Unleashing The Power Of Military Spouse CX Talent | Live From Community Builders Week

Hey CX Nation,

In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #256 we were live at Instant Team's Community Builders Week & CX Virtual Summit based in Southern Pines, NC at their company headquarters. 

Our guest interviews for this IRL (in-real life) episode included Liza Rodewald (Founder & CEO), Erica McMannes (Founder & CXO), Greg Avallone (SVP of Sales & Partnerships), Amy Price, MBA (SVP of CX), Jennifer Martin & Erica North, both military spouses themselves (Strategic Partnerships Managers), & the one, the only Nate Brown (Co-Founder at CX Accelerator & Head of CX Advisory at Metric Sherpa).   

Each of the guests in this episode had unique points of view on the state of CX/CS/Customer Support & what the future of Boutique BPO's look like in today's world. And how they are building an all-in-one hiring platform leveraging the near 12 million US military spouses stationed across the globe. 

Instant Teams is a mission-driven company committed to supporting and employing the “force behind the force” – US military spouses. 

In this episode, Adrian chats with the Instant Teams crew about how they are making real social impact, finding remarkable talent, providing their customers instant access to new teammates & building flexible solutions along the way.   

**Episode #256 Highlight Reel:**

1. Unleashing the power of 12M+ Military Spouses
2. Building bridges to companies who want access to this group
3. Why Military Spouses Make For Incredible CX & Customer Care talent
4. Engaging 75K military spouses ready & primed to join our workforce
5. Around the sun locations at US bases provides global support option

Click here to learn about Instant Teams

Click here to learn about Community Builders Week & CX Summit 2025

Huge thanks to everyone for joining us on this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring their work and efforts in pushing the customer & employee (agent) experience & BPO space into the future.

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Transcript

The CXChronicles Podcast #256 with Instant Teams.MP3

Speaker 1 (00:00:00) - Thank you so much for listening to another episode of CXChronicles podcast. I'm your host, Adrian Brady-Cesana. Tune in each week as we listen to amazing customer focused business leaders from across the world sharing their personal stories about their teams, tools, process and feedback. Check us out at cxchronicles.com today or listen on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher. Are you ready to elevate your CX support teams with talent that actually makes your brand stronger? Meet Instant Teams as a CX talent marketplace. 

Speaker 1 (00:00:47) - They're uniquely designed to offer a suite of solutions that center between CX talent and social campaigns, offering BPO outsourcing services, including temp to perm, a targeted job board and brand marketing opportunities, all the while driving a mission to impact the financial wellness of military families through remote CX employment. At Instant Teams, they are ready to deploy CX teams as your brand champions and are available to support at every stage of a customer's journey. Visit Instant Teamscom today and discover how we can help you succeed. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:18) - Do you need help making customer happiness a habit in your business today? Reach out to CXChronicles. CXE works with your customer portfolio and customer facing teams across team tools, process and feedback to understand how some of our strategic partners, like Intercom, HubSpot, Zendesk and Freshworks, could be the game-changer for building and driving your CX and CX performance into the future. We also build voice of customer task forces, reporting, customer listening reports, living playbooks and knowledge bases to feed your AI solutions. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:57) - We are also experts in end-to-end customer journey maps, customer onboarding to aid revenue growth, customer success and, most importantly, revenue retention. Reach out to CXE today to... CXCS revOps focused services could be the game-changer that your business is looking for all right. 

Speaker 2 (00:02:17) - So, guys, thanks so much for tuning into the CXChronicles podcast. We have a super exciting show today. We are number one here in Pinehurst, North Carolina, with our friends at Instant Teams. We've got the first man up, the first soldier up, ready to go for a slew of the interviews today. Mr Greg Avallone, SVP of Sales at Instant Teams. Welcome to the show, my friend. Thank you for having me. Welcome to Southern Pines. Thank you very much. So, number one, we're pumped to be here. We got time to spend with each other yesterday, which was awesome. 

Speaker 2 (00:02:45) - We got time to learn more about the team, learn more about some of the stuff that you're doing. Why don't you just take the first minute or two to let the listeners know, number one, who you are, what your role is here and kind of the high level of what you're doing every single solitary day, trying to spread the Instant Teams mission and trying to build the Instant Teams community, yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. So, Greg Avellone, I'm the Senior Vice President of Sales and Partnerships at Instant Teams. I've been here for about two and a half years. 

Speaker 2 (00:03:10) - I come from a history of outsourcing, worked for some really large BPO's and human capital solutions, so worked for CareerBuilder Monster for lots of years, but the heart of what I do is people. The mission here is incredible. At Instant Teams, we provide dual income households by employing military spouses in outsourced roles, so we've got a great business that is great for the military community but also provides really great business solutions for our customers. 

Speaker 1 (00:03:40) - That's fantastic. 

Speaker 2 (00:03:41) - How did you so? You worked at these big companies in the past. You were talking about it last night at dinner too, by the way. Full candor, guys. We had an awesome dinner at the Pinehurst Brewery with Mr Greg last night. It was excellent recommendation, by the way. I mean beer and barbecue is my thing. 

Speaker 2 (00:03:53) - I'm never going to steer you right- and you did not disappoint at all and, by the way, it was funny like the group that was in there we had a ton of golfers, we had a ton of families and then there was people like us that you could tell were probably in town for work, doing our thing. 

Speaker 2 (00:04:04) - But you know how did you find, coming from some of the companies that you were a part of before, you mentioned some really, really big names- career builder monster working in the people resources space- what was the thing that jumped off of you when you first heard of Instant Teams several years ago- because I know you've been here for almost three years now. 

Speaker 2 (00:04:21) - Yeah, what was the thing that drew you to this and what was the thing that, after kind of being at some of these big companies in these big places that all of us have heard about, what made you want to kind of join a smaller team and what made you want to dive into this whole world that we're building here today at Instant Teams? Yeah, the big companies are great, right. They offer a ton of solutions and have big opportunities across the globe. My last 

Speaker 1 (00:04:42) - Outsourcer I worked for was 180,000 employees. And, you know, does terrific work. But I was really looking for a company that was making a difference in a specified community. Yeah. Knowing that I had the knowledge in human capital and in BPO, and that's what Instant Schemes does, but focused on the military family was really compelling to me. The other thing that's compelling is our founders. You're going to talk to Liza and Erica. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:09) - They're awesome. 

Speaker 1 (00:05:09) - Just brilliant people, passioNate about what we do, great business leaders, and, you know, really making a difference in this community and the broader community and military spouse world. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:20) - 100%, man. And I got the chance, guys, last night or yesterday, when we got into town, we got to meet some of Greg's incredible teammates, who y'all are going to meet today at some point, but Jen and Erica. And, man, when you get just, we talked about it last night at dinner, man, but the passion and love and the care and the concern for this space, these people, this world. And then the other thing, too, is, I mean, I got just dosed with all this incredible information that people don't think about that's right in front of us. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:45) - We've got 12 million military spouses in America alone. We've got every single one of you guys know somebody who is in this camp that the Instant Schemes family is trying to build this community and this business for, so all incredible things. I'd love to kind of, you mentioned the BPO piece. So many of our listeners absolutely know, they're familiar with business process outsourcing. They're familiar with other agencies or boutique firms that can kind of come and be experts in a space or in a place. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:11) - But what's like a typical Instant Teams engagement with the client look like? Or maybe a better way of saying it, what do you get excited about as the head of sales when you're out there and you and your team are canvassing and you're looking for all these different leads and opportunities and possibilities? What do you get excited? What's the type of company that gets you excited? You're like, let's say, okay, this is an Instant Teams ready type of account. 

Speaker 1 (00:06:31) - Yeah, anybody that says yes and has a pen in their hand. But honestly, we are a hundred percent business problem solvers. So, I love when a company comes to us with a challenge, usually that company says I have a need for flexibility or scalability or seasonality. Those things are things that we all do really well because we have a dispersed workforce. We have people that are a high level of education and have high touch, great skillsets. We can flex into those roles really well. We work across all kinds of verticals. 

Speaker 1 (00:07:09) - So, I can't say that we have a vertical that we love or that we're married to. We have a lot of financial services clients, but I think we have broad spectrum in terms of what we do. What we're looking for are roles that can be long-term careers for our military spouses. And they're great brand advocates. So, consumer brands tend to be really compelling because they latch on to them and they're super passioNate about it. And that comes through in the customer experience. And we see that in the results every single time. 

Speaker 2 (00:07:42) - So, last night at dinner, there was some super interesting stuff that you were educating me upon. Where did people used to go? Where were traditional places or traditional paths? And then, Ian, you've been a part of working in some of these big outsourcing businesses. Where did people used to go when they needed extension support, extension staff, when maybe they knew that peaks were coming or maybe they knew that there was a part of their business here? 

Speaker 2 (00:08:04) - Maybe it was tax season or maybe it was end-of-year holiday rush, right, in Q4 when everybody's going crazy. Where did people used to go to find some of these types of services? What did some of the traditional paths kind of look like for when people knew that they needed extension support staff? 

Speaker 1 (00:08:20) - You know, the outsourcing world has traditionally been considered nearshore or offshore, right? When somebody says they're going to outsource, they're looking for cost savings and maybe doing that in a different market. Philippines, you know, super popular market. Central America, super popular market. They do great work and there's a place for that. And that's been, you know, that's happened for, you know, 30 plus years. Those have been thriving businesses in those areas. 

Speaker 1 (00:08:46) - What we find is that customers have a high expectation in terms of customer service. And we've been trained that way, right? We're all great consumers. But we have to provide, you know, a high level of service. And when somebody is looking for that, English for speakers, that tends to be a big complaint. I can't understand an accent. I need to have somebody that is in my time zone, right, that can serve that and I can solve problems with together. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:12) - Makes sense. 

Speaker 1 (00:09:13) - And I've got folks that are familiar with my brand and my customer, right, have that cultural affinity. And so, again, our people are a great fit versus maybe doing that offshore or nearshore. 

Speaker 7 (00:09:23) - I love that. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:27) - Has there been an example or a situation where, and then again, you're in one of the hardest roles in all of this is my friend selling. And people that don't sell, people that have lots of opinions about folks that are selling, it's the hardest part of the game. And getting somebody to say yes, getting somebody to pay money, getting somebody to sign an agreement, and then getting somebody to actually show up and do the damn thing, it's not nearly as easy as our non-selling friends. Well, I don't understand. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:49) - So you know that I have a tremendous amount of appreciation for the job.

Speaker 2 (00:09:52) - Role, just the position you're in. But what are some of like the common pushbacks that you get or what, if, even when, you find these fully qualified or these potentially ripe opportunities, what are some of the common things that people that think they're dipping their toes into the water of outsourcing or dipping their toes into the water of needing to find the right strategic partner or the right type of boutique BPO- what are some of like the common objections you hear? 

