The Rebels Of SaaS

Dannah Vaughan
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Are you a rebel? This is a podcast for you! Follow the stories of business unicorns that don't say yes, but instead move the bar to new heights!

  1. May 21

    Frank Murphy: Embracing the Suck – What to Do When Grief Comes for You and Your Team

    In the Season 4 premiere of Rebels of SaaS, Cisco leader Frank Murphy shares his profound journey from public service to tech leadership, intertwining his career path with his deeply personal experience of raising and losing a child with severe medical needs. He candidly discusses how navigating unimaginable grief reshaped his approach to empathy, high-impact leadership, and building resilient teams. The conversation explores the critical need to normalize accessibility in product design and the workplace, illustrating this with hands-on exercises like using Braille Legos. By blending raw vulnerability with professional insight, this limited-edition episode delivers a powerful message on supporting your team's humanity while still operating a successful revenue engine. Ultimately, Frank's story challenges listeners across your growing global audience to lead with authentic connection, purposeful curiosity, and a healthy dose of resilience. Courtesy of Frank - Find resources to help with grief + dealing with it here: http://bit.ly/4v4SgyM

    55 min

  2. Apr 1

    Season 3 Finale - Kate Neal on AI Proofing your CS Career

    In the Season 3 finale of Rebels of SaaS, Dannah welcomes Kate Neal from Gainsight to explore how to effectively operationalize AI across the customer journey. Kate shares her unique career evolution and reveals how AI-native platforms can uncover "human-to-human" signals that traditional health scores often miss. Discover how to transition from reactive troubleshooting to proactive scaling by identifying risk signals months before a renewal. The conversation dives deep into the shifting skill sets required for the next generation of AI-literate CS professionals. Tune in to learn why the future of SaaS belongs to those who embrace AI as a digital teammate rather than just a tool.

    25 min

  3. Mar 16

    Jared Cook - A Rebel Story of a CS Leader Scaling a Side Hustle with AI

    In this episode, SaaS veteran Jared Cook joins Dannah Barnett Vaughan to discuss his journey through giants like Adobe and Domo to founding Crush Churn Consulting. Jared reveals how his passion for problem-solving led him to build a thriving, automated Turo car-sharing business that leverages AI and strategic delegation for true time freedom. The conversation dives into the "human element" of customer success, the pitfalls of chasing vanity metrics like NPS, and why "positive rebellion" requires a balance of challenging the status quo with disciplined, data-driven strategy.

    21 min

  4. Mar 11

    Jeff Cann - A Rebel Story of Using AI as your Strategic Value Engineer

    Stop settling for "AI hype" and start building actual ROI by bridging the massive gap between executive expectations and team execution. In this episode, Top 100 CS Strategist Jeff Cann reveals why the secret to mastering AI at work actually starts with automating your life at home. We dismantle the "shadow economy" of AI and discuss why 95% of organizations are currently failing to see results from their investments. From custom-built meal planning agents to the future of "agentic assistants" that join meetings for you, Jeff explains how to transform from a "human help center" into a strategic value engineer. Tune in to learn how to lead your Customer Success team through the 2026 AI evolution before the skills gap leaves your organization behind.

    27 min

  5. Mar 2

    Kim Ayala - A Rebel's Tale of Dismantling the Sales Stigma in CS

    In this episode of Rebels of SaaS, I’m joined by Kim Ayala, Director of Customer Success (Americas & APAC) at Akeneo, to challenge the common misconception that "sales" is a dirty word in Customer Success. Kim shares her "rebellious" approach to post-sales leadership, explaining why offering paid solutions is actually a form of deep customer advocacy when it solves a genuine pain point. We dive into the mindset shift required to move from a reactive support role to a proactive revenue driver, highlighting how expansion is the key to breaking through value ceilings. Kim also discusses her strategies for fostering collaborative relationships with Sales leaders and operationalizing forecasting within CS teams to ensure shared accountability. Tune in to learn how to master the art of consultative advising and why "CPR" for your QBRs might be exactly what your organization needs.

    28 min

  6. Feb 12

    A Rebel Story - Julie Fox on the Power of Your Network, Your Voice & Community

    In this episode, host Dannah Vaughan sits down with Julie Fox — CS leader, career changer, and co-author of the Customer Success Talent Playbook — to talk about the journey that brought her to customer success and what keeps her fired up about the space. Julie shares the story behind the highly anticipated book, including how a group of six strong-willed women collaborated to create a dual-perspective career guide that CS professionals can return to at every stage of their journey. She dives deep into her passion for digital and scaled CS, making the case that when done right, it's not a cost-saving shortcut but a powerful way to deliver more personalized, human experiences to thousands of customers at once. Julie also unpacks what positive rebellion looks like in SaaS — questioning assumptions, rejecting "that's how we've always done it," and constantly pushing toward greater impact. Whether you're just breaking into CS or leading a team at a high-growth company, this conversation is packed with the kind of real talk and hard-won wisdom you'll want to come back to.

    18 min

  7. Jan 15

    Eleni Vorvis - A Rebel Story of Fractional Customer Success

    In this episode Dannah Vaughan sits down with Eleni Vorvis, a Top 100 CS Thought Leader, to explore the rapidly growing world of fractional leadership. Eleni shares her 20-year journey from accidental customer support to strategic consulting, offering "real-talk" on how founders can leverage senior expertise to build scalable frameworks. The conversation dives deep into the discipline required to transition from a full-time role to a consultant, including how Eleni used strength training to maintain resilience during a past layoff. A key highlight is Eleni’s passionate defense of "soft skills," which she rebrands as strategic—the ultimate human superpower that AI cannot replicate. Whether you're a founder looking for efficiency or a CS pro considering the leap into fractional work, this episode provides a blueprint for thriving in the modern SaaS landscape.

    26 min

  8. Jan 5

    Carl Lenocker - A Rebel Story about a Success Plan for Life (and the Customer Success Junk Drawer)

    Join Carl Lenocker—entrepreneur, author, and Customer Success Executive Leader at Splunk—as he shares why human relationships are your competitive advantage in the AI era. Carl discusses the future of CS, dynamic dining techniques, and how to command $250K+ salaries by investing in skills AI can't replicate.

    25 min
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About

Are you a rebel? This is a podcast for you! Follow the stories of business unicorns that don't say yes, but instead move the bar to new heights!

Information

  • Creator
    Dannah Vaughan
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    61
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Dannah Vaughan
  • Show Website
    The Rebels Of SaaS