Amplify Your Event's Impact With The Power Of Live Podcasting | Rick Denton

Hey CX Nation,

In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #249 we welcomed Rick Denton, Podcast Host & Producer of The CX Passport Podcast based in Dallas, TX.

After…
7 years of Customer Experience consulting…
30 years of driving business results…
3 years of hosting CX Passport (a podcast about CX with a dash of travel talk)...
And countless brand requests for collaboration with CX Passport…

…it became clear where brands and Rick could best partner to create measurable results…

🎤CX Passport Live🎥 - Amplify your event's impact with the power of live podcasting. 

In this episode, Rick and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that Rick and his guests think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.

**Episode #249 Highlight Reel:**

1. Building a business focused on podcasting and story telling
2. Learning from customer focused business leaders
3. The craft of story telling for any business or executive 
4. Producing and delivering content in today's world 
5. How businesses can leverage podcasts to grow their brand

Click here to learn more about Rick Denton

Click here to learn more about The CX Passport Podcast

Huge thanks to Rick for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer success space into the future.

If you enjoy The CXChronicles Podcast, stop by your favorite podcast player hit the follow button and leave us a review today.

For our Spotify friends, make sure you are following CXC & please leave a 5 star review so we can find new listeners & members of our community.

For our Apple friends, same deal -- follow CXCP and leave us a review letting folks know why you love our customer focused content.

You know what would be even better?

Go tell one of your friends or teammates about CXC's content,  our strategic partners (Hubspot, Intercom, Zendesk, Forethought AI, Freshworks, TimeToReply & Ascendr) + they can learn more about our CX/CS/RevOps services & please invite them to join the CX Nation!

Are you looking to learn more about the world of Customer Experience, Customer Success & Revenue Operations?

Click here to grab a copy of my book "The Four CX Pillars To Grow Your Business Now" available on Amazon or the CXC website.

For you non-readers, go check out the CXChronicles Youtube channel to see our customer & employee focused business content. 

Transcript

The CXChronicles Podcast #249 Rick Denton .mp4

Speaker 2 (00:00:00) - Hand clap. 

Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - All right, all right, guys. Thanks so much for listening to another episode of the CX Chronicles. Today's super exciting guys. We're at X Day 2024, brought to us by our friends at QuestionPro. I have the pleasure of my good friend, Rick Denton here, who is another fellow customer-focused business leader, who does an incredible job interviewing, meeting with and just curating all these incredible stories from awesome folks across the world. Rick, thank you so much for joining me today. 

Speaker 2 (00:00:26) - My friend, you have no idea how excited I am to be here, not only because of the great event, because of QuestionPro and X Day and all that. I'm excited to get to finally meet you in person. Like this is one of we actually enjoyed having a cocktail at the Driscoll Hotel down here in austin. And the third thing is, this is where I grew up, so I love being in Austin. So, yeah, I'm genuinely excited to be a part of this today. 

Speaker 1 (00:00:46) - Dude, me too. Yesterday, guys, I saw a couple things. Rick and I have, like many people, we've had this relationship due to the wonderful COVID, where we've known each other for a few years now. 

Speaker 1 (00:00:56) - Yeah, I'd have to go back and look at notes, but it's years zoom and our calls and catching up and then, like, together we both do something very similar and it's something that we both love and are passionate about, which is like we like telling stories about how businesses and other executives and other customer-focused business, employee-focused business leaders- today we've got a bunch of research-focused leaders here- how they do their craft and how they come up with the stuff that they're doing for their business. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:16) - So, yes, we got to enjoy our drinks last night together. Now we're here today enjoying X Day. So, Rick, a couple questions. Number one: what are you most excited about today at an event like this, like if there's like one or two things that you're pumped up or that you're eager to learn about today, or that you're eager just to kind of- I don't know, just to get kind of submerged. What was it? What are some of the things that we're gonna see today? 

Speaker 2 (00:01:36) - Yeah, so I'll give you almost a bit more of a general answer first, and that is: I love bringing people together, being a part of being brought together with a community of folks that have a similar mindset around, how can we learn what our customers are thinking, feeling, doing and then do something with what we learn? And so just the conversations in the hallways just getting to hear about- oh wait, this company, you're doing that that way. Oh, that's interesting. Maybe we can do that in our company. 