Speaker 2 (00:10:17) - What are some of the common things that, even if they're already coming to you and they have the, the potential need, what are some of the common things that, after they even hear about an incredible community and an incredible mission, like it steams. What are some of the common objections or pushbacks that you hear that people kind of slow down on when it comes to actually finding export and extension staff? 

Speaker 1 (00:10:35) - Yeah, I don't think they're uncommon to any other type of role or any other outsourcer you're going to hear people are always concerned with value- right price and value for the work that they're doing. People are concerned with security- right, there's lots of data exchange, so their security is always a big question. Understanding the relationship and knowing that you're going to have a very active and open. Communication is super important. 

Speaker 1 (00:11:03) - When you think about it, outsourcing is like finding a babysitter: right, you're turning your customer over to somebody and people are super protective of that relationship, super protective of who's talking to them, how they're servicing them and what that customer experience is. We have to illustrate through the sales process that we're trusted, that we have experience, that we're showing great value and that we're going to perform well and it's going to be a good business decision that's going to turn ROI for them. 

Speaker 2 (00:11:30) - Yep, that makes a ton of sense. And again, this is hard you were talking about at dinner last night. But, like a lot of first-time founders, a lot of first-time business executives, there's almost like this natural urge or this natural tendency to want to. No, I'm going to go hire my own, I'm going to go train my own, I'm going to go retain my own, and then I'm going to, and then I'm going to go through what- let's call it what it is. This is one of the hardest parts of the business. 

Speaker 2 (00:11:52) - Then I'm going to keep them here for the long haul and I'm going to keep compensating them and taking care of them to the way that they want to. 

Speaker 1 (00:11:58) - That stuff's hard, right, right. 

Speaker 2 (00:11:59) - And the reality is, guys, for all of you that are listening right now, like, regardless of what your business is, what your product, what your service is, there are always going to be specific parts of any business that you absolutely can find the right type of strategic partner who's going to take over some of the things that are happening the same type of way again and again and again. However, it's the teams. You guys have some incredible folks that can do beyond that. So we're not just talking simple back of house sales or support items here. 

Speaker 2 (00:12:25) - You guys do some pretty complex things. You have the ability and the capabilities of doing some really intense. 

Speaker 1 (00:12:31) - Really. 

Speaker 2 (00:12:32) - I think people would be surprised by some of the things you guys are actually taking care of. 

Speaker 1 (00:12:36) - Yeah, two great examples that you know: software sales and implementation- not an easy task. We provide that. We do claims intake, we do case management for disability. So there's lots of intricate things that we do. And you know the military spouse community- 60% have college degrees. So that is rare to find in a contact center world, and so that high level of talent has really served our customer as well. 

Speaker 2 (00:12:59) - Yeah, it's super pliable, adaptable, easy to shift, easy to respond, easy to. There's just so much pliability in that. 

Speaker 1 (00:13:06) - Yeah, 100%. Well, you've got. You've got people that are, you know, following a service member, probably relocating every 18 to 24 months, are sometimes playing one parent while their service member is deployed. They're natural problem solvers. They're great, resourceful people. They're empathetic. You know that that adds to that flexibility and pliability. 

Speaker 2 (00:13:26) - Yeah, I love it, Greg, is we so? We're already. It's, believe me, it's crazy. It's almost. We're almost all the way through February already, but we're, we're a good, good chunk into 2025.. What are, like the two or three big things that you're most excited for, uh, for you and the team for the rest of this year? 

Speaker 2 (00:13:43) - Or what are like the top two or three things that, from a sales and a revenue perspective and a partner perspective, that you and your team are really going to be all over and are going to be kind of the North star items for what you focus on for the rest of this year? 

Speaker 1 (00:13:55) - Yeah, that's a great question from our standpoint, you know, we we've never been better positioned to serve multiple parts of an organization. Uh, outsourcing is the major portion of our business and we will continue to do that, and that's our focus is as an organization, but we've also- uh, we've also- launched a job board, so the HR world and the people world of those organizations are able to be partners with us. 

Speaker 1 (00:14:18) - Um, and we also have a, a sponsorship, uh portion of our business, so you know whether you're supporting the military spouse community across the country or you're doing something, uh, locally, we allow your brand to be in front and center in that group. 

Speaker 1 (00:14:32) - So those allow us to be broad based solutions for our customers, and so the couple of things that we think about for the year is: how do our existing customers broaden their relationship with us so that we can continue to be a really thoughtful partner for them and increase our ROI? The second is, um, how do we find more of the customers that we're doing business with uh? 

Speaker 1 (00:14:57) - How do I find more of that work? Because our agents perform really well, we have great learnings there, and we can multiply those learnings across other clients. And we also want to look for clients in targeted verticals, where we have experience and that we can be really thoughtful partners. 

Speaker 2 (00:15:14) - I love it. And again, Phil Cantor, guys, Institute teams, we're thrilled that they're one of our primary strategic partners here at CXChronicles. But you and I were talking about this at dinner last night, and there is just so many companies that don't know about solutions or incredible business's missions, like what y'all are building here at CX Teams. And the minute that they do, it's going to be like the Swiss Army knife for the businessman. 

Speaker 2 (00:15:34) - The ability to have additional flex, the ability to be able to call upon a strategic partner that at any given point of your year or at your business lifecycle, as you hit your first growth spurt, as you hit your second growth spurt, as you start to get good at understanding seasonality of the business, knowing the ebbs and the flows of, shit, maybe I don't need 10 people all year long. 

Speaker 2 (00:15:51) - Maybe I need five people all year long, and then I need to be able to call Greg or for some of our bigger friends out there that are growing quickly or have gotten really good at kind of doing the seasonality ups and downs. Maybe you have a reserve for 20 or 25, or maybe even up to 50 seats of where, you know, you know that there's a partner on the side here that you could literally call for specific parts of the year where you guys can come in and do your game. So I think it's amazing. Greg Avalone, before I let you go, I got to ask. 

Speaker 2 (00:16:16) - So one of the fun parts of what we're all doing today, we're doing a bunch of awesome interviews here, live at the Instant Teams HQ, and then we are going to Pinehurst to play some golf. 

Speaker 1 (00:16:23) - I am in golf attire. I'm ready to go. 

Speaker 2 (00:16:25) - And I'm about to rip this right off, and I've got my golf clothes underneath here, not right now, but once we get up to the golf course, but basically. 

Speaker 1 (00:16:31) - Thank you. 

Speaker 2 (00:16:33) - My question for you though is, before I let you go, number one, any quick golf story or any feelings around who is going to be our low man or woman on the leaderboard for today at Pinehurst for the Instateam squad? 

Speaker 1 (00:16:48) - I think our COO, Chuck, is a former college athlete, and I expect him to show well today, so we'll see how that goes. Quick golf stories? No. I'm just looking forward to a good time and weather that is not including snowflakes. 

Speaker 2 (00:17:06) - Hey, and we're thrilled to be here with you. Being from Buffalo right now, we're thrilled to be down in North Carolina with our friends. 

Speaker 1 (00:17:11) - One last thing. 

Speaker 2 (00:17:12) - Before I let you go, where can people get in touch with you, or where can people reach out and connect with you directly from today's story, if they want to learn more about Instant Teams or they want to learn more about the awesome stuff that you're doing with your team today? 

Speaker 1 (00:17:21) - Yeah. They can visit our website, instantteams.com. You can also email me directly at Greg.aviloni at instantteams.com. 

Speaker 2 (00:17:30) - Fantastic. Greg, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the Steve's Chronicles podcast. Thank you so much, my friend. 

Speaker 7 (00:17:35) - Thank you. 

Speaker 2 (00:17:35) - All right. So, guys, we're super excited for the next interview. We have Amy Price, Vice President of Customer Experience here at Instant Teams with us. Amy, say hello to the CXNation. 

Speaker 3 (00:18:01) - Hello. How are you? It's good to be here. 

Speaker 2 (00:18:03) - So, we're pumped to have you. I was just joking with Amy, guys. I said, like, Amy, you're literally rapping with the CX nerd. How bad could this possibly get, right? And I think she's going with you, but number one, I was excited to have you today. So, as you know, we're chatting with a bunch of your teammates today, and we're just getting them to learn more about Instant Teams. We're learning more about your mission. We're learning more about all the incredible things that you guys are doing with your customers. 

Speaker 2 (00:18:27) - Why don't you start off, give people a sense for who you are, what your role is, and maybe even a little bit of your stepping stones, because, like, the thing that I loved about our meeting the last couple of weeks leading up to this week was you've been at some awesome companies managing CX and some huge companies that everybody knows. I'd love for you to set the stage. 

Speaker 3 (00:18:45) - Okay. Well, thank you for having me. I am the SVP of customer experience here at Instant Teams. I've been here about two and a half years now. Love it. My background is primarily all in CX with Fortune 100, 500 startups for about 15 years, and then BPO space as well. So both on the client end as well as the supplier end. 

Speaker 4 (00:19:16) - And my team, honestly, at Instant Team, fantastic team, we do everything operations, every single thing. So anything from workforce management to business insights to the day-to-day operations and making sure that we're performing for our customers and clients, employee management. So basically everything, not sales and not people operations. 

Speaker 2 (00:19:40) - Okay, okay, I love that, which ends up being a lot, by the way. 

Speaker 4 (00:19:43) - It is a lot. 

Speaker 2 (00:19:44) - It is a lot. I mean, this is why non-CXers don't realize sometimes, we pick up a whole bunch of the parts of the customer journey. 

Speaker 7 (00:19:50) - It's kind of everything. 

Speaker 2 (00:19:50) - It's like literally from the minute that it hits post-sale all the way to customer management and ongoing account management, all the way through customer loyalty, retention, and bringing it back, oftentimes renewals. So this is a job that maybe folks don't realize how all-encompassing it is and how oftentimes how thankless it can be, but this is a fun job. 

Speaker 7 (00:20:11) - Yeah, love it. 

Speaker 2 (00:20:11) - We're in the weeds learning about what people need, what our customers are going through. On our three piece of BPO presentation that you and Greg and myself did just two days ago, folks, for some of the folks who were part of our virtual summit, you had mentioned also this notion of, just being one of the conduits or being one of the most important parts of, once you sell it, once you get somebody started, now the hard work begins. And you mentioned something about becoming a strategic partner of customers. 

Speaker 2 (00:20:41) - Expand on that and talk about some of the things that you and your team are doing today to really kind of get to that level with Instant Teams and with some support and the services that you're offering. 

