Would Recommend: Real Stories From Businesses Worth Talking About with Nikki McKnight

Nikki McKnight
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship

Some businesses get reviewed. Others get raved about. Would Recommend goes behind the five stars with the founders who earned them. Every episode is a real story from a real business that figured out how to turn their client experience into their most powerful growth engine, without more ad spend, without more content, just by designing something worth talking about. Host Nikki McKnight is a CX and operations strategist with 15+ years across wildly different industries and geographies. Each week, she talks with founders about the specific decisions, the costly experiments, and the moments of truth that separate a satisfied client from a raving one. Some episodes are solo deep-dives into a CX principle or framework. Others bring two founders from the same industry together to show how the same problem can be solved two completely different ways, and why both work. This is not a marketing podcast. Client experience is not a layer on top of your marketing strategy; it is the growth engine your marketing can't replace. If your clients are happy but not referring you, this show is for you. Would Recommend is for founder-led businesses in retail, hospitality, food and beverage, professional services, wellness, events, and beyond.

  1. 6d ago

    Marketing Earns the Yes. Then What? [Would Recommend Part 2]

    What actually happens between the yes on the sales page and the moment the engagement  falls apart two weeks later?  Nikki opens this episode with a five-figure cautionary tale, the kind most founders have lived through on both sides of the invoice, and uses it to unpack the first paradigm shift in the Would Recommend Standard: Would Buy.  This is part two of the Would Recommend Standard deep-dive series and the follow-up to What Disney, Lego, and 11 Madison Park Know About Growing a Business. What you'll hear in this episode: The bait-and-switch story that made Nikki rethink what a working "yes" really looks likeWhy Promise is not a tagline or a mission statement, and how The Ritz-Carlton's laminated card turns a standard into a decision-making toolHow Ikea engineered every step from front door to soft-serve on purpose and how you can do the sameWhy an ideal client avatar built on age, income, and zip code is a filter setting on a Meta ad account, not a PersonWhat changes across marketing, delivery, and retention when Promise, Path, and Person are firing togetherThe yes at the sales page is easy but the yes at renewal is the one that means your business is working. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  2. Sep 8

    5 Event Ideas That Change How Guests Feel Before They Walk In

    Nikki has been going to business events since she was five (retail-exec dad, family vacations spent at produce marketing conventions with 40,000 of her closest friends), she spent a decade running them, and she once managed a half-million-dollar-a-year event portfolio.  So when someone in a recent peer mastermind asked what everyone had seen at events that they loved and wanted to steal, she lit up like a kid at a LEGO store.  What you'll hear in this episode: Why a two-minute cell-phone walkthrough of your venue does more for guest anxiety than anything elseThe checkout-form question that surfaced a breastfeeding mom, a hearing-impaired guest, and a wheelchair user before any of them walked in the doorThe "recovery corner" concept from an Austin biohacking event that Nikki still thinks about ten years laterAn event is a customer experience that just happens to have a start time and an end time; most of the work that decides how it feels happens before anyone walks in the room. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  3. Sep 1

    How Do You Design a Business Clients Choose, and Keep Choosing? ft. Alli Arruda

    Some gyms are places you have to go, but some? People choose to go, and this becomes the entire brand promise.  In this episode, Nikki sits down with Alli Arruda, co-owner of Benchmark Fitness in downtown Burlington, to unpack how she and her husband Matt built one of the most talked-about wellness clubs in the region by obsessing over the details most gym owners never think twice about; the scent in the room, the way the towels are folded, the music that plays overhead, and the culture their team lives out loud every single day. What you'll hear in this episode Why Alli banned spray bottles and dingy cleaning cloths from day one, and what she put in their placeThe Equinox-inspired detail Alli turned into a Benchmark signature (hint: it involves peppermint and a very specific type of towel)How Alli handles the awkward moment when a member walks in with wet, dirty shoes or leaves 45-pound plates on the squat rackWhy Benchmark's attrition looks nothing like the standard gym-industry churn model, and the number that will make most gym owners do a double takeWhat "we're a choice gym, not a need-to-have gym" actually means for pricing, positioning, and who they attractAbout My Guest Alli is a passionate entrepreneur, podcast host, fitness advocate and proud co-owner of BENCHMARK FITNESS alongside her husband, Matt. She is also the host of ‘Inspire + Move’ a podcast for anyone looking to grow, connect, be inspired, or celebrate community.  When not working or working out at BENCHMARK, Alli enjoys traveling, personal development, fine wine, coffee and spending time with her husband and three dogs. She believes in fuelling her body with the best energy through movement, nutrition, self-care and a positive mindset, while inspiring others to design a life they love! https://www.instagram.com/alliarruda/  Alli’s Podcast Inspire and Move : https://inspireandmove.buzzsprout.com/  https://www.benchmarkfitness.ca/ https://www.instagram.com/benchmarkburlington/  Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  4. Aug 25

