Supercharge Your CS Career
What if you managed your career the way you do your customer portfolio? In this session, we’ll challenge the traditional linear career path and explore fresh ideas for defining success in customer success. You’ll discover how to build genuine relationships, leverage mentors and sponsors, expand your network, and identify the skills that will fuel your growth. With a focus on creating a personal growth plan, this session offers practical insights to help you shape a dynamic, fulfilling career that evolves with you.
Welcome back, everybody.
Hope everybody had a wonderful lunch.
My name is Kenneth.
I work for Gainsight, and this is Track 3.
This is must-have skills for high-performing CSMs.
So thanks to everybody for coming back and joining us again.
I am going to-- you'll hear this a few times.
We are going to do Q&A today.
So if you open the app, you'll see the polls Q&A section.
On the home page, tap Track 3.
You'll be able to do some Q&A.
We will be releasing audio of the session and slides,
as well afterwards.
Feel free to take pictures.
It's always cool, but you will be able to get the slides later
as well.
So yeah, I am very, very happy to present today
introduce Becky from Handshake.
She's going to give an awesome talk.
We're really looking forward to it.
Fun fact about Becky is her voice appeared in a Super Bowl
ad for Hitachi, which I think is very, very cool.
Let's give a warm round of applause for Becky.
Welcome.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much.
Is my voice coming through OK?
Great.
Well, hello, and hodadach, as they like to say in Dutch.
I'm so excited today to talk to you
all about how to supercharge your customer success career
and redefine success for yourselves.
I really want to make sure that I'm inspiring you today
to ensure we're reframing any career obstacles you might
be needing to overcome and utilizing your CS skills
that you've gained along the way to reframe
your unique career path forward.
Now, before we get started, I'd just
like to say or reiterate that this presentation is
going to be available online afterwards,
so you can take pictures or take notes along the way,
but it will be available to you, including the personal growth
plan that I'm going to include afterwards.
Now, it's always nice to start before I start talking at you
for the next 30 minutes a little bit about myself.
So I'm born in Germany and was raised there.
My parents actually met at university over in Germany,
so I had the honor of growing up in Germany.
I had a very nice childhood.
And when my parents divorced when I was 14 years old,
we moved to the US with my mom.
I then had to learn English as a second language fluently,
which obviously isn't that easy.
Navigate American high school and then university,
but luckily that's where I met my husband, Tom, who
you can see in the top right.
And he's British, so I ended up moving to the UK
when I graduated university.
And you can see my little Jack Russell Teddy.
We go running together quite a lot,
so my favorite pastime in the Chiltern Hills, which
is just about an hour northwest of London, is to run with him.
And the furthest I think we've ever gone is something
like 11 miles, and I reckon he could have gone a lot further.
I also love spending my time working with dogs.
I do volunteer for guide dogs for the blind.
I just find it extremely fascinating what dogs can do
and how emotionally intelligent they are.
Now I also like scuba diving in my pastime,
having fun with my circuits class,
and encourage everybody to do an '80s-themed session
recently, which seems so fitting with the pulse
theme this year.
Now, before we get going, I'd love for you
to just look around the room and see
if you spot somebody that you've never met before.
And once you make eye contact with that person,
just give them a little smile or wave
so you know you found your pulse pal from today's session.
And I have to do my cheesy American thing, just bear
with me a little bit.
We'll come back to that today at the end of the session,
and you'll be able to connect with each other
so that somebody else in your network
that you didn't know before.
And you can talk to them about what you took away
from today's session.
Now, I'd love to see by a raise of hands,
if you've ever, whether it's right now or at some point
in the past, felt stuck in your career.
Yeah, I'm not surprised that most of you raised your hands.
And actually, this is confirmed also
by a LinkedIn study that found that more than 43%
of professionals currently feel stuck in their careers.
And there are some common career obstacles
that were defined by amazing if founders Sarah Ellis
and Helen Tupper.