Speaker 4 (00:20:49) - One of the most important things I've always said is you have to know your customer and you have to know their business well. So what we do is we form that relationship from the jump and the start, and we set up regular meetings so that we can talk. And we talk about how their business is doing, what types of things they're facing in their business, how can we support that? And then we also think of it from a strategic standpoint internally, how can we help them be better? How can we help them solve for an issue that they're seeing? 

Speaker 4 (00:21:25) - And so through feedback, we have constant feedback from what we call remote team members, our TMs, and then also the leaders that might support the account. So we're constantly getting information on a daily basis about what's happening, and then we try to solution that. And if there's things that we can do either differently or think about differently than maybe what the client is used to doing, because keep in mind, coming from larger corporations, it's hard to move a ship. 

Speaker 2 (00:21:56) - Totally, absolutely. 

Speaker 4 (00:21:57) - And you get into your day-to-day not realizing that there are other options of how to approach a situation. And so we look at it every day with fresh eyes and say, wait a minute, we know that this type of situation happened with this client, but here's what we did. And it produced these results. And so we go to the table with these types of examples and or solutions to have the client consider it. Sometimes they're like, oh, we didn't think about it that way. Maybe we should. Or they give us the reins to say, why don't you try it and see if it works? 

Speaker 4 (00:22:34) - And so those are the types of experiences from my perspective that are the most valuable, because that's where you transfer from being just a relationship to a partnership. And so that for me is where I always wanna be. 

Speaker 2 (00:22:48) - Yep. 

Speaker 4 (00:22:50) - And that's what I strive for our team to be. And I kind of, I guess you could say, I just kind of lay that land and that vision out for my team and that's what they're always going for. 

Speaker 2 (00:23:03) - I love it. I mean, number one, you're right. So like number one, it's hard to identify, create, and then act upon change in any business. 

Speaker 4 (00:23:12) - It is. And it's slow usually. 

Speaker 2 (00:23:15) - It's slow and then depending on what size the business is, if a business is bigger, it's often times a little slower. To your point, it's a bigger ship. So you gotta have more. 

Speaker 4 (00:23:22) - And we're nimble. We move, we can change direction same day if we need to. That's the beauty of it. And if you think about our mission, we employ a lot of military connected individuals. Think of their lives. 

Speaker 2 (00:23:37) - Yeah, totally. 

Speaker 4 (00:23:37) - Their lives are constant change all the time. They're used to maneuvering in different directions. And so it's a perfect fit because they're used to it. They're used to something changing same day and going with the flow. 

Speaker 2 (00:23:50) - It's literally normal. It's normal. It's controlled chaos. 

Speaker 4 (00:23:53) - It is. 

Speaker 2 (00:23:54) - It's normal with that. It's really good point. And then you're right. There's also another piece too, where military families, military spouses, military, the men and women that are in our military, they're already kind of used to like, you know what, whatever's gonna come up or whatever's gonna happen today or whatever's gonna happen in this hour, you're gonna go with it. And you're just gonna do the best you can. 

Speaker 2 (00:24:10) - And there's gonna be certain marching orders and there's gonna be certain mandates and there's gonna be certain protocol or things that you're already trained to do that you just gotta kind of throw your hat in the ring and get ready to rock with it. 

Speaker 4 (00:24:19) - Well, and male spouses in particular are used to juggling the household, the children, anything where their spouse is coming to and from their assignments and then work on top of all of that. And so I watched some of my, all of my employees at my leadership level are male spouses and to watch them in their day to day.

Speaker 4 (00:24:46) - Astounds me, it makes me so proud. I get emotional because I see how much they juggle and it they just do it like it's easy. 

Speaker 2 (00:24:54) - Look, it's so big. You know, talking with Jen and Erica last night- yeah, I got my dose, guys- where it's like what Amy's talking about right now. This is no joke. This is like talk about you think you're, you think work is hard. You think, yeah, your kids are tough. Try, dealing with the house, the car of the kids and the school. Oh, we're moving in 12 months on top of it. And honey you're, oh, they don't get 12.. 

Speaker 4 (00:25:16) - They don't get 12 months. Notice, they get a couple months at best. And I had one person who got 15 hours and she had to rearrange the household in prep for that. So it's, it's astounding. Yeah, do you realize what they actually deal with, Amy? 

Speaker 2 (00:25:33) - How do you guys? One thing I've been so curious about. I'm so excited to kind of pick your brand: all of these different clients you work with. We're talking about the incredible team piece here. We're talking about all the incredible men and women that work with our, our insta teams, family. But talk about the tools part. This is the part that I've been just fasciNated by: all of your different clients. They've got different telephone systems, different CRM's, different processing systems, different ticketing systems. 

Speaker 2 (00:25:58) - How do you all kind of go into one of your accounts or go into one of your client environments? Yeah, how do you start building the playbook for the tools and how do you say it's interesting to your point? Then you get a still course. Correctly, what does that look like? Just getting getting your hands into the tools and getting the team comfortable with all this stuff? 

Speaker 4 (00:26:16) - Well, thankfully, our clients provide the equipment. Because of the security reasons, they prefer that that method. So they usually ship the equipment out to all of our remote team members, including my senior leadership, my customer success manager, who is really the heart and soul of daily operations, and then also usually our workforce manager and business insights manager will get a computer as well. Okay, and then what we do is we set it up. When we start learning, my customer service team will go through training. 

Speaker 4 (00:26:53) - So either the client provides the training or, in some cases, we have been taught by the client and we're doing the training. Okay, so it just depends on the circumstances. But we just teach them how to use the tools and what they're looking for, and it is. It's a lot of information. It's fantastic because we we become that expert. 

Speaker 2 (00:27:11) - You see, you guys must have an incredible playbook or knowledge base of all the different tools. Because I do have to ask you- I don't know if you're able to answer- but are there common tools or other common pieces of sass that keep kind of coming up that allow you guys to almost hit the ground running a little bit faster with certain accounts? 

Speaker 2 (00:27:30) - Or does every client kind of bring its own tech stack and then you just part of the onboarding or part of the implementation is just leveraging understanding, maybe getting access to whatever SOPs or playbooks they already have? 

Speaker 4 (00:27:41) - They, they basically bring their own tech stack and we utilize their tools whenever possible. Internally, we have our own slack Google suite concept, but we have clients that are on Microsoft products. Okay, so there could be two, two systems that they're dealing with on any given day. 

Speaker 4 (00:28:00) - Yeah, so it just it varies, and most of them have some sort of chat function, most of them have some sort of CRM function, a telephony function, and then usually a knowledge base, whether it's a SharePoint or a built-out knowledge base in any case- and so those are the main platforms that they learn about and that they use the tools, and I love it. 

Speaker 2 (00:28:25) - It's funny, I joked with you and Greg about this in a day on our three B's- three piece of boutique BPO's presentation that we did for the for the CX summit- and you guys must have an incredible playbook of your own at this point, because remember what I said, like I wasn't joking with you, Greg, like you have, it is a luxury and it is a privilege and it is literally almost like an honor to be able to have the ability to go in and out of all these different amazing companies. You learn the best of what works really well. 

Speaker 2 (00:28:52) - You learn the worst of what to never do. If it's you, you learn everything in the middle that's good or average or can get people by, but you guys must have this incredible playbook that Y'all built just by seeing all these different clients in action and learning all the stuff as you go. 

Speaker 4 (00:29:08) - It's hard to build a playbook like that just because each client is so unique. We build out processes and procedures and we make sure we keep those unique to each client, and then my team gets together on a regular basis and we share as much knowledge as we can. 

Speaker 4 (00:29:29) - Kind of at that raised level. It's a little hard because people are in the nitty-gritty so we've got to raise them up and be like, okay, but what is transferable between clients and- and we do, we do look at that. Other than that, it's been really just sharing of knowledge and sometimes we forget. We have to, like, remind ourselves, wait, we need to actually do a deep dive and digest everything and dump all of this information on each other in case there's bits and pieces that can be utilized on different accounts. 

Speaker 4 (00:30:00) - Absolutely, and we caught ourselves last year getting in the swing of things and just forgetting to download each other, and so we made a point. This year it's one of our objectives is really to kind of hone in on how can we share that information more and more broadly, yeah, and see how, even if it can't be information can't be utilized exactly the same way, can it be altered so we fit a different client, and so we're really focused on that this year, trying to make sure that we share more information. 

Speaker 2 (00:30:31) - I love that. I love I do you with some of our clients at CXC. I mean we- every plane looks different, every book has got its own, you know, its own fingerprints, totally get that. But there's certain bits and parts and parts and pieces and almost things that you can grab for outlines or for templates that you bring it to the next five customers and they go. I've never thought about what's that one part of the outline that's super smart. 

Speaker 2 (00:30:53) - We never thought so, like even, just like you know, figured out how to kind of blend some of these things together and build upon each other. It's like any any great hit or any great music and song you've ever heard: it's built upon another song before it that somebody else had it ahead at some point. But what if there is like one or two big things that you're the most excited for as the CX and as the person that's owning all of our customer relationships today for the rest of 2025? 

Speaker 2 (00:31:19) - Let's take the one or two biggest big things that you're the most excited for for you and your team to be focused on for the rest of the year. 

Speaker 4 (00:31:24) - Our word for this year is growth. We really want to grow, not only within our current clients- so we want to be able to expand our footprint within our clients business okay- and support them in different ways- but also growth as a new clients onboarding. That's really important for us. So my first year with the company, we were all about building the foundational structure. The second year was really about accountability and how do we make ourselves accountable and come up with KPIs that we can be held to. 

Speaker 4 (00:31:56) - And then this year is really about growth and it's all about focusing on how can we go deeper with our customers. How can we provide that value add, strategic focus- yeah, that can help their business grow. It's never easy, and so we have to find really unique ways where we can expand our partnership differently and make sure that we're basically solving for their challenges, because, yeah, so that's what our focus is this year. 

Speaker 2 (00:32:23) - I love it. So, number one: Amy price has been fantastic, I hope. Was it okay for, was it? 

Speaker 4 (00:32:27) - It was good? 

Speaker 2 (00:32:28) - CX nerds together and things on some become pretty damn easy. Before I let you go, number one, thank you so much for joining us, but where can people, if they want to learn more about you, they want to learn more about the incredible work that you and the team of this team is doing? Where can people connect with your work and people learn more about LinkedIn? 

Speaker 4 (00:32:44) - I'm on LinkedIn and other than that. That's pretty. That's pretty much it linkedIn. 

Speaker 2 (00:32:52) - I love it, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. I really do appreciate you sharing your story with the CX Nation. 

Speaker 4 (00:32:57) - Appreciate it 

Speaker 7 (00:33:15) - all. 

