Customer Success Therapy

Alexandra Sagaydak
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

🎙 Customer Success Therapy — with Alexandra Sagaydak. The CS podcast that isn't about frameworks, metrics, or revenue plays. I'm Alexandra Sagaydak. After 10 years operating in CS, I got tired of conferences where everyone says the same five things and nobody says what they actually think. So I built this. Every episode, I sit down with a CS, SaaS, or GTM operator and we get into the stuff they don't put on LinkedIn — the decisions they second-guess, the moments they almost quit, the takes they only share after a glass of wine. The guest is the star. The conversations are honest. The therapy is mutual. We listen and we don't judge.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    Roksolana Badun: What Founders Use Customer Success For, and the Product Mindset Behind It

    Roksolana (Roxy) Badun runs product and customer success at PromoRepublic - a CPO and CCO in one seat. We get into the things most CS and SaaS leaders won't say: when you actually need a customer success team (and when to kill it), why "customer success is not a role," why your churn is really a stakeholder problem, and the exact point where AI stops being useful. For CS, product, and GTM leaders in B2B SaaS. (00:00) The seat no one in SaaS sits in (00:49) Welcome + how we met (03:18) CS as the "fixer" for a broken product (04:55) Sitting in the CPO + CCO seat (05:52) Combining product + CS after COVID (06:45) How AI changed marketing (08:58) Roxy's story: business at the dinner table (11:15) A CS job with no customers (11:48) When you actually need a CS team (13:05) "Customer success is not a role" (13:59) One tip to build a business mindset (15:31) Can you grow without customer success? (16:47) Do you still need a CSM with a perfect AI product? (18:01) What should never be automated (20:14) Can AI predict renewals? (21:46) Churn is a stakeholder problem (24:49) Get your CEO talking to their CEO (25:29) Who owns adoption — CS or product? (28:04) The customer belongs to the company (29:02) Are AI customers more demanding? Connect with Roksolana on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/roksolanabadun Hosted by Alexandra Sagaydak, founder of AI CS Hub. I help Customer Success teams stop firefighting and start driving revenue. ▶️ Work with me: 1:1 coaching for CSMs and CS leaders, and consulting / fractional CCO work for B2B SaaS teams. 🔗 aicshub.com | Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrasagaydak/

    32 min

  2. Jun 17

    Sean Reid: The Honest Truth About AI, Layoffs & Customer Success

    Everyone's "going all-in on AI." Almost nobody's talking about what happens next: the companies that cut their teams last year are quietly hiring those roles back. In this episode of Customer Success Therapy, I sit down with Sean Reid - the number one Customer Success voice in Ireland and Head of CS (EMEA & JAPAC) at Supermetrics - to talk about what's actually happening to CS in the age of AI, and what to do about it. We get into: • Why "AI layoffs" rhyme with the 2008 recession — and what the survivors did differently • Customer Success 1.0 → 3.0, and the model Sean's building right now • How to use AI so it protects your job instead of replacing it (the "1% systems architect" move) • Leading a team through the fear of change without pretending the fear isn't real • Why his calendar publicly blocks "family time" at 5pm • The improv-comedy workshop he runs for CSMs • Why the renewal is decided in the hallway, not on your renewal call • The personal-brand bet that flooded his inbox with referrals • "We're not brain surgeons" — his case for failing small and going bold If you're a CSM, a CS leader, or anyone in B2B SaaS quietly wondering whether your job is safe, this one's for you. 00:00 — Intro 01:17 — Meet Sean Reid: number one CS voice in Ireland 01:46 — From journalism to customer success (why CS is storytelling) 03:49 — Six years at HubSpot: startup to juggernaut 05:56 — Surviving hypergrowth without burning out 07:18 — Customer Success 1.0 → 2.0 → 3.0 explained 10:23 — The recession parallel to today's "AI layoffs" 12:01 — Salesforce cut teams for AI. Now they're hiring back 13:30 — How to use AI so it protects your job (the 1% move) 15:49 — Leading a team through the fear of change 18:02 — The fear Sean felt himself (an honest moment) 20:35 — Why his calendar publicly says "family time" at 5pm 23:29 — Customer success is a creative profession + improv comedy for CSMs 26:15 — Writing emails that actually get read 28:30 — The renewal is decided in the hallway, not on the call 29:56 — Made redundant twice: the personal-brand bet that paid off 32:37 — One tip to leave with: fail small, grow big 33:24 — Close

    34 min

  3. May 27

    Eleni Vorvis: The Sales-to-CS Handoff Is a Change Management Problem

    Find Eleni Vorvis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleni-vorvis/ Find Alexandra Sagaydak on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrasagaydak/ Book a 1:1 Coaching with Alexandra: https://calendly.com/ai-cs-hub/ai-cs-hub-coaching-session Eleni Vorvis is one of the Top 100 Customer Success Strategists of 2025. She has 20 years of GTM experience, started her career in sales, and now works fractionally as VP of Customer Success at CoachEm, as a Lead Consultant at Celero Growth, and is co-founder of the Boston Founders Forum. She is also one of the most direct guests this podcast has had. She got laid off in 2023 and did the one thing LinkedIn never tells you to do: she paused. In this episode, we get into: 00:00 — Cold open 01:30 — Greek heritage, Balkan directness, and business style 04:45 — 20 years in GTM: starting in sales, moving to CS 08:10 — Why the sales-to-CS handoff is actually a change management problem 14:30 — Why CSMs are patient with customers and impatient with everyone else 18:20 — AI anxiety, burnout, and what nobody says out loud 24:10 — Why customer success should own revenue 29:50 — Getting laid off in 2023 — the part LinkedIn doesn't show you 35:40 — Workshops, upskilling CSMs, and change management on the inside 39:00 — Final tip: you don't have to do it alone Whether you're a CSM, a CS leader, a SaaS founder, or someone in the middle of a career transition, you'll find something in this conversation that's worth pausing for.

