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

Speaker A: Foreign. Hey Rebels, we're back in the studio today with Julie Fox. Always excited. This is the first time that I've had the pleasure of actually meeting her as close to real life, I guess as what we get these days a lot. But. Hey Julie, how are you?

Speaker B: I'm good. Excited to be here.

Speaker A: Yeah, thanks so much. So if I like to say affectionately, the blue book that's been going around the community, it's been a hot topic and understandably so. Julie obviously is one of the authors and if I'm sure you've seen Julie around the community, but if you haven't, I've had the wonderful opportunity to learn from several presentations you've given Julie. So thank you so much again.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: It's just very special that you wanted to come on and chat with, with us Rebels today. So thanks for joining.

Speaker B: Yeah, I appreciate that.

Speaker A: Yeah. So tell us, tell us a little bit about you. Like obviously you've got, you know, your CS exec, you know, and, and all the things you have that you bring to the community. But I think it's, it's interesting the journeys that bring us to where we're, you know, how we find these places in ourselves and our path. So if you don't mind, share a little bit with us about that.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So I was a career changer. I, um, found customer success and tech kind of all at once about seven years ago and since then I've had the experience of joining as a csm, growing into leadership, um, being a part of kind of building the playbooks, the templates, going through segmentation, specialization, all the things, uh, within the like early stage startup companies as well as then pivoting to more larger, bigger growth stage companies and really have found my passion around not only leadership in CS but also kind of getting very specific and deeper into digital and scaled CS and kind of that whole world.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Um, so it seems that. And I love how you said career changer. I've been talking to a couple of other folks in the community and it seems that in customer success we tend to sort of collect. We're almost like the junk drawer of the professional world. Right? It's like, hey, I used to be in marketing, I was in say all the things. I'm curious, what did you want to be? Because I have two, I don't know if you know this Julie, but I have two girls, a five and an eight year old and so always I

Speaker B: have a six and an eight year old. So we're, we're in Very similar season of life right now.

Speaker A: It is so crazy, is it not?

Speaker B: It's wild. It's.

Speaker A: The eight year old says stuff sometimes and I'm like, man, that's going to make me be a better person. I didn't realize it, but, you know, now you're here and you, you teach me things.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: And it's like. So I'm curious what. Well, let's use 8 years old. What did you want to be when you're 8 years old?

Speaker B: Oh, well, at 8 years old, I wanted to be a comedian. I love that. I don't, I don't know why. I just like, I loved making people laugh and I was like kind of that, like class clown type person.

Speaker A: I love that. I love that. Well, it takes, it takes personality to lead and it takes personality. Right. To do what we do. So I think that's pretty cool. That makes sense. Okay. Okay, so this tags into the next question. If you couldn't be a CS leader, what would you do? What would you go do?

Speaker B: Yeah. Um, okay, so most likely I would either be a principal at a school. Um, I actually went to school for special education and that was my path was that I wanted to be either principal or I wanted to open and start a charter school. And at the time I was very like, I had, I was a very creative kid. I did a lot of like art and different, like performing arts and all the different things. And so I thought that sitting behind a desk was going to be like the absolute death of me. So I was like, I absolutely will not do anything businessy. And then I couldn't get a job immediately and took a job because that's kind of how things happen. And all of a sudden I was on this like sales and marketing path and I kept growing and all of a sudden I was a bp. And then that was when I made the change to cs. So just a little windy world a little bit. And then the other thing would possibly be getting into some sort of either like politics or something like that. I'm a very ambitious person and I think I'm very driven by like the idea of having like, I just want to have an enormous impact, like whether that's on like my kids and the people around me and like my personal friends and family or the customers that I'm working with or people in my community. So probably one of those too.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I think. You know, um, I love that when you say the word impact because it's so powerful. And I think as a parent and as a leader, certainly, you know, there's all different kinds of ways to bring that to the table, manifest, you know, but, like, I'm curious, you know, we talk a lot about positive rebellion on the show and what that looks like and, you know, innovation and showing up and go to market. I love, you know, everything about what you all did with the book because it was so innovative, and I think it was something that wasn't tapped. What did you learn in that journey? I mean, it had to have been, oh, my God. Um, enormous talk about impact, right?