Speaker 2 (00:33:15) - Right, guys. So our next guest. This is awesome, I'm super pumped. Mr Nate Brown, I'm gonna CXChronicles podcast, so I have to call this out before we even jump in. Last time Mr Nate Brown was with me in the CXChronicles podcast, episode 124- man, we think last week was one- was 255 or 256. So it is an honor to have you back and it is honored to be here with you today in Pinehurst, North Carolina. 

Speaker 4 (00:33:39) - Let me just say how amazing your, your content is, the consistency of it. Congratulations on. I appreciate crossing that 250 milestone. 

Speaker 2 (00:33:47) - It means a ton coming from you because, because this is one of the OG's in our CX space, there's a few people that are literally like Hall of Fames. Yeah, chef genie, like, seriously, like you guys are part of like. When I started all this stuff several years ago, I thought I started to want to like maybe I should go tell stories. Maybe I want, because I kind of had gotten to where you guys all were. Yeah, it's like. 

Speaker 2 (00:34:07) - seen a bunch of businesses in action, saw a bunch of customer-focused business leaders in action. 

Speaker 1 (00:34:11) - Something's going on here. 

Speaker 2 (00:34:12) - Worked with a bunch of incredible guys and gals that should have maybe had a little bit more from a CX and an EX support and leadership front. And I just, that was my way of just jumping in and wanting to tell stories, share stories, curate stories, chronicle what the best and the brightest were doing. 

Speaker 5 (00:34:27) - And here we are today, brother. 

Speaker 2 (00:34:28) - So I appreciate that. I really, I do. 

Speaker 1 (00:34:30) - Well, if you're talking Jeannie, Shep, those folks, I'm, I'm, I am a student of this work. I'm learning from, from the folks that, that design great experiences. And I love, I love finding the folks that are just out there doing the work heads down in the trench, innovating, like elevating their voices as you have done so well. That's, that's a good thing. 

Speaker 2 (00:34:50) - I very much appreciate that. Most people that are listening to CXChronicles already know who you are, but take a couple of minutes, introduce yourself, talk about some of the incredible work you're doing, talk about what you're, what you're doing with Metric Sherpa, and then talk about how you were part of this awesome event all week and what we're getting to go do later too. 

Speaker 5 (00:35:08) - I would love to do that. 

Speaker 7 (00:35:08) - Yeah. 

Speaker 5 (00:35:09) - I'm a, I'm a Nashville dude. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:11) - I play the mandolin. The best hot chicken is Hattie B's. Nice. I love golf and we're about to play some golf. I'm, I'm a semi-professional disc golfer. 

Speaker 2 (00:35:24) - MP40 in the senior division. Seriously? 

Speaker 7 (00:35:26) - Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:27) - So I'm PDGA number 27, eight, nine, eight. 

Speaker 2 (00:35:30) - No kidding. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:31) - Which is like, oh, just talking about OG stuff. I've been playing disc golf a long dang time, my friend. 

Speaker 5 (00:35:36) - It got really popular during COVID. Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:39) - So I went back in college, I joined PDGA. Okay. 

Speaker 5 (00:35:41) - But my pickleball is what I really, that's what I've been playing the most. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:44) - Love, love, love pickleball and the community element around it. It's amazing how much people get a sense of identity from it. They can jump right in. 

Speaker 5 (00:35:52) - And that, that helped me a lot, you know, during that pandemic period. 

Speaker 2 (00:35:55) - The fastest growing sport in America during that time. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:57) - Oh, not only the fastest growing sport still. 

Speaker 2 (00:36:00) - Yeah, still is, right? 

Speaker 1 (00:36:00) - But the, the fastest velocity that has ever been seen in terms of growth of a sport. 

Speaker 7 (00:36:06) - Yep. 

Speaker 1 (00:36:06) - Maybe since racquetball in the 1930s. 

Speaker 7 (00:36:08) - That's crazy. 

Speaker 2 (00:36:09) - Um, I know that, um, uh, in our hometown, we literally, where we, uh, where our tennis courts are, we just had three or four pickleball courts added onto us. So like, no more adding tennis courts. They're literally adding pickleball courts and the damn things are constantly bumping. They're always bumping. 

Speaker 1 (00:36:23) - I'm glad you said added on because the tennis players are freaking out because we just converted some old tennis courts to pickleball and oh my gosh, people go crazy. 

Speaker 2 (00:36:30) - People go nuts. 

Speaker 1 (00:36:30) - But I love customer experience work. I'm a student of this work, as mentioned, started in customer service. I was selling postage meters on the streets of Jacksonville, Florida. Wasn't super good at that, but I love servicing those that had one. And so jumped into that world, eventually took ownership of a customer service team inside of a learning management company and, uh, you know, grew into asking the question, why do these tickets keep coming? Why are they repeating themselves? 

Speaker 1 (00:36:54) - Like, how can we go upstream in the customer journey, which was a word I was figuring out and, and actually relate to these customers a little better and partner with them to achieve their definition of success to use that story brand quote. And I have been on a quest to learn and understand what this customer experience work needs to be ever since. I don't think anybody's truly figured it out and it's changing every day, every day, every damn day changes. I love that about it. I love that about it. 

Speaker 1 (00:37:19) - And it's never been more important because of the community element and you cannot separate good CX from community. As I know, we're going to talk about a hundred percent. 

Speaker 2 (00:37:29) - Well, a couple of things before we get into that, the number one, it's this notion of just like totally agree with you. One of the reasons why this is a space and a thing and a place and a craft that I absolutely love and, and, and I've gotten just addicted to, I love, I love this. It's because of people have jobs that they say they love because every day's different. Lots of people say that our jobs couldn't be more true. Every business you walk into has got a different set of problems. 

Speaker 2 (00:37:55) - Every team that you are privileged to go be a part of or to work with or tool work alongside a supported coach has got their similar things, but all of them have slightly different nuances. Then you get into technology guys. I know that most of the world uses the same sets of software, the same sets of technology, but everybody uses them a little bit different. So everybody pulls that stuff. It's supposed to be out of the box. I mean, literally you throw it up there into the real world. 

Speaker 1 (00:38:17) - They use a totally different, or they find all these edge cases or use cases or workarounds. 

Speaker 2 (00:38:21) - And then lastly processes and processes and feedback, which is like, there's still all these different ways that people decide how to build their play books, document their playbooks, chronicle the good, the bad, the ugly. And then lastly, you know, like there's every company has a different way of, do you listen to your employees? And you get frontline feedback and you bring that, bake that right back into the culture, the ethos and mission, or do you not? 

Speaker 2 (00:38:42) - At a minimum, do you listen to your customer feedback and hear what your customers and your users say? So like, to me, man, that's one of the reasons why I love this space is it's every business is different. Every new account or every new client is a totally different thing, but it all builds upon each other. It's almost like a crazy Lego set, man. It just, you keep getting different parts out of it and start putting shit together. That's one of the reasons why I love this stuff. 

Speaker 7 (00:39:03) - Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:03) - And that Lego set will never be finished. 

Speaker 7 (00:39:05) - Yeah. 

Speaker 5 (00:39:07) - And I love how you talk about, you know, incorporating the VOC element. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:10) - Like my heartbeat since 2017 has been, how can we help this new generation of CX professionals to have a rich and rewarding career? 

Speaker 7 (00:39:17) - Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:39:18) - to anchor in really well, because I felt really lonely in this work. 

Speaker 7 (00:39:21) - Totally. Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:21) - I couldn't quite find a home in the, the, the macro association, which I won't mention here, but like, it's like, where, where can I fit into this work and learn from others in a great way? So I started up CX Accelerator. 

Speaker 2 (00:39:33) - Yeah, right. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:34) - Which has helped a lot of people on that journey. 

Speaker 2 (00:39:36) - A hundred percent. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:37) - But more recently hooked in with MetricSherpa, Justin Robbins, founder of MetricSherpa, and he's brought me on as the head of education and enablement. 

Speaker 2 (00:39:45) - Fantastic. You're perfect for that. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:46) - I've never been more alive in my career than I am at this moment. The things that we're getting to do through MetricSherpa, it's awesome. 

Speaker 2 (00:39:53) - That's amazing. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:54) - It's awesome. 

Speaker 2 (00:39:54) - That's amazing. Give me a sense for some of the things that you guys are doing, or the types of clients or the So it's focused on solution providers. 

Speaker 7 (00:40:01) - Okay. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:02) - And so how can we help them with their go-to-market messaging to get out there in a very dynamic and special way and to truly connect with their customers? 

Speaker 2 (00:40:10) - Okay. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:10) - But then we don't stop there. 

Speaker 7 (00:40:11) - Yep. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:12) - We're analysts in that sense, but then how do we actually make people better at the work? 

Speaker 2 (00:40:16) - Yeah, right. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:17) - And make the stuff come to life and make it stick for them with upskilling customer service skill, with having great education programs that make the information, the analyst content, actually come to life for those people that are doing the work. 

Speaker 2 (00:40:32) - Is that driving it straight into an LMS? Is that bringing it right into decks or playbooks so that people can see what everybody's just unearthed and what everybody kind of dug into, and then they know how to work it? How is it done and what does it look like? 

Speaker 1 (00:40:42) - It will be all of those things. Right now, it's taking the shape in the form of a great equipping experience, an on-site equipping experience where high potential customer service workers are being sent. 

Speaker 7 (00:40:54) - Yep. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:54) - They're being equipped in a very hands-on custom way. And they're being sent back into their organizations on mission, ready to just do incredible stuff. 

Speaker 2 (00:41:04) - This is like a Six Sigma of CX almost. 

Speaker 1 (00:41:07) - I like that. 

Speaker 2 (00:41:08) - Right? Nobody's said that before. 

Speaker 1 (00:41:09) - These little badass Navy SEALs. We're in the right town for that. 

Speaker 2 (00:41:15) - If you go into an Irish pub around here, you're going to see some people and some dogs, some dogs that could beat you up. there is a lot of interesting folks that can do that. What does this look like? What does a normal type of process look like? How long do people get to come spend time with you adjusting to you? What types of things are you specifically digging into? Are there different options for some of the folks that are going to be interested in how they can learn about how you might be able to help their organizations? 

Speaker 2 (00:41:43) - What does that give us a sense for what a common type of engagement might look like? 

Speaker 7 (00:41:46) - Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:41:47) - I mean, up to now, I mean, this is all pretty new, right, Adrian? But I've been on site with clients helping to equip them, just building teams, listening, learning, and being involved with alongside them. But now, truly developing a program that we're going to launch very soon, where we're going to be inviting people into a two, three-day experience that's very custom-built for these high-potential frontline people up to team leaders. 

Speaker 2 (00:42:14) - Yeah, yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:42:15) - So that's really what that's going to look like. So more to come on that, and we're very excited. 