They are two Sunday times best-selling authors,
and they founded a company that helps people navigate
their careers more-- were one, a boss as a blocker.
Now, I'm sure at some point or another,
you could identify with having this sort of issue.
This could look like a very toxic environment.
The second is a company without any growth.
So I've found this when it comes to a lot of companies
and tech-based companies that start in the US.
They often come to Amia.
They grow the business there.
But at some point, you might hit a block.
You might hit a wall.
And so at that stage, you might not
experience enough growth to warrant moving up
in your career the way that you wish.
The third is money getting in the way of things.
Now, what this could look like is maybe you
don't have enough budget to pay for the things
that you want to do, such as furthering your education,
getting a master's degree, something along those lines.
Or actually, it could be that the financial freedom you want
means that the decisions you're making about your career
and the next move you're going to make
to afford your mortgage and pay your bills
and take care of your kids or whatnot.
You end up making certain decisions,
sometimes that aren't necessarily aligned to your own values.
And the fourth, our personal family, for example,
or maybe you're taking care of a sick relative.
You can't necessarily always travel
as much as you'd like for your job,
or you're a little bit more restricted as a result of this.
Decoles.
It's really hard not to be pessimistic at that stage.
And amazing if founders did come up with the three P's
to help you identify these, not necessarily
to have a negative mindset about it,
but by identifying them, you're able to move forward.
The first P is personal.
So what that sounds like is this is all my fault.
So you end up putting it on yourself and thinking,
maybe if I change my ways, maybe things will get better.
Which sounds like everything is wrong in my life.
This is where you might find yourself catastrophizing
and just not seeing where things can go and get any better.
And eventually, we might get to this permanent mindset.
So this is where you just cannot see the light
at the end of the tunnel and you think to yourself,
how is this ever going to get any better?
And a time at which I found myself experiencing more
than one of these blockers and P's
was when I first started my career in tech in London.
It was my first big girl job.
So I was commuting an hour and 40 minutes each way to London.
Can you imagine that now?
And I had an amazing boss.
It was a great company.
Amazing perks, values, the benefits.
There was just nothing that I felt like could have gone wrong.
I ended up getting about a year and a half into the role.
And I was set to be promoted to senior.
But then my favorite boss ever left the company.
That was the worst.
At first, nothing really happened.
And then about a month later, we had a new boss come into the company.
Now, unfortunately, I'm just going to call him boss 2.
Boss 2 turned this upside down for me, completely toxic environment.
The way he created this, unfortunately, was he was unfair to the women.
There were quite a few patterns there with him.
He also stopped people from progressing
into other teams for his personal gain.
So if somebody was a high performer,
he did not want them to leave the team.
Now, and even though I had all the evidence right in front of me
that he was doing this kind of thing to have people all around me,
I still went to the first P, personal.
And I took it really onto myself.
I ended up blaming myself and thinking, I have to change,
or I could work with him a little bit better.
Maybe what am I not doing right here?
So then it ended up getting worse and worse.
And I thought that I was doing the right thing by looking outside into my
network.
And finding another role that I thought would suit me,
which was actually customer success marketing.
So at this point, I had been in business development.
I kind of felt like sales wasn't really my bag.
And I networked with the team.
I met to work for that team.
The hiring manager even said to me, Becky, you know, you love this team.
I mean, she was practically selling me the role.
By the time no, and she referred me for the role.
I then went for the interview.
And after the first interview, I suddenly got a rejection
without any explanation.
Now, of course, I thought I better ask for feedback here, because this is not
cool.
And immediately jumped to the conclusion that my boss must have interfered in
some way.
I jumped on a follow-up call with the hiring manager,
who had been very friendly with me up until this point.
And she was clutching it straws, and I could just tell she was trying to make
up
a reason why she turned me down.
And then she said, oh, you're overqualified.
That's why.
My, OK, that's a nice compliment, but I'm not an idiot.