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this book stretched me in ways that I was not expecting. I wrote the chapters on networking, community, and branding, and that was kind of a topic that I felt like I was not super qualified to write about, to be honest. It was something that I kind of just stumbled into. I knew how it impacted me personally and how it helped me through both sides of, like, hiring people in customer success. But also the flip side of, as I was going through my own job search journey is kind of how that was something that I leaned into and really strengthened me. But especially recently, it's like life has happened, and I've actually had to really live those chapters in real time. But I think the writing process, overall, it was. It was strangely therapeutic. Um, lots of reflection, lots of validation, things that it's one thing to feel things inside of you or to believe them, but it's a whole different thing to actually, like, articulate that and verbalize it and put it into writing. And I've done a lot of, like, podcasts and webinars, and, I mean, I feel like I talk for a living. That's literally what I do all day. But the writing process is very different because it causes you to be a lot more reflective and really need, like, it's like you're putting something into print, and so you have to take a little bit more time with that. So overall, I think that that process was really cool. Just kind of being able to articulate how powerful your network truly is. Um, I learned how generous the CS community is and, uh, how when you're vulnerable, people can relate to you a little bit more. And how, like, the more real that I was on LinkedIn, the more that people showed up for me, the more that people were messaging me and wanted to engage with me. And I think there's just that realness side of it that I was able to kind of share in the book. But honestly, collaborating with such a strong group of women was also one of the most energizing professional experiences that I've ever had. We all have very different perspectives and points of view. And trying to bring a book to life with six different, very strong opinions was really an interesting challenge, because it's not just about, like, what you want, what you think about. And there were certain things that I care deeply about, and I would voice, and then there were other things that I didn't care as deeply about. But, um, it was an incredible learning

Speaker A: experience, and I, you know, uh, I just love it. And I think any of you that I talk to, I'm going to ask the same question because I think it's so interesting. I mean, how did you. How did you come up with that? Were you just thinking, hey, we're gonna. We're passionate about this. We're gonna do it. Like, what. What was the tipping point for going to do this? Because it's such a cool thing conceptually. And, you know, I'm just curious, like, did it happen over drinks? Was it one of those things where it was just over time? You know, you knew each other, that kind of thing?

Speaker B: So Swathi brought us all together. She had her and Parl kind of started talking through this idea of, uh. At first, I think it started as like, oh, let's do an ebook. And then it became like, well, I don't want to do this alone. And Parul was like, well, you don't have to do it alone. Like, tap into your network. Who else would be like, who would be the best people to talk about these different topics? And so as Swathi started to kind of think through the topics and the structure of the book, she then reached out to each of us individually and some of us. I think she had met each of us in different ways, but specifically had different topics that she wanted us to write on. And then the book evolved a lot, as once we all came together, that's when it really started to evolve more. When we clearly went down the path of, uh, we want to have two different perspectives in the book. We want to not only talk about each of these different topics, but we want to be able to speak to the hiring manager or the employer perspective as well as the employee and candidate perspective, and be able to separate those enough that people could use it as their own kind of handbook, guidebook, look like, jump around as they need and kind of come back to it throughout their career as they need different things from. From it.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, and it's interesting because, you know, professionally, I think there's not a CS leader that is alive at this point that's not doing all sorts of fun creative path stuff. Like you said, life lifes. So I think that a book like this, like you said, it's good to have just as a toolkit, you know, a real life. Hey, look, no matter where you are, you know, you can take something from it tangibly from a value perspective that's really powerful. Just outside.

Speaker B: That's right. And I, I do, I've read certain books that I've read a handful of times and I'm not when I read. I mean, obviously if I'm reading for fun, it's, and it's stories and stuff that's different. But when I'm reading business type books, I just kind of, I jump around if there's an area that I'm not getting a ton out out of it, like, I'll skip ahead and go to the next section. And so we wanted to be mindful of how people actually consume information and make sure that it would be sustainable throughout somebody's career. So whether they are just trying to get into CS and have never done the job and are trying to get their foot in the door, or whether they are an executive at a billion dollar company and are trying to grow their team and looking for answers and kind of what that looks like, like there's something for kind of everyone. But it can really evolve with you as you do continue to grow in your career. You can go back to those, those same chapters and be able to get something different out of it.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's powerful. So obviously you've, you know, had a great career path. You did it working incredibly hard, you're a parent and you, you know, share with the community. You give back. Like I said, I've learned so much just from watching webinars and some of the events and things that you've brought to the community and then the, you know, participating in this book, most recently, all the events associated with that. What do you do when you're not working?

Speaker B: Honestly, it's like, it's mostly I'm, uh, at the season of my life. And I know you're gonna relate to this because our kids are similar ages, but my kids have taken over my life, if I'm gonna be super honest. Um, I, I mean, my mornings start with like just the absolute chaos of morning routines. And then I, I work out every morning. That's something that I think as I've grown, I used to work out for like my fitness, which makes sense that that would be a reason you would work out. Now it's more for like My mental health and for like my own like, energy that I've found that that's just something that like I've got to do. Whether it's like weightlifting or like a uh, like group class or just like this morning my husband and I went and just walked on the treadmill and like, it's just something that I just have to move my body in the morning and so I do that and then I start my day. But by the, When I'm done with work, my kids consume my life. They are in so many activities, so many things. And we try to do stuff together too. So we'll do like tennis or pickleball or golf or things like that together. But it's like, it's something that I really enjoy. Like, I joke about it as they've consumed my life, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Um, it's wonderful.