Speaker 2 (00:42:18) - You know, I mean, I know you know this, and I know Justin knows this, because you guys are like me, where you've been just around and a part of and with so many businesses and so many business leaders. This is something that every business has to start paying attention to. Because I noticed every one of the accounts that we've worked with at CXC over the last five years, there's already a guy or a gal or there's already some individual that before a Nate Brown or an Adrian walks in, they're already like, chop, let's go. 

Speaker 1 (00:42:47) - They already know some of the pains. They already know. 

Speaker 2 (00:42:50) - Like SWAT, you want me to, here, let me save you time. Here's the SWAT right here. I SWAT in it. This is where we're strong. This is where we're weak. This is the opportunity. This is the threat. This is what I've been telling my executive leadership team for three months. This is what I've been telling my executive leadership team for 12 months. That person exists. Those people are in almost every company. 

Speaker 2 (00:43:06) - The faster that those people can be empowered, enabled, supported, let's call it what it is, guys, because a lot of the folks that we worked with at CXC, they just need another person to amplify the voice, activate them, get them ready to rock and roll. And then maybe the last bit of the polishing that they needed was a little bit of help with managing the ladder, because they're already great at managing down and they're a little bit of support and help with like, wait a minute. 

Speaker 2 (00:43:34) - Maybe if we talk about our reports with this financial type of tie, there might be a little bit more of a response to that. But what are some of the things that I guess you've seen as common things? What are like things that for our listeners and our people, man, like what are things that you're seeing on a regular basis? You already know the companies have got to like get better at either paying attention or allowing the people that are empowered to get more authority and autonomy to push ahead and to charge change. 

Speaker 1 (00:44:03) - Oh, man.

Speaker 1 (00:44:05) - As you're saying that, I'm thinking about Gandalf rolling into the Shire when they talk about I've been labeled. Yeah, like they're like these, these activated people that are that are, they're like considered troublemakers, like they're disturbers of the peace. 

Speaker 2 (00:44:21) - Super fair, shouldn't be? Shouldn't be. 

Speaker 1 (00:44:23) - Like you know, it's like just, a lot of times, leadership is taking the the stance of just let us operate. Yeah, just pushing me. Yeah, right, pushing me. But, like, what I love to think about is because, a lot of times, you got those folks that exist in two varieties: yeah, you've got the one who's a challenger. Yeah, and inertia is the most dangerous force in these organizations. Like, that's what leaders need to focus on: breaking inertia, breaking the status quo and bringing in good, intelligent innovation. 

Speaker 2 (00:44:48) - Yeah, and activating the right people in the right place. 

Speaker 1 (00:44:52) - Yep, so you have challengers that are all about themselves. Yeah, that's not super helpful. Right, they're activated because they're ambitious for their own career. Yeah, and that's good, and that person is useful, but not near as useful as what I've been calling the servant challenger. Ah, okay, so let's, let's layer on this idea of somebody who's activated in the way, yeah, of elevating those around them. Okay, I've activated in the way of. I care so much about this company and their brand promise that I, I will, I will go to the mat to defend it. 

Speaker 1 (00:45:24) - Yeah, and, and because I, I'm serving, I'm serving in this way, I'm a line, I'm locked in and I'm also I care so much, I am challenging. Yeah, I'm pushing the status quo around me. Yeah, but it's a different flavor. Yes, then like, yeah, ah, look at me, I'm so good, I'm so smart, like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be promoted in six months. 

Speaker 2 (00:45:43) - Yeah, I'm not saying that's bad, but it's different. Yep, and in, leaders need to cultivate servant challengers. 

Speaker 1 (00:45:50) - Yeah, to make the objectives that need to happen, for for CX programs to have value, yeah, and for us to be able to experience collective genius, to use that phrase from Linda Hill- yeah, yeah, we have to cultivate servant challengers. 

Speaker 2 (00:46:02) - I love that: servant challengers. I guess you don't. It makes me think I knew. What you just made me think about anyway, was I remember when Simon Sinek- it just fucking, you know- exploded into the world? Then there would be individuals in certain companies that they would do: but why, but why, but why? Now, some people would to your point, what you're making me think about. Some people would say in a way where you're like: what do you mean? Why this is we're spending another five minutes talking about. 

Speaker 2 (00:46:27) - But there are some people that said the why in more of a servant, yeah, but wait, help me understand. Yeah, what, if and why, and then how I help. And they're doing it. And there's a difference of style. 

Speaker 1 (00:46:41) - Yes, yes, yes, one comes across. Yes, race of AF, right. 

Speaker 2 (00:46:46) - The other one comes across for every single person in room. Yes, people want to go really fast and they're operating quickly. Even they'll stop and go. Oh shit, you're not wrong. Why do right? We do it. And so there's something about bringing more and more and more of that to businesses across of the world and, frankly, guys to the future leaders of tomorrow. Like that's the reality is. 

Speaker 2 (00:47:09) - Like, if we can instill some of that stuff now, or make that more normal now, or make that part of what it really is, yeah, if you get the big job or to get the big roller do, then maybe there is hope for the future in terms of some of the things that we're gonna see. A promise and who do you want to build a community with? The first person? 

Speaker 1 (00:47:27) - Yeah, it's challenging, in a selfish lens, yep. 

Speaker 2 (00:47:30) - Or the second person, 100%, yeah, it's challenging to build something meaningful, yeah, for people beyond themselves. 

Speaker 1 (00:47:35) - Yeah, who do you want to have being community when you know? 

Speaker 2 (00:47:38) - You already know, brother, you already know. 

Speaker 1 (00:47:39) - So I mean that. That's. That's how these CX principles, yeah, they overlap in all these amazing politics, every type of organization, even if it's country-based, or is it totally? And so far we've just talked about inside the organization. 

Speaker 2 (00:47:52) - Yes, as we start to talk about outward, towards customers, yeah, this manifests in a completely different way this amazing CX community overlap. Yep, it's. This is we could have. I wish we had more we're going to do around this, but this is incredible. I think, before, before we wrap up on today's meeting, what I wanted, a couple things. Where could people reach out to you and to justin? Yeah, number one, and then number two: what am I going to see out of the golf course today? What am I? What am I going to see out of piners today? 

Speaker 2 (00:48:22) - Yeah, and what are we playing for her? 

Speaker 1 (00:48:24) - I wish we could go over to the pickleball courts because I feel a little more confident. You'd want me in pickleball, I, I, uh, I borrowed a set of clubs from a dear friend of mine. Okay, but it's going to be a little different than than what i'm used to. I used to be really good at golf and that's the most annoying I see being really good at golf because we like like somebody who's a really good runner when they're younger and takes a long break and then they go out and run. They can no longer run a mile in five minutes and 30 seconds. 

Speaker 1 (00:48:53) - They destroy their bodies trying, absolutely because you can't just go enjoy running, yeah, without looking at the clock and realizing how much slower that you are. That that's me right now trying to play golf and it's just kind of sad, so i'm going to make a concerted effort. 

Speaker 2 (00:49:06) - Okay, good, good, good, good, good, best friend, that's, that's what we're all here for. Um, dave brown has been an absolute pleasure for let's go. Where can people get in touch with you? 

Speaker 1 (00:49:14) - Uh, so for those jumping into this work and looking to connect with others, the non-profit of cx accelerator: yep, start there, jump in there. We'd love to have you as part of that. Always free for members, we'll always be free. 

Speaker 1 (00:49:26) - For those looking to accelerate these things that we're talking about, business leaders, those that are wanting to burst forward in their career in a deeper way, metricsherpa.com. And Justin and I are both very active on LinkedIn. Follow Metricsherpa, follow both of us individually. We have some truly great things coming up right around the corner. 

Speaker 2 (00:49:44) - I love it, and I can attest, guys, Nate is one of the very, very best in the business. His content, his ideas, the things that he's been doing, the places that he goes, the people that he speaks to, the groups and the people that watch you with in every single year, man. Seriously, awesome work, brother. 

Speaker 1 (00:49:57) - It's a fun space to be in. 

Speaker 2 (00:49:58) - Love it, man. Guys, Nate Brown, thank you so much for joining the CXChronicles podcast. 

Speaker 1 (00:50:01) - Thanks, everybody. 

Speaker 2 (00:50:02) - All right, guys, okay, so she goes right to our next guest. Jen and Erica, two of the Insta Team's finest joining us. Jen, Erica, say hello to the CX Nation. 

Speaker 3 (00:50:26) - Hi, CX Nation. Hello, everyone. 

Speaker 2 (00:50:29) - Why don't we start off with some introductions? Jen, why don't you start first? Your name, how long you've been at Insta Teams in your role today and what are some of the things that you're doing today here at Insta Teams? 

Speaker 3 (00:50:39) - Awesome. Well, first of all, thanks, Adrian, for having us. This is super exciting. My name's Jen Martin and I am the strategic partnership manager here at Insta Teams. I am also a military spouse of almost 18 years. We are currently stationed at Fort Knox, soon to be Fort Bragg again this summer, so we're very excited about that. 

Speaker 2 (00:50:59) - They're changing or updating? 

Speaker 3 (00:51:01) - Yes, so it has officially changed. It was Fort Bragg, then Fort Liberty, now Fort Bragg again. So we are back to gold. 

Speaker 2 (00:51:09) - That's amazing. And so what are the one or two biggest things that you're focused on or that you're doing here at Insta Teams every single day? 

Speaker 3 (00:51:16) - Yeah, so really, it's about building community and relationships and bringing opportunities to the military spouse community through remote work and community connections. So that way, when they move to a new duty station, they can have the consistency within their careers to take those with them. And if they're not quite in their career state yet, they have community that they can plug into right away and they can get to that point where they're starting off on the right foot in their new community. 

Speaker 3 (00:51:44) - So that way they can not only survive in this lifestyle, but thrive. 

Speaker 1 (00:51:48) - I love it, I love it. 

Speaker 2 (00:51:49) - Erica, how about yourself? So your name, your role, how long have you been working at Insta Teams for? 

Speaker 3 (00:51:54) - I am, well, thank you for having us on, Erica here. I'm also a strategic partnership manager here at Insta Teams and we're located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. So one hour outside of our headquarters here in Southern Pines, North Carolina. 

Speaker 2 (00:52:08) - And some of the big things you're thinking about are one of the big one or two things that you're doing every single solitary day here at Insta Teams to drive the mission, drive the community, drive the growth of the ecosystem. 

Speaker 3 (00:52:17) - Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm really excited to partner with Jen. So the two of us are kind of like your Swiss army knife, if you will, in the world, going after brands and building those bridges between those relationships. 

Speaker 3 (00:52:28) - Like Jen said, we are all about building community here and so what that means is just letting the business community know that there is so much untapped opportunity within the military spouse community and how do we tie those two things together so we get that beautiful synergy of great business ROI mixed with wonderful relationship building. 