Speaker 2 (00:02:04) - That way, the relationships that get built at an in-person event like this are so, so valuable. And then I'd say, even more kind of detailed is there's some really good content in today that's going to help get real specific around. Okay, as AI is influencing how we understand our customers, as we learn more about driving towards that actual honest-to-god action, aka tangible business results. That's the kind of thing that I'm looking forward to getting out of today. 

Speaker 1 (00:02:35) - Yeah, I love it. I love it, you're right, because what people forget and what a lot of us have lost over these last couple of years, with the world being a little bit different and remote and hyper-fashion, is nothing compares and nothing is as good as going and meeting with other folks in your field that focus on a similar type of craft, exchange ideas. 

Speaker 1 (00:02:52) - Today we're learning about a bunch of different ways that QuestionPro can help different companies or help their customers, but there's also going to be conversations in all of today's breakouts and in all of these different events and all these different presentations that aren't really even about, you know, questionPro. 

Speaker 1 (00:03:04) - They're not about the technology, but it's about things that people are struggling with their customers on, things that people are trying to learn more about, with how to get better at employer retention, things that people are just trying to learn more about, how they can think about product optimization. And you're right, like nothing beats just getting into a place, especially a dope place like this we're in the Thompson in downtown Austin- oh no, don't make me be here. How awful for us. So I love some of those ideas and there's something. 

Speaker 2 (00:03:32) - Let's stay on this for just a little bit, because I think it's so important to get back in that in-person kind of mindset, and it is when I'm having a Zoom call with most folks. You and I are totally different. We will actually just turn on the camera and we'll just start talking about anything. Typically, though, when you're in a business context, there's an agenda. There's a reason why you're having that call. There's a reason why you've joined that webinar with 200 people or whatever. 

Speaker 2 (00:03:55) - When I'm standing in the hallway out here, that reason isn't necessarily what the conversation centers on, and you get a much wider spectrum of wisdom and conversations by being in person, because there's just more time around, simply that there's more time around the edges and as humans, we just kind of talk about stuff. 

Speaker 1 (00:04:14) - Yeah, absolutely, yep. Yeah, it doesn't feel. It doesn't feel it's not almost like forced or it's almost. I mean there's sometimes it's called what it is. Guys and our listeners and the folks who are watching this right now, everybody knows what I'm about to say. But sometimes just having a freaking conversation over a coffee and a churro is so much more organic and natural and easy to converse and to be just real and to be candid. 

Speaker 1 (00:04:36) - Then, when you got to get on the 30-minute Zoom call for an intro or a disco, or maybe you're doing a follow-up with a prospect and leader, so you're right, just having like this in-person, in-the-flesh type of experience is a game-changer. 

Speaker 2 (00:04:48) - Now, Adrian, where's my coffee and where's my churro? 

Speaker 1 (00:04:52) - I was gonna say first of all, the coffee and the churro is coming up next week, so that's your reward. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:01) - Hey, you can only have dessert if you finish your peas. All right, I did grow up here. I'm having flashbacks. 

Speaker 1 (00:05:09) - Wait on that topic. So a couple things. Number one: so, guys, last night Rick brought me to the Driscoll downtown Austin, a classic exception. You're from Austin, you know austin, you're now a Dallas man and you're a Texas man, but are there some things that excite you about this place specifically? I know that there's been a ton of. There's like a renaissance of Austin, if you will, and this emergence and this big change with all these tech companies coming in- and we talked about it last night. 

Speaker 1 (00:05:33) - There's a lot of folks from California, New York City, San francisco, Los Angeles, everybody's coming down here. Are there some interesting things? Like I just have to pick your brain on this, because you might be one of the few Austinites that I have here today which is like: is there some things that are kind of like interesting that you've seen from when you grew up here as a young man to literally when we were out last night? Kind of, you want to talk about changes. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:51) - Of course, now I'm gonna be like the get off my lawn kind of guy, but I'll try to be more positive than that. 