Speaker A: It is, it is. And it's also weird, like how practical. I don't know. Uh, do your kids watch Bluey?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, not as much anymore, but yes, but they did.

Speaker A: And it's crazy like how talking about how this stuff can take us over as adults. I mean, that was actually a legitimate show. Like I could watch it.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think there were like times where like I would enjoy it and probably for different reasons, but it's like I would enjoy it as much as or more than my kids and be like, oh yeah, we can keep watching this.

Speaker A: Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Legitimately. Legitimately. You know, I know you have a passion, obviously an aperture for building models around the digital, you know, digital scaling of success.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Give us like the overview of that. I mean, what's the secret sauce, in your opinion of executing that really, really well?

Speaker B: Yeah. I have loved going through the journey of like seeing firsthand how uh, like digital and scaled CS has evolved. When I first started kind of leaning into it, it was this like cost saving thing and it was very like, oh gosh, this is gonna, you know, help us. But like from like a business standpoint, but also like there was like the like kind of sad side of like, oh, this is kind of changing what the overall customer experience looks like. And now I feel so differently about it. It's like, it's absolutely one of my favorite topics. The biggest mistake that I would say that companies make is thinking that digital CS is a set of automated emails or chatbot, uh, or something that's just for those longer tail, smaller customers. I think it's really about orchestrating the right help at the Right moment for thousands of customers simultaneously. And I've seen how powerful it can be across all segments. But especially, I mean, when you think about, like the most strategic enterprise, high touch customer experience, oftentimes those types of customers may have hundreds or thousands of users. And I think that's where digital is really cool, is that it allows you to go a lot deeper beyond just like the customer lifecycle journey, but get into like, the Personas and the user journey and all that stuff to create the experience that the person using your product needs and when they need it, how they need it versus it Feeling one size fits all. And I think that's where, like I mentioned that because I think that's where, like digital cs, sometimes people that haven't experienced it done really, really well, they'll get kind of a bad taste in their mouth and they'll be like, uh, oh, this is icky because it just feels like a lot of noise and like, overwhelming to them. But I think when it's done really, really well, it's almost more human because it's creating instead of that one size fits all, everybody's getting this. You're getting a much more personalized experience. And so it's, it's been just completely pivotal in my career for how to make my teams more effective and more impactful, but also like, really getting to, like, the customer outcomes, how our customers get more value out of our products. So, yeah, I'm all in on it. I feel like that's something that, like, throughout my career, it started as like my little, like, passion project and something that I would just do on the side, and now it's become what I do and, and can't get enough of it.

Speaker A: Love it. Love it. Um, um, so we talk a lot and you know, obviously, just like you said, you've seen where this, this has evolved and, you know, it makes me think about innovation, obviously, and the power of big ideas. We talk a lot, obviously, about rebels here on the show. So I'm curious, you know, do you think there's a positive side for rebellion? And if so, where's. Where does all that fit? Where's its place in sass?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think, yes, absolutely. Just to answer the question, yes, I see there a really positive side to it because when I think of, uh, like a rebel, I think of someone who refuses to accept, like, status quo or accept like, oh, this is just how we've always done it as being a valid answer. And I think, I mean, truly, that's why I got into tech when I made the career change into tech, the whole thing was like the innovation of it all. But I was like, I have worked at these companies where people are like, this is just how we do it. Here's. Here's the playbook. Here's. Here's the binder of how you do your job. And that felt really like damping, like, where I was like, I can't imagine that this is as good as I'm going to get. Uh, I want to be in a ecosystem and be surrounded by people and technologies that are constantly changing and evolving. And I think that piece of it is like, rebels question assumptions not to be difficult, sometimes to be difficult, but typically not typically. It is for a purpose. And I think those questions make you better. I think that that's like. I think having being surrounded by people that are challenging you in different ways forces you to think differently, forces you to go beyond what you're doing now and really think in a different way and maybe get different.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. I love that answer. Well, I don't. I don't know how, because I've been having a blast and. But apparently it's time for our episode to come to a close. But tell us, where do we find more of your content and all the things that are coming next for you? Julie Fox.

Speaker B: Yeah, um, you can find me on LinkedIn. I definitely do post regularly. I share what I'm learning along the way. So that's something that's been really important to me, is working out loud and sharing what's working and what's not working, being vulnerable throughout the process. Um, I share pictures of my kids and just all the things. Um, so LinkedIn is a great place to find me as well. You absolutely check out the book Customer Success Talent Playbook, where you can learn not just my insights, but also those of you, my co authors.

Speaker A: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on and spending some time with us today.

Speaker B: Thank you. This was fun.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. All right, rebels, until next time, do it big and do it different later.