Speaker 1 (00:52:45) - I love it. 

Speaker 2 (00:52:46) - And guys, I want you to jump right in. Jen, let's start with you and then we can move to Erica, but let's do some education for our listeners because last night, guys, when we got here, we had an incredible conversation. You guys dropped so much military spouse, just general economic knowledge on me, it was crazy. Let's start with some of the basics. Can you talk about, or can you give our listeners an idea, how many people are we talking about in the military spouse community? And then some of the nuances that you and Erica kind of walked me through. 

Speaker 2 (00:53:13) - Can you give the listeners just like a high level around the people that we're talking about and how big this space is, how many people it really does impact and affect? 

Speaker 3 (00:53:20) - Yeah, so the military spouse community that we reach is over 12 million spouses. That's between active duty, guard, reserve, veterans, and Gold Star spouses. And they're stationed all over the world or they've retired out of the military or they're kind of on the other side of this active duty lifestyle. 

Speaker 3 (00:53:38) - And so really the military spouse community is amazing for CX talent because it's one of those things where, throughout this journey, they have such unique lived experiences from moving every two to three years that they become almost like superheroes for customers' customers because they can really relate with those customers no matter what the situation is. If it's a crisis situation, if it's problem solving, stress management, conflict resolution, right? They have really honed in on those skills being in this lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (00:54:14) - You know, through deployments and every other thing that you know, it's kind of thrown at you. You learn to adapt and cope in that environment and so when it comes to the customer's customer, they can really solve all the problems. 

Speaker 2 (00:54:27) - Yep, it's funny. So, like guys Jen and Erica were telling me last night, for example, many of us who don't have military family or we're not connected to folks that are super close to us, whether it's best friends or family in the military you guys were talking about, it is super common for military spouses to not only shop for it and buy every house, shop for it and buy every car, shop for it and buy all the groceries, deal with the kids, deal with school. Oh wait, we're moving in six months, two at a time. 

Speaker 7 (00:54:57) - So wait, let me. 

Speaker 2 (00:54:57) - Let me go figure that whole thing all out all over again. Well, their spouses are across seas protecting their country, either being deployed to another mission where they're dealing with something else, and they're not available, right? I don't think a lot of people that are close to the space realize. I mean, life is hard enough as it is. 

Speaker 2 (00:55:15) - This is something that you're talking about: an extremely resilient, flexible, pliable, adaptable and, just frankly, badass vehicle that like can like just get shit done every single time today and then they do a smile: um, Erica, why don't? I'd love for you to expand on the, the building the bridges. So there's a couple of things. Happening is teams. 

Speaker 2 (00:55:35) - Number one: we have built this incredible boutique, PPO, that serves all these incredible customers out there that want to leverage the fact that we've got these incredible men and women across the world, across all these different time zones. And for the reminder guys, if, if, if, some of our military spouses are sitting on a base, they're technically sitting in a stateside seat on us, so a lot of people don't realize that, but spend spend a minute or two time to talk about the bridge building. 

Speaker 2 (00:55:58) - So, like one part of it is, we have business services, but then you and Jen were talking- a late class said to me about we're also building a massive community here. We're building a community and it's almost like a support group for military spouses across the world. 

Speaker 7 (00:56:12) - that. 

Speaker 3 (00:56:12) - Yeah, totally. So really, the big thing here is opening up those connection points. So many, many businesses spend their time trying to reach the veteran and the military community at length and at volume and they struggle to do that because they're not necessarily these open channels to talk to these communities directly. And that's where instant teams comes in. We build community aspects right, so we build out partnerships. We are putting on events all across the country to engage this audience. 

Speaker 3 (00:56:37) - So what's very unique about instant teams is that because we open up the space and provide that level of safety and security and support for the military spouse community, they come to us, which is very rare in this community. It's hard to get people to come out of their homes and show up, and so for businesses with. The great thing here is that they're able to talk to the community in less of a solicited way and more of a direct and authentic way. 

Speaker 3 (00:57:01) - And so what's really amazing is that these partners will come to our events and get to wrap their arms around these military spouses and say: we see you, we recognize what it takes to be a military spouse and we understand that you may be the unsung hero in the household because, like you said, there are a million roles and responsibilities that these men and women need to do and they pivot on a dime 24-7.. 

Speaker 3 (00:57:22) - And when I say 24-7, I mean overnight, I mean as soon as you wake up, sometimes to the middle of the night, it's just constantly walking in through new doors. So the way that we're able to really put our arms around them and bring the business community together with these military spouses translates to wonderful loyalty. Like Jen said, they are great brand ambassadors for your brand, specifically because they are so appreciative to be seen and recognized, because it is a hard life to be a part of. 

Speaker 2 (00:57:51) - Yeah, one quick follow-up question. I know we talked about this lately last night, guys, but what were people doing before missions and before some of these incredible groups against teams to provide some of that support or to provide just that ability to connect or that ability to have some type of community? What was happening before or what was happening previously? 

Speaker 3 (00:58:13) - Yeah, so you know, when we were at the height of the war, it was a little bit different, because spouses really depended on the military units and the government to provide that information to them, right, you know whether it's information about their service member, what's happening, the details, and so really they were kind of bonded through that experience of deployments, right, and so now that we've kind of come off of that, we've realized over the years that you have to evolve with the spouse community. 

Speaker 3 (00:58:40) - So what they needed then wasn't necessarily the same as what they need now, but they still crave that connection, like they crave the community building the human to human interaction. And so that's really where we're coming in. We're bringing the community back to them, but in a unique and fun way. So for so long, spouses have often been referred to as a plus one to the service members. Right, because service members are the spotlight in this community. 

Speaker 3 (00:59:04) - And so Instant Teams is taking a different narrative. The spouses are the spotlight we want to really give back to the spouse community because they just bring so much to the table, and so you know- that's what we've learned over the years- is we're here for them. Right, the service members have so many resources, but let's bring the spouses into the spotlight, let's recognize them, let's, you know, really celebrate them and what they bring. 

Speaker 2 (00:59:29) - I love it. Erica, a question around give the listeners a sense for how does somebody that's already in a military spouse situation but they're looking for more, they're looking for community, they're looking for maybe they've gotten to the point now where they're on their second or their third move and they're like shit. You know what I need to find a place that is able to jive with me and have baked in flexibility from day one around. If I work with an Instant Teams, for example, I know that it doesn't matter what's going to happen. 

Speaker 2 (00:59:56) - I still have an opportunity to be bootleg. Spend a minute or two talking about sort of how some of the job placements or how some of the job boards or how some of the ways that we actually go about helping our community find new employment opportunities. Can you spend a minute or two kind of talking about at a high level what that looks like, right for sure? 

Speaker 3 (01:00:12) - Well, I mean, I think the big thing to recognize is that that's many people's stories. It's similar to my story. My husband decided to join the military less than two years ago and it was a completely different lifestyle that we were living, both of us fully in our careers, and then made this huge life change, or pivot, if you will, to be a part of this community. And it is difficult to find those resources. 

Speaker 3 (01:00:34) - So that is what is really setting Instant Teams apart is that we are the first people in the first community that says: we're coming to you, we're supporting you, whether it's locally in Clarksville or here in Fort Liberty or wherever you are. We're coming to your bases and we're providing that level of partnership. We're bringing businesses to your community and we're saying, hey, you may be new here, but you're not recreating the wheel. We are here to support that life change and decisions that you're making. 

Speaker 3 (01:00:59) - And like, let's not forget, this is your service member is doing a civic duty and the military spouse is supporting that and it's that great sacrifice. 

Speaker 7 (01:01:06) - Right? 

Speaker 3 (01:01:07) - These are families that are similar to my family. We're dual income households that then have to figure out: okay, we're moving across the country, maybe I can't take my job with me, and so what Instant Teams is doing is we're going out, we're talking to the businesses and we're advocating on behalf of the military spouse and saying, hey, if you are partnering with Instant Teams, you have an alliance with us saying that you have a duty, a responsibility and an understanding to support the military spouse. 

Speaker 3 (01:01:31) - So when we send you our workers, we're pre-vetting them if you will and say, hey, you are a military spouse-friendly business or a military-friendly hiring business. Let's make sure the word is out there and go to that community directly and present them the opportunities. 

Speaker 2 (01:01:46) - I love it. I love it. Quick question for you: what the big jump or the life event that you and your husband went through? Which part of the service does your husband serve in today? 

Speaker 3 (01:01:56) - Yeah, so he joined the United States Army. He was previously an aerospace engineer for a very large company out of Seattle. 

Speaker 2 (01:02:03) - Okay, Jen, I want to ask you the same thing: what part of the service is your spouse in today? 

Speaker 3 (01:02:09) - We're also in the Army, so he's special operations. 

Speaker 2 (01:02:12) - So just some incredible ideas here, guys. Just some incredible things. Because I'm telling you, I know that people that aren't close to the space, they don't think about some stuff and then when we talk about it, the same type of reaction we had last night. I was like wait a minute, this makes so much sense. How isn't there a bunch of support or a bunch of competition, even frankly, around how you're gonna help all of these people just have a sense of belonging community. 

Speaker 2 (01:02:36) - And then you get to the business stuff which is like, obviously you guys- you heard me joking with you last night about it, but Jen- spend maybe a minute or two talking about. In the 18 years that you've been a military spouse, has there ever been any types of organizations or groups or missions that have come anywhere close to some of the incredible stuff that you guys are building here in Instant Teams today? 

Speaker 3 (01:03:00) - Gosh, I mean, I've had so many jobs over the years as a spouse. I don't think so. You know, Instant Teams is unique because not only are you W2ed and on their payroll, but you also get PCS leave. They are founded by military spouses, so they get what you're going through right every time you have to pick up and PCS. But that's the other thing with them being remote as a spouse, you can have that career continuity and you can continue to grow and hit your career goals right. So other companies: you may work there for a couple of years, then you move. 

Speaker 2 (01:03:36) - You have to start all over. 

Speaker 3 (01:03:38) - We all know how the job market is and how tough it is. But Instant Teams is really changing that for military spouses, because they are spouses and so they've walked in your shoes, they've been there and they can solve business problems with real military spouse talent and it's a perfect match, because military spouses, they want to be dual income but they need the flexibility of remote so that way they can take that with them when they move. But they're also just so loyal- right. They're very appreciative for what you can give them as a company. 

Speaker 3 (01:04:10) - If you can give them that continuity, right, not only are they starting and stopping new communities every time they move, but they're starting and stopping careers. So let's change that. Let's make remote opportunities for spouses. 

Speaker 3 (01:04:23) - is to have that career growth, and it really just, it pours back into the military community as a whole. Creates stability, creates financial wellness, and that's really what Instant Teams is doing, and they are knocking it out of the park. 

