The Human Side of True Leadership with Kris Wauters

    FEB 11

    CX, EX, and Dancing With The Dragon: The Human Side of True Leadership with Kris Wauters

    What if Customer Experience and Employee Experience aren’t separate initiatives at all, but direct reflections of leadership behavior? In this return visit to Your Customer, Your Success, Kris Wauters joins Gary Marra to explore the deeper truth behind CX, EX, and leadership through the lens of his new book, The Human Experience: Dancing with the Dragon, Climbing Beyond the Tower. This conversation moves beyond slogans and frameworks and into the real work of leading humans. Kris draws from more than 30 years of leadership experience to explain why customer centricity isn’t a goal you achieve, why most CX programs collapse when leadership changes, and why incompetence, not malice, is often the real enemy inside organizations. Gary and Kris dig into practical CX discipline, including why too many metrics destroy accountability, how listening to the Voice of Customer, Voice of Employee, and Voice of Process together changes everything, and why the most mature organizations stop apologizing for problems and start preventing them. The episode then shifts into leadership and culture, where Kris challenges the idea that culture can be “reinvented,” explains the difference between managing and truly leading, and makes a simple but powerful case for care, trust, and accountability as the foundation of sustainable performance. This is not a conversation about quick wins or transformation theater. It’s about building organizations where CX and EX are outcomes of conscious leadership, not side projects owned by a department. If you lead people, serve customers, or are responsible for experience, trust, and performance at scale, this episode will challenge how you think about all three. CHAPTERS 00:54 Introduction 04:23 What breaks the human experience loop inside organizations? 07:18 Why customer centricity is not a goal 09:59 Incompetence vs malice in leadership 10:16 Learning to be a Leader 14:27 How leaders create trust and real feedback cultures 21:13 VOC, VOE, and VOP explained 27:42 Why too many CX metrics kill progress 34:04 The Museum of Retired Apologies 36:47 When culture works against the customer 40:22 Leadership vs management and “show me you care” 42:12 Does It Hold Water? 47:21 Chip Shots Kris's Book https://a.co/d/0cmLbvD2 Connect with Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwauters/ 🔗 Connect with Gary Marra: · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/ · Marra CX Hub: https://marracxhub.com/ · YouTube: YCYS YouTube Page 📣 🎧 Please Listen & Subscribe 💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode! 👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy. Want to be a guest on Your Customer, Your Success? Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4 #CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #FractionalLeadership #GrowthStrategy #TeamAlignment #Podcast #BusinessLeadership #CustomerExperience

    59 min
  3. Customer Success, Automation, and the Cost of Losing the Human Touch with Dannah Vaughan

    JAN 21

    Customer Success, Automation, and the Cost of Losing the Human Touch with Dannah Vaughan

    In this episode, Dannah Vaughan joins me for a grounded conversation about customer success, post-sales execution, and the real cost of losing the human touch in an increasingly automated world. We explore why onboarding has improved while support continues to fail customers, how health scores should guide curiosity rather than dictate decisions, and why legacy customers demand real relationships, not automation. We also talk candidly about short CS leadership tenures, layoffs in tech, and the resilience required to keep building when the rules keep changing. This is a practical, human-first look at what actually drives retention and expansion when tools, dashboards, and AI can only take you so far. Episode Chapters01:08 — Introduction 03:35 — Where post-sales promises meet reality 05:46 — Telecom lessons and the disappearing human 07:34 — The reality of AI, Automation, and the human element 13:37 — Where we really are with AI, is it a "toddler?" 17:56 — Dashboards, health scores, and seeing risk sooner 29:21 — Customer Success under CROs and what gets undervalued 35:59 — The avocado rotary phone and technology that still works! 39:54 — Career myth debunking 41:31 — Does It Hold Water? 45:54 — Chip Shots Book RecommendationNever Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It―Unlock Your Persuasion Potential in Professional and Personal Life by Chris Voss Connect with GuestLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannahvaughan/ Website: https://rebelsofSaaS.com Also mentioned on the show: Podcast: Rebels of SaaS 🔗 Connect with Gary Marra: · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/ · Marra CX Hub: https://marracxhub.com/ · YouTube: YCYS YouTube Page 📣 🎧 Please Listen & Subscribe 💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode! 👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy. Want to be a guest on Your Customer, Your Success? Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4 #CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #FractionalLeadership #GrowthStrategy #TeamAlignment #Podcast #BusinessLeadership #CustomerExperience

    55 min
  4. Building Growth That Lasts: Alignment, Fractional Leadership, and Customer Success Execution with Chelsey Reynolds