So then what ended up happening is I realized I just need to get out.
And I need to start pursuing the things that I know I really want to do.
Maybe customer success would be the way.
And the way that I figured out that this was even my next step
was by identifying that I was getting pessimistic,
that I was blaming myself wrongfully, and ensuring that I use that to my
advantage
to keep moving forward.
Now, I don't want to skip over the fact that when I became really overwhelmed
with what was going on, I experienced so much stress that I started having
panic attacks.
I ended up rushing to my GP for some help, because I didn't know what a panic
attack even was.
And they said to me, Becky, you're experiencing stress.
This is not a healthy environment.
You need to be off work for two months.
Now, that was like a jab to the heart and my ego.
I mean, I've been working since I was 15 years old throughout uni, et cetera.
And to then be told, you have to take two months off was just a shock to me.
So luckily, that time off had me reflecting.
And I certainly didn't come out of this hole of the pervasive and permanent
mindset
that I was in without some digging and also not doing this on my own.
I ended up leaning on some good peers that I had worked with in the past and
mentors.
To help me slowly but surely put the right foot in front of the other.
And eventually, my persistence paid off.
So after the two months, I returned to my company, which was incredibly hard.
But I waited and I stayed patient.
And I was in that role for way longer than I want it to be.
But then eventually, I found my love for customer success.
And I was able to utilize my German language skills as well
at the company that I found. And I was eventually hired up.
So I'm really here to say, don't give up if you're finding yourself in one of
these situations.
Or if you ever do find yourself in that situation again,
sometimes all you need is a different perspective.
[LAUGH]
If it wants to go next.
Oh, here we go.
So I'd love to ask this question and for you to think of it,
we love that would make them great.
Now, do you have that skill in your head?
Okay. And I'd like you to turn to your neighbor and just ask your neighbor
what they feel is the best skill to have as a CSM.
All right.
Who's brave enough to raise their hand and share one of the skills that you
discussed?
No, yeah, go ahead.
Curiosity.
Curiosity. Yep.
You'll be happy that that's confirmed.
[LAUGH]
I also heard from the front here that communication interpersonal skills,
kind of the soft skills really that make us good CSMs.
And you also said.
Charisma.
Charisma. Yeah, I like that.
The building relationships skillset, building rapport easily.
And we're not really in customer success if we aren't people, right?
Which makes posts so exciting.
Okay. So, surprisingly, almost half of the core skills that we're currently
using today
are expected to chain to the World Economic Forum,
doing some research and serving over eight.
So we'll come on to this in a second, but really with AI and big data,
being predicted to be the top skills required in 2027.
And we're not surprised by this.
We've heard nothing but AI in the last couple hours.
It's really hard to succeed in the future.
Are the things that make us great CSMs,
which being human makes us a great CSM.
Because the skills that we need for the future are exactly what the future
workforce is needing.
So the future of jobs report is what I was just referring to,
that the World Economic Forum conducted.
And you can see here that analytical skills are the core skills valued by most
companies.
So this core skill makes up for more than 9% of all the skills that are needed.
The main aim really for this study was to surface the things that they wanted
to be able to predict that people will need.
Creative thinking comes in second, another cognitive skill,
highlighting the need for creative problem solving skills.
And then followed by three self-efficacy skills,
resilience, flexibility and agility, motivation and self-awareness,
and curiosity and lifelong learning.
So I'd love it if anybody wanted to challenge me on that any of these 10 skills
aren't needed as a CSM.
[LAUGH]
>> Yeah, so really when it comes to AI and the future,
I think that really we just need to focus on the skill set in order to succeed.
And we've heard this a little bit earlier today and along these lines.
But AI isn't going to replace us as CSMs.
It's going to be people utilizing AI effectively that will succeed.
Now, I had a really good mentor who said to me once, Becky, always focus on the
skills.
And he was right because these skills are really what are going to set you
apart from other.