Speaker 1 (00:05:55) - That's okay, you can be the get off your lawn guy. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:57) - The Austin that I grew up in- and I'm not exaggerating with this- there was kind of a north-south divide, because there's a river, and a really beautiful river that runs through the middle of town. It's Town Lake or Lady burg Lake, now I think it's called, and there was actually a tug-of-war that was conducted from the north side to the south side of the river. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:14) - The radio station did this floating kind of contest that people would create rafts and float down the river. So Austin used to simply be the university and the government. It's the state capital of Texas. As technology has come in and as the city has grown, what's been great about that is the vibrancy, the new restaurants, the creative dining scene. A lot of that has come in. It has made it harder to find pockets of what I call kind of the heart of Austin. Even that phrase, keep Austin weird, is a manufactured phrase. 

Speaker 1 (00:06:41) - 100% you see it everywhere you hear it. It's manufactured. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:44) - But there is still plenty of pockets of authentic Austin. What were we just talking about? 

Speaker 1 (00:06:48) - Yep. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:49) - The moonlight. 

Speaker 1 (00:06:50) - Party at the moon tower. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:51) - That's right. And those still exist. So for those that don't know the movie, go find out the movie. Alright, alright, alright. 

Speaker 1 (00:06:58) - It's one of my favorite movies, Full Candor, I'm not going to lie to you. 

Speaker 2 (00:07:01) - So yeah, there's pockets of Austin that still exist. You get all that vibrancy, all that new, all that comes with that, and you can still find those authentic places that I'm not going to tell anyone about because I don't want them to go there. 

Speaker 1 (00:07:11) - Love it. Keep it weird. 

Speaker 2 (00:07:12) - I'm kidding. 

Speaker 1 (00:07:13) - No, I know, I know. So I love all of that. Rick, I guess you're similar to me, man. You get to talk to all these incredible folks across the world at all these different companies. If there's like one or two trends or themes that you keep hearing about or that you keep thinking about, and I know you're going to say something about AI because everybody here is talking about AI. Our keynote speaker literally just joked. 

Speaker 1 (00:07:37) - He said, well, I have to put some slide in about AI. I know we're all thinking about it and talking about it, and it can be AI, but if there's like one or two things that you keep hearing from your guests on your show, which, by the way, guys, Rick has an incredible podcast, The CX Passport. I want people to check it out because he's done an incredible job of curating all these different stories. Similar to me, he thinks about not just customer leaders but employee leaders. He thinks about people that are curating the products. 

Speaker 1 (00:08:01) - But if there's one or two things that you've been hearing a lot on The CX Passport lately or that you're thinking about a lot, what would they be as we're kind of winding down 2024 and getting ready to start thinking about our data planning and all that jazz? 

Speaker 2 (00:08:12) - Yeah. The theme that really is coming up a lot, yes, AI. And, of course, if we actually think about what AI means, we've had AI for decades. 

Speaker 3 (00:08:23) - Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:08:23) - In fact, I had a guest that talked about this. She's like, look, I was doing AI in the 80s. Totally. But there's gen AI and what really we're talking about, LLMs and all of that. Now the hype is over. 

Speaker 1 (00:08:34) - Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:08:35) - It is, okay, where are my results out of this? 

Speaker 3 (00:08:38) - Yep. 

Speaker 2 (00:08:38) - And it's that return to results is a theme that I'm hearing loud and clear, not just in the technology layer where we're talking about AI and all of that. 

Speaker 1 (00:08:47) - Sure. 

Speaker 2 (00:08:48) - At the business layer, at the customer experience layer, where are my results? 

Speaker 3 (00:08:53) - Yep. 

Speaker 2 (00:08:53) - And that's the key theme. And that's also why you're seeing a lot of turmoil in the customer experience space because there hasn't been that focus on results over the last few years. Well, now you've got business leaders saying, if it doesn't hit my balance sheet, I'm not interested. 

Speaker 1 (00:09:07) - Who cares? Right. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:09) - Yeah. And so that return to that, I think, is actually really good. I was a process. I joke that I had a Six Sigma black belt, but it's gray from lack of use at this point. But that return. 

Speaker 1 (00:09:21) - Wait, what color does that make my green belt? Because I'm going to save up, brother. It's been a long time. Chartreuse? 

Speaker 2 (00:09:26) - I don't know. I'm having to go back to blues clues now. You're really asking me to really channel. 