Speaker 2 (01:04:37) - I love it, I love it. Erika, what is one big thing that you're most excited about for this year that you personally and the team are gonna be focused on and that you're gonna, it's gonna be one of the biggest goals or one of the big subjectives that you got in front of you for the rest of 2025? 

Speaker 6 (01:04:55) - Oh my gosh, that's such a trick question because everything is so exciting. Like every line of business that we do is opening up and creating opportunities for these families, so you really do see that level of gratitude. Jen and I constantly, we get on our Zoom calls and we say, it feels like the ceiling's about to break over our heads because every conversation we enter into, businesses have the exact same experience you do where it goes, aha, oh my gosh, there's a way to do it that is sustainable and makes sense. 

Speaker 6 (01:05:23) - If I were to double click on what Jen said, 40% of this community is underemployed and one fifth of them experience food insecurity, so it is no joke. When they say they get the opportunity to come to work, they are excited, they're willing. They've been sitting on the sidelines. Erika and Liza, our co-founders, will tell you we have nearly 70,000 active job seekers waiting for that opportunity. And we can't get jobs in front of them fast enough. They get snapped up so quickly. So what I'm excited about is seeing the impact that we make. 

Speaker 6 (01:05:53) - And when we come to events, like you're coming to our event this week, you see the people firsthand. It becomes very real. You understand their stories and you get to know who they are. And that's what's exciting to me is you're changing lives. 

Speaker 7 (01:06:04) - I love it. 

Speaker 2 (01:06:05) - Jen, same question for you. 

Speaker 3 (01:06:07) - Yeah, I mean, to reiterate what Afa Erika said, it's the impact, right? So we have 70,000 plus military spouses waiting for their next opportunity. They're highly educated, highly skilled, and they just want the opportunity to be plugged in somewhere. 

Speaker 6 (01:06:25) - And I think that's what makes Instant Teams unique is the sense that we're boutique BPO, right? 

Speaker 3 (01:06:31) - So we can build small teams, right? Let us get in there. We'll outperform your teams all day long. You know, if you wanna start with two, grow from there, 10, great, let's do it, right? But we can also scale if you need more than that. The other opportunity that we have that I think is really cool for spouses and companies alike is our job board. So if companies are hiring and maybe it's only one or two seats or it's different roles, they can actually add their jobs to our job board and pull from our spouse talent. 

Speaker 3 (01:07:00) - And so, you know, it's a great place for companies to start. It's very hands-off, super easy to do, but they're creating that impact and that's really what we wanna drive home, right? I think it goes back to what you said, A'Jane, is people just don't know a lot about the military community. And that's not always their fault, right? It's just your point of reference. 

Speaker 2 (01:07:23) - Absolutely. 

Speaker 3 (01:07:24) - But if they ever get a chance to talk to a spouse or wanna talk to a spouse, come have a conversation. We'll tell you our stories. 

Speaker 6 (01:07:30) - We have thousands of them. 

Speaker 3 (01:07:32) - And it's just amazing to hear. 

Speaker 2 (01:07:34) - I love it. Again, for our listeners, think about this for a second. Hit pause, rewind, go back to what Jenn and Eric just said. Every one of you guys has some need in your business right this second that you're either, you've been, can't find the right person, having trouble even getting leads, getting people to respond to the data. There is a football stadium of people ready to rock and roll that are spread across the world, have all this diverse expertise, education, the pliability and the flexibility, just the resilience. 

Speaker 2 (01:08:09) - We've already kind of dealt with all that. Pre-vetted part of what Eric is talking about. This is a super interesting space and this is something that I just, I know that you guys are super proud of where you're building an incredible business and incredible organization, incredible community. And I'm thrilled that we were able to come down here with y'all this weekend and share some of the story. You guys are doing a dynamite job too. 

Speaker 2 (01:08:28) - Before I let you go, where can people that are listening to this specific interview, where can people get in touch with you if they wanna learn more, Jenn and Erica, about what it's like to actually be in a military spouse role? And then, or if they wanna learn more about stuff that you guys are doing here today as a team, where can they get in touch with you guys? 

Speaker 3 (01:08:43) - Yeah, I mean, you can definitely reach Erica and I both on LinkedIn or just go to our website. It's instantteams.com, you know, set up a call. We would love to have a conversation with anybody, even if it's just trying to figure out like, what do military spouses do, right? 

Speaker 7 (01:08:57) - Exactly, yeah. 

Speaker 3 (01:08:57) - You're curious. Yes, yes. 

Speaker 2 (01:08:58) - And your wealth of information for anybody that does, that is in the seat or comes across this story and it resoNates with you. These two women have a ton of information and knowledge and experience to boot. So Jen, Erica, it's an absolute pleasure having you guys in the CXChronicles podcast and I wish you the very best of luck in the future. 

Speaker 3 (01:09:16) - Thank you so much. 

Speaker 7 (01:09:16) - Thank you for having us. 

Speaker 2 (01:09:17) - Absolutely, thanks guys. 

Speaker 6 (01:09:19) - Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19) - All right, guys. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of CXChronicles podcast. I have the two amazing ladies with me today: Liza Rodewald and Erica McMannes, the two women that have made all of this possible for us, not just today, but for this week- and throwing this incredible CX Summit 2025.. Why don't you, ladies, say hello to CX Nation? 

Speaker 6 (01:09:55) - I'll go first. 

Speaker 7 (01:09:58) - You want to go first? Yeah, whoever wants to start? 

Speaker 6 (01:09:59) - Yeah, thanks so much, Adrian. I'm Erica McMannes. I'm the Chief Experience Officer here at Instant Teams, as well as the company co-founders. Liza and I started the company about eight years ago now, which is incredible and really what we're doing this week here in our headquarters space and what we're just doing with our mission overall in the CX industry has really culmiNated into these conversations around where our really unique talent pool of military spouses belongs- in the CX industry, and so we're really excited to talk about that today. 

Speaker 6 (01:10:28) - Excited to be here. I'm Liza Rodewald. I'm the CEO and co-founder alongside Erica McMannes. We are both military spouses. My husband's still active duty, so we've got four more years left to go before we become on the veteran side of the house, so really excited to talk about how military spouses really fit into the CX space, our vision for that and how that has come about, and I think the CX Summit was a culmination of years of us putting those things together, so it was really exciting to see it come together. 

Speaker 2 (01:10:55) - I 100% agree with you and I'm not just saying this because you guys- I was honored and privileged to be a part of it but, like you guys, did a dynamite job and it was something. It's, first of all, the thing that I'm you're going to hear me say again and again and again in all these conversations and all these interviews today. 

Speaker 2 (01:11:08) - This is a space and a place that, unless you have somebody in your life or in your family or in your best friend's group that understands, like, the intricacies of what it's really like to be a military family member or military spouse, you don't understand until you get to spend a bunch of time with incredible folks like y'all that like not only do you live it, breathe it, feel it, love it, cause you can feel it with every single person that I got the opportunity and the privilege to chat with today. You can feel it. 

Speaker 2 (01:11:35) - You can feel how important it is, you can feel how it's part of your lives. It's who you are, it's who your family is and I don't know. I think I think it's important to call it out with the summit. It was dynamite also for you guys. I hope you're both very proud of yourselves. It was just also cool to have a bunch of awesome people in the CX space that have been doing this stuff for years, military or non-military, completely outside of it. They know the space, they've been around, they've done this stuff in big companies. 

Speaker 2 (01:12:03) - It was really kind of cool for you guys to pull those people together and have like presentation after presentation after presentation or discussion after discussion after discussion. So it was awesome like you guys did a dynamite job and obviously we were thrilled to be a part of it as well with y'all this week. 

Speaker 6 (01:12:17) - Yeah, I really appreciate that. It's been a really neat moment. Like we always say, we didn't mean to end up in the CX industry, but it's where our mission led us. You know we knew that we had to build a business solution. We knew we had a passion to serve our community, which were neighbors and peers who were military spouses who move, you know, every two to three years and needed this opportunity to have remote work, and little did we know that that would lead us to the CX industry. 

Speaker 6 (01:12:41) - So, yes, having these great brands that joined us- and you know CX experts and personalities and content creators like it- just really affirms that where we are as a business right now, we are in the right space, we are focusing in the right places and that this is the right industry for the people that we're trying to serve and bring jobs to as well. 

Speaker 2 (01:13:00) - Liza, to piggyback on what Eric was just saying, at what point did you guys realize whoa, okay, we already know about what's going on with our family and with our friends and with our military people. But to piggyback on what Eric just said, at what point were you like, wait a minute, there's not just- I don't know if I'm my brand, I'm going to say not just the business opportunity here, but was it almost a community opportunity or business opportunity that kind of landed in front of you guys at first, or was it the same at the same time? 

Speaker 2 (01:13:28) - And that's when you realized, okay, this is kind of what we're going to start building. What did that kind of look like? Or give the listeners a sense from some of the early vision or the early mission days? They kind of got you guys ready to rock and roll. 

Speaker 6 (01:13:37) - Yeah, I think it's both at the same time. I think that's what makes our company powerful. Unique and different is because when I first saw that it was a problem, I had my own software company. It was completely remote. I moved into my first neighborhood after my husband and I got married and every single military spouse would just ask me: like how are you working? Like how are you maintaining your career, can you help me? After that, I personally moved six times in seven years. 

Speaker 6 (01:14:00) - So it was like, wow, if I didn't have my own business, I wasn't doing my own thing, I would have been in that same position, right. And so, as business people, Erica was in consulting Silicon Valley, I had my own company. So it was always both right. We're both business people. The Instant Teams is my fourth company. So as an entrepreneur, I'm like, okay, I think there's something we can do here, but we always approached it as what is a business problem we can solve that generates opportunities? 

Speaker 3 (01:14:28) - for the community, not just how do we connect employers to military spouses, but how do we generate opportunities? And we just started iterating on that. And over the years, we found it, right? We found the product market fit, we found the fit for the community and the business side, and that's what makes it work and makes it so powerful. 

Speaker 2 (01:14:47) - I love it. What, in the early days, when you were trying to find product market fit, you were trying to prove that this thing could work, and it was more than just a vision or a dream or an idea, what came first? Was it having a stable of your friends, your incredible military spouse friends that you already knew, you already knew their talent, you already knew what they were great at, you already knew where they could theoretically be deployed into the business world. Was it that, or was it another way? 

Speaker 2 (01:15:09) - You already had a few different business and client accounts opportunities where then it was just sort of going back to naturally, what was the early days like, or what was the beginning, what did it look like? 