And I'd love to challenge you today to think of your customer success career
the way you do your own.
So if you think about how much effort you put in on a weekly basis with your
customers,
whether it's prepping for a QBR or cadence call, or
you are making sure that they're renewing and you're looking at the account
health regularly.
Either way, you're spending a lot of time showing love to those customers in
order for
them to renew and grow, right?
So why wouldn't we do the same for ourselves?
When was the last time you even just spent 10 minutes reflecting on your own
personal growth,
what you care about, and whether what you're doing day to day is even aligned?
So when it comes to account tiering and planning, if I were to get a new book
of accounts,
I'd probably look at the account health.
I'd look at are they in the red, the green, the yellow, and also how much they
're spending with us.
But also when they're going to be renewing how I effectively help these
customers,
depending on the time of their renewal.
When it comes to your career, it's about defining those career priorities.
What do you want to do for yourself?
What does success look like to you?
That's the question here.
And then regularly looking and redefining these as you go along, because we do
change as people too.
When it comes to stakeholder mapping and engagement,
sometimes we try to get clever about utilizing gain side or
other tools at our disposal, and we do things like sponsor tracking, for
example.
We want to make sure that we have engagement not only above the line, but also
below the line.
If we're single threaded in an account, instant risk, right?
We wouldn't not take that into consideration.
In your own career, this is about building a network of mentors and being unash
amed about it.
I mean, you're already doing something right by being at Pulse today, because
you're networking with lots of great people.
And when it comes to regular business reviews and goal alignment,
what we're really trying to do is make sure that our customers,
that we're aware of our customers' goals, what's changing in the business, and
we're ahead of any major changes that might affect the renewal.
In our own career, that's about check-ins and goal tracking.
Whether that's, of course, with yourself, through documentation, holding
yourself accountable,
but also through any mentors you might have, or friends that support you.
Organizing and attending customer events, so for the gainciders, it'll be being
here with us today.
For me and my company, it might look like hosting a customer advisory board, or
taking part in a user group.
So we're constantly spending time engaging with our customers,
making sure we're turning them into advocates.
And how we can do this for ourselves is by joining industries and communities.
So actually, Harry, I'm going to use you as an example because you're right in
the front.
Harry and I met in 2022, November, I think it was, at a customer success
networking event in London.
And we were both saying how it'd be nice if the Thames Valley area and
Redding where we were both working had a customer success community.
It turns out there was actually one existing a couple of years prior, but it
had faded out.
So he and I decided to start a new one.
So it's just an example that we don't need to rest on our laurels if something
's not right on our doorstep.
We can create our own opportunities like this as well.
And last but not least, turning customers into advocates.
This is probably the most exciting, arguably, part of CS,
is when our customers are so happy with what we've done to show them value.
Not only are they getting value, they're perceiving it, and
they're happy about the relationship you've created with them.
That they are willing to speak about your brand in a positive way and
promote it to other customers as well.
What that looks like for yourself is cultivating your own career champions.
So just meeting people who have similar aspirations and
connecting with them, making sure that people know what you're even intending
on
doing or what you want to achieve is the first.
Because you feel like you don't deserve the airtime.
You're showing your customers all this love, but where's the self love, really?
Now, I'd love to take you through your own personal growth plan.
And this template is the one that will be available online after, so
you can download it and create it yourself.
But I want you to think of this personal growth plan as your equivalent of a
success plan for a customer.
And I'd encourage you to map any companies you've worked for,
any degrees you have behind you, any pivotal moments,
either good, bad, challenging, successful, on this squiggly line.
Because let's be real, no career is actually linear.
And the whole reason I thought about this concept was because I just thought,
why am I always climbing this ladder?
And it got really, really frustrating for me having this mindset the entire
time.
So thinking of it as a squiggly line is a lot nicer.
And the important key thing here is just for yourself to hold yourself
accountable and
take stock or you could show it to a mentor you're working with.