Speaker 1 (00:09:30) - Well, hey, I told you, you're warming up the stance today, buddy. I told you that. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:36) - I'm sitting here thinking about my kids watching blues clues. And yeah, OK. I'm sure that Vermillion, I think that was one that he sung about. And it is that idea of, OK, let's get process and execution back into customer experience. And AI and technology can absolutely be a part of that. But folks at Question Pro would say the same thing. The tool is not the solution. The tool is the enabler to allow you to create the solution. 

Speaker 3 (00:09:59) - Totally. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:59) - That delivers the tangible business results. 

Speaker 3 (00:10:02) - Yep. 

Speaker 1 (00:10:02) - I love that. I love that. One real quick point. You're right. People keep talking about AI. This is just brand spanking new. And this is something that has just hit. We had Bill Wade, who's the chief product officer from FICO on the Seamstress Cloudhouse podcast a couple of months ago. Bill literally said, he's like, Adrian, he's like, FICO is, he's like, I'm not trying to brag, but FICO has been leveraging AI for like 50 years. 

Speaker 3 (00:10:29) - Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:10:29) - You think about what a credit score is. And it's like, guys, you know, it's funny because people forget this, but like, this ain't brand spanking new. 

Speaker 3 (00:10:35) - Right. 

Speaker 1 (00:10:36) - It's just now it's come front and center. It's probably become more accessible. It's probably become more manageable and easier with some of the solutions that just make non-technical folks be able to leverage some of the power, the superpowers alive within AI. But I love that. What would be one of the second big things that you're really kind of thinking about it that you're hearing a lot or having a lot of conversations with your guests or just kind of excited about as we kind of close down 2024? 

Speaker 2 (00:10:56) - You know, when I think of a second thing, it still comes back to that same theme and it's, it's, it is still with the intention of delivering results, but it's more about.

Speaker 2 (00:11:08) - I don't want to say breaking down silos, because that's too cliché, but somewhat eliminating the tribalism that sits inside of customer experience and the labels that sit inside of that and instead, and even just the concept of customer experience, no, instead it's: how do we embed this into the company as a just this is the way things are and that theme of getting that it's not just some standalone team that does these esoteric things in a tower somewhere, but rather this is how the overall company understands how to listen to the customer and then act on what they have learned from the customer, weaving that through like a tapestry inside of the company, as opposed to some standalone figures- another theme and thread that I'm hearing. 

Speaker 1 (00:11:54) - I love that. I love that and it's true because, guys, regardless what type of business you are, regardless of what your industry is, regardless of how big your team is or how many employees you have or how many customers you have, you're right. It's almost like one of the simplest ways I think about this with all these conversations I'm having with some of our guests on CXEP. It's like the simple thought that Steve Jobs used to talk about, where the computer is simply a bicycle for the mind, so, like sure you can walk. You can walk. 

Speaker 1 (00:12:22) - We can walk all the way to the moon tower right now. Or we can get on a bike- yeah, all right, all right, all right, or there's going to be several of those today- or we can just like get on the bicycle and get there even faster, get there even quicker, get there a little bit with less effort, and I just I don't know. I think about our folks that are listening, and I just think that's one of the biggest things I'm hearing so many folks kind of talk about. 

Speaker 2 (00:12:41) - I love it, and let's expand on that just a little bit more. There's another theme that's kind of coming up, and it's that vein of: there was this wave of you've got to get this implemented. Well, then there was a wave of: well, what the heck is this? 

Speaker 1 (00:12:54) - What is this? 

Speaker 2 (00:12:54) - It's just this. And then there's now this kind of wave of wait. I don't need that. I can hold off on doing that. I can hold off on buying that fancy, shiny new tool. While I understand more about what my business is, what I can do, why don't I focus on things that are more about understanding what the customer is thinking and doing? Right, A hundred percent. A hundred percent, and not that AI is to the point of the bicycle. Let me use the bicycle example. 

Speaker 2 (00:13:21) - There's a lot of folks that are realizing that they need a bicycle, but they don't need the Ferrari that has been put in front of them. I don't need a Ferrari to go seven blocks to that moon tower, but the bike would actually be kind of nice. 

Speaker 1 (00:13:32) - I mean, going to the moon tower in a Ferrari would be pretty dope though, too, Rick, have you seen the Austin traffic? That's fair. 