    What Disney, Lego, and Eleven Madison Park Know About Growing a Business [Would Recommend Part 1]

    How does any of this actually make me money?  That's the question that eventually shows up in almost every conversation Nikki has with a founder, and it's exactly where this Nikki Talks episode lands.  Kicking off a miniseries on The Would Recommend Standard, Nikki walks through the model she has been building for years; the one that explains why fixing your client journey in isolation is a little like painting a house that hasn't been built properly yet, and what to build instead if you want a business people can't stop talking about. What you'll hear in this episode The big myth that keeps most founder-led businesses stuckThe three questions your business is either answering or dodging; and why answering them is the difference between running your business and being run by itWhy Disney parks, Eleven Madison Park, and Lego each get name-checked as the gold standard for one of the three outcomesWhy being the best at what you do will always lose to being the best known, and what that actually looks like in a founder-led businessIf you're ready to stop patching the paint and start building the standard, this episode is where the whole miniseries begins.  Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  5. Aug 18

    The Conversations Founders Avoid That Are Costing You Your Best People (and Your Best Clients) ft. Lia Garvin

    Four out of five people at work right now are checked out. That is not a Threads hot take, that is Gallup, and it is the exact deficit most founder-led businesses are running on while trying to deliver a five-star client experience out the front door. In this episode, Nikki sits down with ex-Google, Apple, and Microsoft team-and-ops strategist Lia Garvin to talk about the piece of client experience nobody wants to look at directly, which is the people delivering it, and the leadership choices that either turn your team into brand ambassadors or slowly turn them into the CVS cashier who looks up like you've personally ruined her day. What you'll hear in this episode: The Platinum Rule that beats the Golden Rule every time, and the one question to ask your team (and your clients) that changes how you celebrate every single one of them.Why fewer, more consistent culture rituals will always beat nineteen initiatives that fizzle by June, and what your team is actually learning when the book club never has a second meeting.Thesit-down" script Lia uses to run the hard conversations founders avoid, and why starting with accountability from you is what disarms defensiveness in them.Why the way you operate on the inside of your business is the way your customers experience you on the outside, and how systems (not personality) are what make that consistent.If you are a founder-led business owner who is wondering why your team isn't as bought-in as you are, or why your client experience feels a little diluted the further it gets from you, this is the episode for you.  About My Guest Lia Garvin is a 3x best-selling author and fractional CEO to high-growth entrepreneurs. She is a former leader at Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Lia is known as the team whisperer for a reason. She comes into a business and, within minutes, can tell you where things are working, where they're not, and what to do with your team to make it more profitable. Bringing a decade working in big tech, she didn't observe from the sidelines, she built the teams that others studied. Now she brings those strategies to entrepreneurs and business owners so their teams can make them more money instead of just costing them https://www.liagarvin.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lia.garvin/  Managing Made Simple (Apple // Spotify) Free resource: The Sticky Conversations Guide (scripts for the five hardest conversations on a team): liagarvin.com/convo Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  6. Aug 11

    Loyalty Programs: Reward the Relationship, Not the Receipt

    Most loyalty programs get designed from the business's side of the counter: more repeat purchases, more lock-in, more rewards for the customers who already spend the most.  In this Nikki Talks episode, Nikki names the reframe that changes all of it, that loyalty is what businesses want and not what customers are trying to give, and then walks through the most common loyalty program models, what each one is actually rewarding, and the design calls that separate a program people tolerate from one they genuinely value. What you'll hear in this episode: Why loyalty is what the business wants and not what the customer is walking around trying to give, and how that single reframe changes everything about how you'd design a program.Four loyalty models (spend-based tiers, points-per-dollar, frequency punch cards, and paid membership) and the specific thing each one is actually rewarding.What Del Dotto winery does for Nikki's parents that no discount could ever replicate, and why it's a relationship rather than a rewards program.The Starbucks birthday-week change that turned a celebration into a coupon with an expiration timer, and why the same free drink suddenly started to sting.The one perk to put at every tier that money genuinely can't buy, and why a discount on something someone was already going to buy is the least loyal-making thing you can offer.If you're building a loyalty program, or quietly wondering why the one you have isn't working, this is the episode that tells you what to fix first. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  7. Aug 4