    36 min

  4. May 17

    Noah Hallett: CSM Life is Trench Warfare

    The best customer success managers Noah Hallett has ever worked with weren't CSMs at all. They were founders.People who built the company by hand, talked to every customer themselves, and turned those conversations into product decisions. By the time they hired their first CSM, they'd already done the job better than most ever will.Noah would know. He graduated with a biology degree in 2008 expecting to spend his life in a windowless underground lab. Instead - tour guide, phone fundraiser, molecular technologist testing bone marrow samples, Yelp Community Ambassador, ed-tech CSM, founder. He's now a Fractional CCO running GoBoldr out of Lisbon, and he says the things most people in customer success only post anonymously on Reddit. In this episode: — "Clean your house before AI talks to your customers" — Why your CRM is lying to you — What Noah tells CSMs stuck digging their own trench with a spoon — Why your weird, winding career path is your most underrated asset

    42 min

  5. Apr 27

    Jan Young: "20 Years in Tech. Zero Fear" on AI Without Panic

    What if AI isn't replacing your job — it's just removing the work you never wanted to do in the first place? Jan Young — founder of CX Exchange (4,000+ CS professionals) and Step Up Exchange, with 20+ years in tech — has been through every major shift since the dot-com era. Her take on AI isn't panic. It's relief. In this episode: — Why CS people were "human gap fillers" — and what's actually leaving the job — Why more CS leaders are becoming COOs and CEOs (and why that's good) — The neuroscience of why change feels hard — and the one shift that makes it easier — Jan's biggest career failure: ignoring the toxic colleague (the "moth to the flame" rule) — Why coming to AI from joy vs fear physically changes what your brain does with it — What the dot-com era taught her about how AI is actually playing out If you've been quietly avoiding AI, this episode will give you a different way in. 🎙️ Chapters 0:00 Welcome & meet Jan Young 1:30 20 years in tech & the dot-com era 4:00 AI vs the internet revolution — what's the same, what's faster 6:30 Why everyone's moving to Claude (and what it unlocks for CS) 8:30 The AI panic vs the case for excitement 10:30 How CX Exchange (4,000+ members) started by accident 13:00 Why disagreement is the heart of community 16:00 From education policy to playwriting to tech 17:30 How AI is changing business models, pricing, and CS roles 20:00 Why more CS leaders are becoming COOs and CEOs 22:00 Jan's biggest career failure: the toxic colleague 26:30 EQ in the AI era — the human work gets harder 29:00 "We were human gap fillers" 33:00 Joy vs. fear — the neuroscience of change 36:30 Closing thoughts Connect with Jan Young: LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-young-cx/⁠⁠ CX Exchange⁠ | Step Up Exchange⁠: https://go.stepupxchange.com/nexgen-cs-leadership #CustomerSuccess #JanYoung #AIinCS #CXExchange #B2BSaaS #SaaS #CustomerSuccessTherapy #FutureOfWork #CSLeadership

    40 min

  6. Apr 15

    Denny Burda : "They Called Me a Dirty Snake" on CS Owning Revenue

    You're a dirty snake." "Trojan horse." "Go back to the used car lot."That's what Denny Burda got called on LinkedIn for saying CS should lead revenue. He kept going anyway. Denny spent 10 years working with at-risk teenagers before pivoting to customer success. Now he's CCO at River Consultancy Group and one of the most honest voices in the industry. In this episode: — Why CS was set up wrong from the beginning (and who's responsible) — The exact reason CCO roles got mass-wiped off org charts in 2022 — How to stop being called a cost centre (hint: stop leading with NPS) — What teenagers taught Denny about Fortune 500 boardrooms — "Happy customers churn. Upset customers stick around for years.

    37 min

  7. Apr 7

    After 8 Months Off, This Podcast Is Back - And Different

    Customer Success Therapy is back — and it's not the same podcast anymore.After 8 months off, I'm returning with a completely different format. No more frameworks. No more metrics-worship. This podcast is now about the humans inside CS and B2B SaaS — their real stories, the hardest moments, the things they don't say out loud.In this solo episode, I also break down the biggest B2B SaaS news from the last several months: In this episode, Alexandra also breaks down the biggest B2B SaaS news from the last several months What's coming next: real guests, real conversationsIf you're looking for something light but a little spicy to keep you company while you're running errands, walking the dog, or folding laundry - this is your podcast. Honest conversations about our industry, without the pressure to take notes.A place where we listen and don't judge.

    7 min
  • 7 Episodes

About

🎙 Customer Success Therapy — with Alexandra Sagaydak. The CS podcast that isn't about frameworks, metrics, or revenue plays. I'm Alexandra Sagaydak. After 10 years operating in CS, I got tired of conferences where everyone says the same five things and nobody says what they actually think. So I built this. Every episode, I sit down with a CS, SaaS, or GTM operator and we get into the stuff they don't put on LinkedIn — the decisions they second-guess, the moments they almost quit, the takes they only share after a glass of wine. The guest is the star. The conversations are honest. The therapy is mutual. We listen and we don't judge.

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