    JAN 14

    Building Growth That Lasts: Alignment, Fractional Leadership, and Customer Success Execution with Chelsey Reynolds

    Building Growth That Lasts: Alignment, Fractional Leadership, and Customer Success Execution with Chelsey ReynoldsChelsey Reynolds joins Your Customer, Your Success for a practical conversation about what it really takes to build growth that lasts. Drawing on her experience leading sales, marketing, and customer success teams through rapid scale, Chelsey breaks down why growth stalls when teams operate in silos, how fear-based leadership quietly undermines execution, and where sales handoffs most often go wrong. We talk candidly about fractional leadership, setting expectations that survive the sale, capturing why customers actually buy, and why alignment matters more than any single metric or tool. This episode is for founders and leaders who want clarity instead of chaos and results that don’t come at the expense of their teams or their customers. Episode Timestamps01:11 — Intro and welcome to the show 03:07 — What it’s really like leaving a W2 role to go fractional 04:45 — Why sales, marketing, and customer success struggle to work together 05:54 — Growth targets, alignment, and what leaders overlook 07:17 — How Sales (unintentionally) can make Customer Success harder 08:50 — When customer success should be pulled into the sales process 12:38 — Setting expectations that survive the handoff 16:49 — Why teams struggle with basic handoff discipline 18:13 — Capturing why customers buy and why it gets lost post-sale 19:53 — CRM realities and why tools don’t solve misalignment 21:28 — The real danger of organizational silos 23:58 — Fear-based leadership and internal competition 29:15 — How leaders unintentionally spread fear during change 31:58 — Recognizing fear-based leadership in yourself and change management 33:15 — Burnout as the wake-up call 35:01 —Where do you look first when growth feels harder than it should? 38:17 — Does It Hold Water? 41:36 — Chip Shots Book Recommendation:The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler Connect with Chelsey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsey-reynolds-growth-expert/ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/heychelseyhere/ TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@heychelseyhere Threads: https://www.threads.com/@heychelseyhere Substack:  https://chelseyreynolds.substack.com/ Website:  https://growthdepartment.com 🔗 Connect with Gary Marra: ·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/ ·       Marra CX Hub:           a href="https://marracxhub.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

    53 min
  5. YCYS Year One Retrospective (Part 2): The Best of CX, Customer Success, and Leadership Interviews

    JAN 7

    YCYS Year One Retrospective (Part 2): The Best of CX, Customer Success, and Leadership Interviews

    This episode is Part 2 of the 1-Year Anniversary Retrospective for Your Customer, Your Success. Part 1 focused on the fun, signature segments of the show. This episode highlights the best conversations and lessonsfrom year one — featuring Customer Experience leaders, Customer Success leaders, and leadership experts who shared thoughtful, practical perspectives. It’s a reflective, easy listen designed for the holiday break — and a look ahead to year two. ⏱️ What You’ll Hear in This Episode🎧 Best of Customer Experience (CX)Highlights and perspectives from CX leaders on trust, metrics, storytelling, technology, and where CX is headed next. Featured guests: Rick DentonSean AlbertsonKatie StablerStacy ShermanDave SeatonNatasha EvansAndrew CarothersChris HoodJean Pierre Dumas 🎧 Best of Customer SuccessPractical lessons from Customer Success leaders on customer behavior, health scores, expansion, internal alignment, and supporting CSMs. Featured guests: Kristi FaltorussoAlon AhronbergAmber MunroeRachel ProvanJosh NutterAlison DixonAlyssa Nolte 🎧 Best of LeadershipLeadership reflections on change, culture, decision-making, accountability, balance, and what effective leadership looks like today. Featured guests: Tim McClearyCaroline BairdMatt FeinerChris GillenShruti JoshiBill KaskoSamanda MoralesFrancie JainKelly SchucknechtMark SternSimona Costantini 🙏 Thank YouThank you to every guest who shared their perspective and every listener who supported the show this past year. If this episode made you pause, smile, or rethink something, consider sharing it with someone who might appreciate it too! 🔗 Connect with Gary Marra:·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/ ·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/ ·       YouTube:                    YCYS YouTube Page 📣 🎧 Please Listen & Subscribe💡 Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode! 👉 Follow Your Customer, Your Success for more insights on customer experience, leadership, and business strategy. Want to be a guest on Your Customer, Your Success? Send Gary Marra a message on PodMatch here:  https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726154102094403cb5558fc4 #CX #CustomerSuccess #ClientExperience #Leadership #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

    51 min
  6. YCYS Year One Retrospective (Part 1): The Best of Chip Shots & Does It Hold Water!