To highlight to them where you've come from, where you're going,
what are you aspiring to be or do?
And them seeing this is such a helpful way of being able to picture
where there might be gaps in your knowledge if you're trying to get to say,
I want to be in operations, but I've just got CS experience and
maybe I've got marketing.
So that person can then better help you fill the gaps.
Also, I don't know, but I thought about this the other day.
If I show this to my manager, I can imagine that the only time he ever looked
at my CV
was maybe three and a half years ago when I joined a company and
he glanced at it quickly and knows I'm just enough of a qualified candidate to
go through to the interview process.
But it's actually the interview process that landed me the job.
So this is a great opportunity to gently remind your manager or
anybody in your leadership team for that matter of what you've achieved and
where you're going.
Now, your values and motivators are super important.
Obviously, we want to make sure that we're taking stock of these,
just as much as a customer might be telling you their business priorities and
motivators for buying your solution.
When it comes to purpose, it's about asking yourself,
what makes me feel fulfilled in my career?
What brings me joy?
It might look like I feel really valued when I can give creative ideas and
come up with solutions.
Or it might be that I need to challenge myself to do things that nobody expects
me to be able to do.
When it comes to achievement, it's about reflecting on what makes you feel
like you've succeeded and happy looking back in the rear room mirror.
So it could be that you say, I really value learning and
the opportunity to have these chances to build my skills.
Or it could be, I just want to earn good money.
It might look different for you.
When it comes to money, this is a little bit like doing a QBR and
getting to the section where you say, hey, Mr. customer,
if things were the way they are today, would you renew?
It's a slightly awkward conversation to have and it might make you cringe a
little.
But this is the same thing that you're doing for yourself is evaluating how
much
money do I want to make to be happy in my role?
So in some cases it might be, I just want to be fairly paid and equitably based
on the company, based on the work I'm putting in, the effort,
what I'm giving back to the company.
And in other cases it might be, I want to be able to keep making money to
afford my lifestyle, where hey, it doesn't need to be a crazy salary as long as
I'm
contributing and I love my job.
And of course title also comes into the picture.
And this can be an opportunity for you to speak to a manager about whether or
not you're able to get what you want out of the title you want to have.
Sometimes you might not even need the money, but the title might be more
important to you.
And then last but not least, your values.
This is obviously very much a personal thing, but
they can also change as you go along.
And this is something to bear in mind, as much as you would do a business
review
quarterly with a customer, or at least every six months,
you may want to consider assessing your own values every once in a while too.
Now, these well-being dimensions were defined by Peggy, Peggy Swarbrick.
So she came up with eight different well-being dimensions actually.
And these are the narrow down version that I feel are easier to work towards.
But really what this is about is making sure you have a holistic approach to
your
well-being.
So normally what we do is we just look at career and we say, I want to achieve
this,
okay, boom, now how do I work towards that goal?
We don't really think about how do I want to feel?
How often do I want, how often do I have to go to the gym in order to feel good
for example?
Everybody feels well in different ways, so it's about taking stock on what that
means to you.
And when it comes to finance and legacy, it's all about defining some
measurable goals.
So just as much as you would with a customer,
you want to make sure the goals are actually measurable.
Of course, your strengths, development areas, and any help that you might need
are super important
to take note of as well.
And when you're working with a mentor or your manager,
that's going to be a good chance for you to ask for help proactively.
So to enhance your career development further,
I'd highly recommend a bit of an action plan as well.
So making sure that you have something to hold you accountable,
to measure your success as you go along.
And these can be short-term goals, long-term goals, or any ongoing projects.
But then it's also nice to be able to reflect on your achievements at the end
as well.
And when it becomes time for performance reviews, for example,
you'll be already armed with all the information for your manager to give you a
good performance review.
But you will also be able to reflect.
Now, last but not least, it's always nice to have a chance to reflect.
And these questions are really just a guide to help you identify patterns.