Speaker 2 (00:13:38) - You are grinding gears at every single block. 

Speaker 1 (00:13:40) - That's fair. That's super fair. 

Speaker 2 (00:13:43) - Ooh, I got up to 22 miles an hour my Ferrari. 

Speaker 1 (00:13:46) - I'm not leaving first gear. I love it. Things you did not expect to talk about today. A hundred percent, literally, rick. A couple of questions. At today's event we have all these incredible speakers, presenters. Is there anybody or anyone or anything that you're really kind of interested in spending some extra time or really kind of be sitting inside of or really kind of being focused on? 

Speaker 1 (00:14:14) - That's kind of question 1A, and then question 1B is just like you mentioned, some of the reasons why you're excited to be here, but I guess is your intent to be able to bring things back to some of your clients. I know you work with a bunch of awesome clients. I know that you, similar to me, are building this incredible community. You've got this community of individuals that come to you. They come to Rick Denton to get ideas around. What the hell are people doing, Rick, and what are some of these things that can? 

Speaker 1 (00:14:37) - That's question 1B- but people or folks that you're excited to learn about here, and then sort of what's the takeaway or how are you going to take some of these things back away from Mack State 2024?? 

Speaker 2 (00:14:46) - I'm not going to answer question 1A with any specifics because I don't want to diminish anybody that isn't in the list. 

Speaker 1 (00:14:51) - Totally fair, totally fair. 

Speaker 2 (00:14:52) - When I'm talking about the full slate, I will say there's a category that I'm actually most most excited about and that is the people in the hallway. I want to hear what others are. What did they take away from that session? What are they going back to their companies? What are they going to actually implement and understand? What is their takeaway? Because there's a lot of tasty morsels that are going to be brought out here. What are you doing with that back home? I think that's absolutely the community. 

Speaker 2 (00:15:23) - I will tell you also on the side, I think there's some real value in just having conversations like this- totally agree- at an event, and I think that's one of the big takeaways- is: how can other brands leverage something like this at their space as well, and how can their story get told beyond the walls of the event through the power of this kind of experience that you and I are doing right now. 

Speaker 1 (00:15:44) - I love it, rick. You and I talk about this on a regular basis. These types of events are freaking incredible. They're so helpful. People get excited about it. Let's call it what it is. There's many people that are inside there listening to our. There's no reason to say it literally. People are excited about it. There's another piece of: how do you preserve some of that energy, preserve some of that knowledge, preserve some of that learning and the tribal knowledge that's happening here today? How do you preserve can some of it and the better? 

Speaker 1 (00:16:09) - Yet, how do you distribute it? Or how do you share it back with some of the folks that weren't able to travel to Austin today? Aren't sitting in the Thompson with us. Don't get the pleasure of having coffees and churros with all these folks that are about to come here. I love it, rick. Before I let you 

Speaker 3 (00:16:30) - so much for doing this. 

Speaker 2 (00:16:30) - I finally get to be on your podcast. 

Speaker 3 (00:16:34) - It's awesome. 

Speaker 1 (00:16:34) - I was pumped and I was pumped that we got to hang out these last few days. But before I let you go, where can people reach you, Rick Denton? Where can people find out more about you and where can people learn more about your awesome podcast? Because I've been a huge fan and Rick and I have been friends. Now, like I said, for several years, there's not too many of us out there that are trying to curate a whole world of stories around customers and places. But where can people find you, my friend? 

Speaker 2 (00:16:53) - Yeah, I appreciate that. So certainly, LinkedIn is where I reside. From a social media perspective, you can find me on Rick Denton and then I'm sure you'll put it in the show notes of where I'll be. CXPassportcom... podcast itself, or there's the CX Passport channel on YouTube as well. And then, when it comes to the new live experience, like what we're doing here, CXPassportLivecom is another way that folks can learn a little bit more about that. 

Speaker 1 (00:17:18) - Love it, brother. Well, look, number one. Best of luck to you. Thank you so much for doing this pleasure. Awesome, it's a pleasure, and we're looking forward to seeing you real soon. 

Speaker 2 (00:17:24) - My friend, thanks for having me on the show. 

Speaker 1 (00:17:25) - Absolutely, thank you.