    12/31/2025

    YCYS Year One Retrospective (Part 1): The Best of Chip Shots & Does It Hold Water!

    Episode DescriptionThis episode is Part 1 of our 1-Year Anniversary Retrospective for Your Customer, Your Success. Designed as a lighter, holiday-friendly listen, this episode highlights two of the show’s most popular and revealing segments: Chip Shots and Does It Hold Water? While informal by design, these segments consistently delivered some of the most honest, thoughtful, and memorable moments of the past year. This episode is about reflection, clarity, and having a little fun while looking back. ⭐ Best of Chip ShotsWe kick off the retrospective with highlights from Chip Shots, where quick questions led to some of the most revealing insights of the year. Featured moments include: Early career failures that still shape leadership todayUnconventional lessons learned the hard wayA standout answer to “Which leader would you shadow?”Two memorable “call an audible” moments that paid offA clear winner from the book recommendation question that sparked one of the show’s most popular resources Guests featured in this segment include: Kristi Faltorusso, Katie Stabler, Alyssa Nolte, Tim McCleary, Chris Gillen, Matt Feiner, Andrew Carothers, Jean Pierre Dumas, Rick Denton, and Kris Wauters. ⭐ Best of Does It Hold Water?Inspired by the famous courtroom scene in My Cousin Vinny, Does It Hold Water? became the show’s way of slowing down and pressure-testing ideas that sound good but deserve a closer look. In this retrospective: We revisit the strongest runner-up answers that helped define the segmentThen crown two co-winners, whose responses were head and shoulders above the rest! Featured voices include: Rick Denton, Kristi Faltorusso, Kris Wauters, Andrew Carothers, Dave Seaton, Chris Hood, Alyssa Nolte and Simona Costantini. Why This Episode MattersThis episode captures what made the first year of the show special: Honest conversationsWillingness to challenge assumptionsHumor, humility, and clarityAnd ideas that don’t just sound good...they hold water :) 🔜 Coming Up NextIn Part 2 of the retrospective, we revisit highlights from the traditional interview portions of the show, with: CX leadersCustomer Success leadersLeadership experts 🙏 Thank YouThank you to every guest who shared their perspective and every listener who supported the show this past year. If this episode made you pause, smile, or rethink something, consider sharing it with someone who might appreciate it too! 🔗 Connect with Gary Marra:·       LinkedIn:                    https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marra/ ·       Marra CX Hub:           https://marracxhub.com/ ·       YouTube:                    YCYS...

    41 min
  7. Job Security, AI, and What Job Candidates Need to Understand Now with Justin Dixon

    12/17/2025

    Job Security, AI, and What Job Candidates Need to Understand Now with Justin Dixon

    Episode 36: Job Security, AI, and What Job Candidates Need to Understand Now with Justin Dixon For years, job seekers were told the same story: big companies are safe, startups are risky, and loyalty will protect you. That story no longer holds up. In this episode of Your Customer, Your Success, I’m joined by Justin Dixon, founder of Hire Tomorrow and host of the Growth Capital Podcast, to talk about what’s really happening in today’s job market. We break down why layoffs at large corporations are happening with little warning, why smaller companies and PE-backed firms can actually offer more visibility and career stability, and how candidates need to rethink job security in 2026. We discuss the realities of modern job search strategy, including how applicant tracking systems (ATS) filter resumes, why most resumes never reach a hiring manager, and how to build an ATS-friendly resume that still tells your story. Justin shares why every candidate should have two resumes — one for online applications and one for networking and interviews — and how recruiters actually scan resumes in seconds, not minutes. We also get into how AI in recruiting is reshaping hiring, from resume screening and candidate scoring to AI-driven interviews and automated applications. We talk honestly about what AI is really doing in hiring, where it helps, where it creates friction, and why candidates need to focus more on networking, referrals, and direct outreach than mass-applying online. If you’re preparing for job interviews, navigating a layoff, considering a move from a large company to a startup, or trying to understand how private equity, return-to-office mandates, and AI are changing the hiring landscape, this episode is a practical guide. No hype. No shortcuts. Just clear thinking about how to search for a job smarter, position yourself better, and avoid the black hole of modern hiring. Topics Covered: Job search strategy in today’s marketCorporate layoffs vs startups and job securityATS resumes and applicant tracking systemsAI in recruiting and AI interviewsNetworking vs mass applyingHiring manager mistakes and candidate experienceJob searching through the holidays Audio Chapters 01:21 – Who Is Justin Dixon 03:23 – Why Big Companies Are No Longer “Safe” 05:44 – Are Layoffs Really Because of AI 07:36 – Is AI Actually Replacing Jobs 09:24 – Return to Office and Shrinking the Talent Pool 12:43 – Why Smaller Companies Can Be Safer 17:43 – How Job Search Has Changed 18:52 – The ATS Resume Reality 21:51 – How Recruiters Really Read Resumes 23:58 – Bots, Fake Applicants, and Resume Flooding 25:41 – Why Networking Beats Applying Online 29:29 – Building Visibility Without Forcing It 32:48 – What Hiring Managers Get Wrong 38:25 – AI Interviews and Candidate Experience 40:22 – Job Searching Through the Holidays 42:06 – Does It Hold Water? 45:44 – Chip Shots Book Recommendation Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki Connect with Justin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmdixon15/ Email: jdixon@hiretomorrow.com Website www.HireTomorrow.com 🔗 Connect with Gary...