The patterns are as you go along.
What are the common themes that you've seen when you have succeeded?
For me personally, it's when I feel physically my best, and I just feel well.
That's when things go well for me in my career too.
But also what you don't like doing.
And what do you not want to do?
So you might know things about yourself and what you enjoy working on.
A no go.
I refuse to work more than X amount of hours, for example.
And what are you not utilizing or doing enough of that you could be doing more
of?
Great.
So before we go into Q&A, I just love to remind you that by the Pulse app,
you can give feedback on to the C of Candid feedback.
So I'd really appreciate it.
And then I might consider doing this again in future.
But I've really enjoyed today.
And don't forget to connect with your new Pulse Pal that you made eye contact
with.
Because we're not shy, we're CSM's, right?
Thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> That was a very, very human first talk.
Really, really enjoyed that.
Appreciate that.
Okay, so let's jump into Q&A.
We have definitely have some questions here.
Let's start from the top.
What is the difference between networking and career mentors?
Can you please elaborate on this and how exactly can one get career mentors?
>> Yeah, so an example of getting a career mentor.
This doesn't have to be a person inside your organization, but it could be.
I would say it's somebody that you define as someone you look up to.
You admire their work, something they've succeeded at that maybe you don't feel
like you have.
Or some sort of life experience that you feel you could learn from.
The reality is, technically anybody can be your mentor if you're able to learn
something
from anyone.
But it's really about it being specific to your needs and what you want to
achieve.
So if you're thinking of somebody right now that you haven't reached out to,
but
you could quite easily ping them on LinkedIn and say, hey, could we go for
a coffee sometime, we both live in London.
I really admire your work and love the book you wrote on this, that, and the
other.
That's how you can reach out to a potential mentor.
Obviously that person has to be up for mentoring you.
But quite often when you approach it in that way, I found that everyone's
really,
really open.
And the question about networking.
So the networking important piece is really this kind of thing today.
So talking to other people in the industry, doing the same job, or
doing a job that you'd like to do.
So say you're a CSM, but you'd want to become an SE, cuz you're really
interested in
the tech side of things.
Why not speak to an SE at your next networking opportunity, if there's an
inclusive event like Pulse?
I hope that's answered the question.
>> Awesome.
I can see we have a decent amount of questions there.
So just a small note, even if you're not asking a question, we may not be able
to
get to all of them.
So you can go into the up and
up the questions that you think are most important, but also help us make sure
we get to all the questions that you want to hear answers to the most.
So how can CSM's build a personal brand within the organization that
highlights their strengths and potential for growth?
>> Sounds good.
So I would say if you break it down to just brand, you build a brand with
consistency,
right?
So showing up consistently, and if you start with your own values and
who you are as a person and how you show up at work,
if you're consistent with your own values, that will shine through and
people will start taking note.
But also it's about putting yourself out there proactively.
So I'll give you an example.
At my last company, I got to the point where I felt like I was a little bit
stuck
in terms of growth, but I found other avenues by networking with literally
every single department in the business to figure out if there's no growth in
the CS team, could I do digital CS?
Could I think about renewals?
Would I dip my tone to sales again and literally meet with different people in
each department?
That gave me a lot of visibility naturally without realizing it.
Because people could see my enthusiasm for just wanting to stay at the company,
but figure it all out.
And it ended up transforming my experience because the chief growth
officer ended up asking me to lead an initiative to improve the company and
the product on the side of my day to day CS job.
But that sort of thing doesn't happen without consistency and showing up as
your
true self.
But finding proactive ways of doing that and again,
making sure that people in the business know what you want to achieve is super
important because they can then give you shout outs as well and look out for
you.
So naturally people will start giving praise or giving thanks where it's due.
>> Nice.
And I like this next question a lot.
I think it's something relatable to a lot of us here.
What are your thoughts on shifting career paths around seniority?
What are the pros and cons?