    How Do You Listen to Your Customers Without Letting Them Run Your Business? ft. Lyrik Fryer

    WorkPlay Branding started in 2019 as a six-step signature branding process with a photo shoot bolted on at the end. Today it's a subscription content model with almost one hundred certified creators across four continents, and it got there because Lyrik Fryer refused to stop listening to her customers, and refused to let them pull her off her mission.  Nikki sits down with Lyrik to get into how a founder holds both of those disciplines at once, and what it looks like when you turn instinct into a system your team can actually run without you. What you'll hear in this episode: The North Star discipline that lets Lyrik rebuild the business every few years without ever changing the mission, and why setting expectations up front is the tool that protects both the client and the businessWhat happened when she hired her first creator and discovered that "I can just take a beautiful photo" is not a training program, and how her team turned that failure into a certification process with over one hundred KPIsThe one Workplay KPI she named that will change how you look at every branded photo you've ever taken (hint: check the feet, but not in a weird way!)How she thinks about being a visionary five years ahead of her customers and meeting them exactly where they are today, at the same time, without breaking either promiseIf your clients keep asking you for more than what you sell, and you can't tell whether that's an opportunity or a warning sign, this is the episode you needed. About My Guest: Lyrik Fryer has spent the last several years building creative systems that don't just make brands look good; they make them unforgettable. As the co-founder of WorkPlay Branding, Lyrik helped pioneer a new model for visual marketing, blending psychology-driven strategy with high-impact content creation. WorkPlay's work has powered million-dollar launches, supported entrepreneurs and companies across North America and Europe, and even landed on billboards in Times Square. Today, WorkPlay is scaling its proven visual marketing system into a tech-enabled platform, making it easier than ever for brands to access certified, brand-ready creators and strategic storytelling support at scale. The mission is simple: to give visionary brands a faster, smarter way to scale storytelling, without sacrificing quality, creativity, or control. Beyond building WorkPlay, Lyrik is passionate about empowering the next generation of creators, shaping the future of brand content, and helping businesses harness the full power of visual storytelling to drive real results. Website: https://workplaybranding.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workplaybranding/ Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  8. Jul 28

    Are You Deepening the Relationship, or Just Maintaining the Connection?

    Nikki wore a homemade costume to a Jurassic Park movie with six other grown adults, and it turned into the clearest lesson she's got on the difference between a business that deepens relationships and one that just maintains connections. This is a Nikki Talks solo episode about why "nurture" quietly became a task on your to-do list, and how to turn it back into something your clients actually feel. What you'll hear in this episode: The Jurassic Park dinner her brother engineered on a freezer-aisle budget, and the one laminated detail that made seven grown adults feel like they were inside the night instead of just attending it.The driving-range conversation with her friend Catriona that reframes every touchpoint in your business: are you deepening a relationship, or just maintaining a connection?Why a "quietly satisfied" client is a warning sign and not a win, and the shift from completed transactions to emotional connections (the customer who would return).Signature Moments: how to design the highest-stakes, highest-reward moments in your client journey through adaptation, not automation.Five questions you can run on your own business right now, from the first twenty-four hours after the yes to the newsletter that's secretly all about you.If you've ever crossed "nurture" off a to-do list and felt absolutely nothing, this is the episode that shows you what to do instead. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

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Some businesses get reviewed. Others get raved about. Would Recommend goes behind the five stars with the founders who earned them. Every episode is a real story from a real business that figured out how to turn their client experience into their most powerful growth engine, without more ad spend, without more content, just by designing something worth talking about. Host Nikki McKnight is a CX and operations strategist with 15+ years across wildly different industries and geographies. Each week, she talks with founders about the specific decisions, the costly experiments, and the moments of truth that separate a satisfied client from a raving one. Some episodes are solo deep-dives into a CX principle or framework. Others bring two founders from the same industry together to show how the same problem can be solved two completely different ways, and why both work. This is not a marketing podcast. Client experience is not a layer on top of your marketing strategy; it is the growth engine your marketing can't replace. If your clients are happy but not referring you, this show is for you. Would Recommend is for founder-led businesses in retail, hospitality, food and beverage, professional services, wellness, events, and beyond.

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