    56 min
  8. Corporate Social Responsibility Today: How CSR Drives Loyalty, Talent, and Trust with Suzanne Smith

    12/10/2025

    Corporate Social Responsibility Today: How CSR Drives Loyalty, Talent, and Trust with Suzanne Smith

    In this episode of Your Customer, Your Success, Gary sits down with Suzanne Smith, a nationally recognized voice on social impact and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Suzanne is the founder and CEO of Social Impact Architects, creator of the Social Trendspotter blog, a TEDx speaker, and a professor of social entrepreneurship, CSR, and ethical leadership at UT Austin and Duke. Her world lives at the intersection of government, policy, and business, and she spends her days helping organizations design solutions that balance purpose and performance. Gary and Suzanne breakdown: Why CSR isn’t just a big-company gameHow small businesses can start with low-cost, high-impact community initiativesThe evolution from “checkbook philanthropy” to embedded, strategy-level CSRWhat happens when brands get CSR spectacularly wrong How CSR ties directly to customer loyalty, employee engagement, and talent attractionWhy Gen Z is forcing companies to move from “pretty words” to “receipts” In this episode, you’ll learn: A practical 4C framework for CSRHow a franchise oil-change shop turned in-kind support for an after-school van into:Why silence on key issues can be as damaging as tone-deaf campaignsHow CSR is increasingly being owned by HR and impact leaders, not just marketingWhy Gen Z will sometimes trade a bit of pay for purpose and what that tells us about employer brand They wrap with Gary’s classic “Does It Hold Water?” segment on whether CSR is “too risky” in today’s polarized climate, plus Chip Shots on behavioral psychology, Oprah, LinkedIn vs. Facebook, and the professional risks that pay off! Check it out! Chapters01:15 Intro 03:01 Why Small Businesses Misunderstand CSR 04:31 A Great Small Business Story That Changed Everything 09:36 Suzanne's Four C's 12:32 CSR Across Every Size of Organization 14:52 Where CSR Initiatives Start to Go Wrong 19:58 How CSR Shapes Customer and Employee Experience 22:14 CSR and Employee Retention 24:48 Why Gen Z employee say they will take a pay cut 26:58 Consistency and CSR 30:32 How Any Business Can Start Small and Make an Impact 33:04 Does It Hold Water? 35:45 Chip Shots 🔗 Connect with Suzanne: Website: www.meetsuzanne.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialImpactArchitects X: https://x.com/socialtrendspot Substack: https://socialtrendspot.substack.com LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-impact-architects and https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannesmithtx TEDx “Everyone is a Changemaker”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJOonQUXL0E Instagram: a href="https://www.instagram.com/socialtrendspot"...

    47 min
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About

Your Customer, Your Success is a business leadership podcast focused on how client-centric strategy drives sustainable business growth. Hosted by Gary Marra, Client Strategy Advisor, the show features candid conversations with founders, executives, and operators who understand that leadership behavior, operational discipline, and client focus are part of the same growth engine. Each episode explores the connection between customer experience, employee experience, governance, and financial performance. Guests share practical lessons on building durable client relationships, scaling with clarity, and leading organizations that grow through trust rather than transaction. This podcast is for business leaders who believe that client strategy is not a department. It is a competitive advantage. If you lead a team, advise clients, or build businesses that rely on long-term relationships, this show is designed for you and your success.

Information

  • Creator
    Gary Marra
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    43
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Gary Marra
  • Show Website
    Your Customer, Your Success