So I think as an example here going from a senior CSM to a social product
manager,
a nice example.
>> Mm-hm.
So shifting career paths with insignority.
I would say that normally by the time you get promoted to senior,
you've already been doing the senior job role for some time.
It's very rare that a company will give that title to you if you haven't
already
shown up as that person.
So I guess some advice would be if you want to be a senior or
an associate product manager, start figuring out how to do the job of the next
role that you want to do and start showing up in that same consistent way with
your
brand.
That would be the thing.
Pros and cons, by doing that, by practicing before you get the role,
you will know if you're enjoying it or not and you can always pivot.
>> Nice.
So yeah, another very important question here.
I'm going to go to the middle one here.
What strategies can CSM's use to recover from or prevent burnout while still
subscribing for career advancement?
>> So good question.
I would say recovering from burnout, it really was a matter of time.
And thinking about, well,
acting with a level of urgency around your own health.
So I know people still struggle sometimes with the mental health versus
physical health, but if we don't treat our brains, the way we know we need to
treat our bodies is not going to end well, right?
So taking the time to rest and I'm somebody who I have a very hard time
resting.
So I have to actively remind myself like slow down, slow down.
And just don't sign up for so many activities, really be deliberate in my
conversations with people and who I hang out with or how many people I hang out
with because that personally drains me.
So that's how I get out of the burnout zone is like self care.
And then recovering, preventing burnout.
So for my nine to five or nine to six hours and taking a lunch break.
So I can't go more than two max, absolute max three days.
With working a little early or finishing late or skipping my lunch break,
if I do that two, three days in a row, I'm already halfway in burnout.
My body just doesn't react well to it.
So again, it's about making sure you're holding yourself to really high account
So if you were in burnout right now, you'd be like, no way,
I'm not letting anybody get in my lunch break slot.
Being quite strict with yourself is the only way to do it and
setting good boundaries with your work colleagues as well.
That's the number one way I would say to prevent burnout.
>> Yeah, so so important.
How did you find your mentor?
>> So I have a couple.
One mentor, he's a director of HR and he was at my last company.
He and I met through the Early in Career Network at the company.
So I joined it to actually meet other people and
see if I could connect with a mentor because they did a matching program.
And I then spoke to the person who created the initiative.
And she really just felt like there wasn't such a thing in the company.
So she just created a Slack group called Early in Career.
And off she went and she had a session every month where different people in
the business would speak.
And it would help people earlier in their careers learn from others.
So that's how I was matched.
And then I was able to also share my personal growth plan with the group and
then mentor others.
So it's a really nice circle in that sense.
So it can be done in that way.
You could create your own early in career or similar network,
if your company doesn't already have one.
And suggest a mentor matchmaking strategy.
Otherwise it's literally just about reaching out to the people you admire and
not being shy about it.
>> Nice.
>> Would it be okay if I answered that question about legacy that came up?
>> Absolutely.
Can we bring up the question about legacy?
>> I know that somebody said defining legacy.
I know I skipped over that a little bit.
So legacy, when I first filled in this personal growth plan for myself,
I was actually really struggling with the legacy aspect.
It made me quite upset because at a time where I wasn't feeling great in my
career,
it felt like such a big hurdle to define what the heck does legacy mean to me.
Like if I don't want to be morbid, but if I went tomorrow,
like what would I leave behind?
And it made me quite sad and upset.
But over time I realized it's incremental gains, right?
So what would it look like if I was actually contributing to my community?
And I figured out I could get involved in literally my local community,
helping a neighbor or volunteering for guide dogs.
And it took ages to get my background checked on, but once I did,
now I just speak for them once in a while.
And I feel like I'm contributing even while I'm working full time as a CSM.
>> Nice, that's a great clarification, yeah, thank you.
So how do you find the fine line between self-doubt and self-awareness,
accepting that you may not be good at something?
>> Yeah, so self-doubt, as soon as you hear yourself,
speaking negatively about yourself.
So as soon as you say something to yourself that you wouldn't say to your best
friend,
that's when you know that's self-doubt creeping in and it's unnecessary.
And then when it comes to self-awareness,
it's a good question.
I think it's just realizing and reflecting on your strengths and
doing what we're doing today gives you a really good sense of awareness and
who you are and what you enjoy and what you like doing.
And when you haven't sat with it long enough or frequently enough,
you might have just not paid enough attention to feel the self-recognition.
>> Nice, I do just want to make sure we call this one out in the middle because
it's such a lovely comment as well.
This was a great session, best of today so far, so definitely resonating, it's
wonderful.
My tip to others is to ask your silos exec for mentors.
They know the high performers they measure themselves with.
>> Nice, love it.
>> Beautiful tip, thank you for that.
So, and how often should professionals reflect on their career progress and
what indicator should they look for to assess whether they're on the right path
>> I would say reflecting on your career progress,
particularly as much as you would with your customer,
how often do you reflect on your customers' goals and progress?
And when you have a book of say, I don't know, at the moment I have 24,
I have to look daily at their progress and their goals.
And once you've defined them, it's a whole lot easier to think,
what's one thing I can do for myself today?
So even just starting your day by thinking, what is one thing I can do for
me today, whether it's like I just need to book that doctor's appointment, or
I'm going to go for a run at lunch because I'll feel better for it.
It's like prioritizing it with that urgency is probably the right way to go.
But time permitting obviously like a real reflection on your career progress,
maybe once every three to six months.
So I found the best accountability is just when I have a regular catch up with
my mentor and the diary already, then we go through it together anyhow.
And then that's my accountability.
>> Nice, okay, we have just a couple more minutes left.
We should be able to tackle these a couple more questions.
This is a very big question, how to stand out as a CSM?
>> Being yourself, I think being yourself is the best way to stand out.
Because otherwise you'll just blend in, you'll blend in with every table is you
being you, might sound cheesy, but that's why I think.
>> Nice, what does some ways do bouncing around?
Some ways that work with other CS peers outside your org.
What are some ways to network with other CS peers outside your org?
So within my company, if I wanted to talk to product or CSUPS for example,
I would literally just slack them and say, hey,
so and so working on this project would love to get your insight.
So sometimes there could be a really easy reason.
One example I joined Handshake a few months ago and
the gain site is implemented in a Mia but not to the full extent.
And I wanted to speak to somebody in CSUPS about it.
So that's a perfect segue in.
Or if I haven't really worked with the sales team yet, but
it'd be good to get some feedback on how they bring new business in so
you can have a better handover.
There's always going to be some quirky reason why you would need to reach out
to
that person if you're feeling a little uneasy.
But otherwise you can literally just reach out and say, I'd love to meet you,
can we chat?
I mean, I'd be surprised if someone said no to that.
>> Nice, just quickly touch on the middle one, beautiful best session I've
attended today, thank you, lovely feedback.
>> Namaste.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> The next question will probably be the last one we have time for today and
then we'll wrap up.
It's also a beautiful question.
What was the greatest piece of advice you received from someone that you
respected and admired during your career?
>> The first one I jumped to is that one about always focus on the skills.
I think it is really that one because before this session even was planned or
anything and it worked so seamlessly together, I only thought of it again today
And I'm thinking how did I not think of that right away?
But being able to always keep that in the back of your mind.
So if you're feeling like there's no progression right now,
where can I gain additional skills to set me up for the next thing?
In and around me right now.
>> Wonderful, all right.
So I see that, yeah, there are a few more questions.
We're not able to handle them all today.
We are running out of time, so we're going to wrap up here.
Thank you all so much for joining today.
Huge thank you especially to Becky for coming and giving this beautiful,
very human, vulnerable talk.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you all for coming.
Thank you, Becky.
>> [APPLAUSE]