Speaker 4 (01:15:20) - Yeah, as a marketplace, that's always the challenge, right? Is like, where do you start? Because at all times we have two huge needs that we have to scale and grow together. We really made a conscious effort to launch the company to the community first. Especially knowing the military spouse intimately as both being military spouses, there was a trust factor that had to be built there around, okay, who are these people? What kind of jobs are they bringing in? What is this brand they're trying to grow? 

Speaker 4 (01:15:48) - And so we really focused on getting our friends, people around us to know what we were doing, to have that buy-in, to see. And it was a little bit different, right? 

Speaker 3 (01:15:55) - It's a for-profit business solution. 

Speaker 4 (01:15:57) - And so how is that working? Where is the business coming from? What types of jobs are there? So we did that probably for six or seven months first before we ever had a real customer. 

Speaker 7 (01:16:06) - Okay. 

Speaker 4 (01:16:07) - And that was really important to us. And that's been the baseline of community ever since. That's part of this community builders week that we're doing right now. Five events and yeah, five different events over the course of this week. 

Speaker 2 (01:16:17) - It's been a busy week for us. 

Speaker 4 (01:16:22) - Yeah, Yeah, and so that just gives us the stability of the marketplace, right? Because without the community and without the remarkable talent that we know and we trust, they now trust us. Now we can build that business model and bring them in to cut the customer. I love it. 

Speaker 2 (01:16:35) - You know, yesterday, Erica and Jen, two of your Dining with Teammates series, they were walking me literally through some of our job boards. I don't know if our listeners understand, guys, we're not talking about, there's big roles in here. There is a huge role. That was one of the things that I was super like, I wasn't surprised, right? 

Speaker 2 (01:16:52) - Because as I get to know you guys better, but like, I don't think people, when they think about the Instant Teams mission or they think about the exterior view of Instant Teams, they're thinking, okay, you've got, I've got sales roles, support roles, maybe maybe daddy entry ticket. There is big roles sitting there for people that are like, number one, I think anybody would be thrilled to have, but I don't think people realize how many different types of opportunities and how many different types of possibilities are out there. That's number one. 

Speaker 2 (01:17:22) - Number two, Jen and Erica left me with this thing that's gonna be stuck in my head the rest of the day. There's like a football stadium of military spouses rearing to go to work today that are already essentially pre-vetted, fully qualified in all of these different cuts. And then you guys have this incredible proprietary information and software to be able to break down what that looks like, depending on what an employer's needs are. I don't think people realize this. 

Speaker 2 (01:17:48) - I just don't think they realize that there's such a primed, ready to go base of people that they can literally inject into their businesses. No, right? 

Speaker 7 (01:17:56) - Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (01:17:57) - What are, I guess, some of the things that, Liza, I'll go to you. What is like, is there a big area of opportunity or is there a perfect client? We had Greg Avalon in here earlier who was driving sales, but for you, a CEO, is there like a prime opportunity or prime target or prime customer area that you're the most excited about as we move into 2025? 

Speaker 3 (01:18:20) - Yeah, we love working with brands that are also mission focused and culturally aligned to us, right? And it's not just about them wanting to employ the military spouse community, but their culture is important on their side of the house as well. And so when I'm talking to companies, there are large, mid-market, even some smaller businesses. That's one thing that I look for because we wanna make sure when we put the spouses in these contracts that they're being cared for, that they're happy, that they're excited. 

Speaker 2 (01:18:48) - They're going to good homes, going to good homes, good places, good overseas. 

Speaker 3 (01:18:51) - And they're excited about the brand, right? Because they are gonna be the frontline of that brand and our brand. And so for them to feel connected to both at the same time is extremely important.

Speaker 6 (01:19:00) - important to us, and so finding those, and that's why we love the CX leaders in the CX space, because they're very focused on the agent experience being great, as well as their customer experience. And so when you, you can feel that on calls with customers, so from an ideal profile. We also love middle market, because they're a little flexible, they integrate the teams, we can be a little more strategic with those guys, and so our spouses usually love those contracts and have a lot of fun on them. 

Speaker 2 (01:19:30) - Erica, Chief Experience Officer. 

Speaker 4 (01:19:32) - Yep. 

Speaker 2 (01:19:33) - You got a big order in front of you. What Liza just said is spot on. Most CXOs, CCOs, CSOs that I've had the privilege of getting to meet with, learn from, become friends with, they already know adequately what Liza just said, which is you cannot have excellent customer experience without kick-ass employee experience. 

Speaker 2 (01:19:54) - You gotta have, the EX has gotta be there, or the agent experience has gotta be there to be able to, what is like, I guess, like what are the, like maybe what's one big thing that you're most excited about really kind of getting ready to tackle head-on in the CXO role that you've just embarked on? 

Speaker 4 (01:20:10) - It's a funny question, because eight years in, it's kind of been almost a full cycle. So when we first started the company, right, it was two of us, and the very first thing we knew we were gonna need, because we were gonna do this company remote, was we called it the ethos to remote communication. And so that was basically like, what is that foundation of how we're gonna grow and communicate as a remote organization? 

Speaker 4 (01:20:27) - And so that has always stayed at the forefront, like the people culture, the communication, and now that just turned into a much bigger word right now. 

Speaker 6 (01:20:33) - It's full-on experience. 

Speaker 4 (01:20:36) - And as a marketplace, we just kind of did this marketing strategy, like we have like six audiences that we have to be insure having a great experience at all times. And that is no small feat. And so that I'm, it's a challenge, but I am like, I'm very, very excited about it because the brand is holistic. We know what we do. We know who we're serving. We know those right customers. We know the right types of jobs for our community. And now it's really diving into those deeper levels of, okay, all of that is working. Now, how do we up the experience? 

Speaker 4 (01:21:05) - How do we ensure that all of those are working together in like this beautiful flywheel fashion? We host events, they bring in military spouses, they bring in customers and partners who then bring in more jobs and that brings in more spouses. So it's really that full flywheel effect of now bringing all that together where we are in the organization that I'm most excited about. 

Speaker 2 (01:21:22) - It's really interesting what you say, because like building any marketplace is very difficult. And you just now know why though. There's all of these different heating energies, audiences, user types that the right marketplaces attract. That becomes hard. 

Speaker 4 (01:21:41) - It is. 

Speaker 2 (01:21:41) - But when you find like the core users and then like generically folks, even if you want to just break it into, you understand exactly what the one or the two big parts of your audience are for the demand side. You understand what the one or two big parts are for the supply side. Hey man, having four or five out of six is a pretty darn good start. 

Speaker 2 (01:22:00) - But then you just like any other thing in life or any other type of business, every single day, every single month, every single quarter, you keep cracking wood on that and you keep getting a little bit closer to what those prime focus areas are, what those, the most pivotal or the most important things are that you can dig into. I love that. Okay, Liza, so question for you. 

Speaker 2 (01:22:22) - 2025, if there is like one major goal that you have in terms of just a business growth perspective, what I guess, and I know it's a hard question because there's always competing goals and there's always all these different, there's the old cardboard, but what's like the one thing that you hope that every single person on the team or what's the one maybe word or the one general idea that you're continuing to give the team every single solitary day as we plow through into 2025? 

Speaker 6 (01:22:50) - Yeah, so our word of the year is alignment. 

Speaker 2 (01:22:52) - Okay, nice. 

Speaker 6 (01:22:53) - Or aligning. 

Speaker 4 (01:22:54) - Align. 

Speaker 6 (01:22:54) - Everything aligns together, right? 

Speaker 4 (01:22:57) - All the audiences, all the users. 

Speaker 6 (01:22:59) - Yeah, last year it was velocity, right? So velocity was kind of our keyword and this is alignment because I really believe like we have the right team members, we have the right processes, we have the right systems. There are just a few things we needed to tweak in 2025 to really set the company on fire, right? And so that's what we've been working on Q1, getting some of those things aligned, getting people's roles aligned so that we can really go after some of the business and the contracts. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:24) - And we're seeing that, like the flywheel that Erica mentioned, we've been building that for like eight years. 

Speaker 7 (01:23:29) - Yeah. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:29) - And now- Overnight success, right? 

Speaker 7 (01:23:31) - Let's go. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:32) - Not an overnight success. 

Speaker 2 (01:23:34) - Always, guys, it's always that hard work. 

Speaker 7 (01:23:36) - So intentional. Always. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:37) - And then people will say, oh, that's genius. 

Speaker 4 (01:23:38) - Yeah. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:39) - Because it's now actually flying. 

Speaker 4 (01:23:41) - Yeah. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:41) - Right? 

Speaker 4 (01:23:41) - Yeah, the wheel is spinning. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:42) - It took us a lot of effort in alignment to get there, right? But then it seems so easy when you see it, but it took a lot of work to figure all those moving pieces out. 

Speaker 7 (01:23:53) - Yeah. 

Speaker 6 (01:23:53) - For 2025, getting the team aligned, same goals, same-.

Speaker 6 (01:23:56) - mission, working together as a team, there's nothing we can't really accomplish. Like, we get in front of customers, the sale is actually pretty easy. We make business sense, we make dollar sense, and then we have a great mission behind it. We're employing military spouses across the globe and every time zone, and that's just special, right? And so these brands that partner with us, we really get to build a good relationship that feels good to everybody, you know, as a win-win. 

Speaker 2 (01:24:23) - I couldn't agree with you, so well said. Erica, what about you? If there was like one big thing, I know you've got all this stuff that you're going to be focused on with continuing to keep that five-year-old going to continue to appease and to accelerate across multiple audiences. What's like one major area of focus for you that you're just like, you're going to remain maniacal on for the rest of this year, or what's the one key area that as your CX and your customer team continues to grow, that you're just going to be all over? 

Speaker 4 (01:24:50) - Yeah, I love that you said maniacal. 

Speaker 6 (01:24:51) - That's my marketing. Maniacal organization is our marketing thing because we have so many audiences, we're a very lean team, like we've got to know what we're doing and where we are. 

Speaker 4 (01:25:09) - So that is, I just love the word maniacal, not in a villainous way. 

Speaker 3 (01:25:14) - I did not mean it in a bad way. I totally meant it in a complimentary way to my crazy ideas. Hey, I'd like to do that this year. You've got the maniacal ideas, I implement the maniacal ideas. That's exactly how this relationship works. 

Speaker 4 (01:25:27) - All entrepreneurs are a little maniacal, it's just how it works. I'm really excited about, you know, we just kind of walked through like the alignment and all those audiences kind of in my new CX role, but internally our sales and marketing integration. So last year, that was a really big focus of ours. We've always been like communicative teams, but the way to integrate that into like that daily almost, we've talked about like as a rev ops organization, like we are there now. 

Speaker 4 (01:25:54) - And so while we're doing all these things and pushing out and getting business and talking to the right customers, like making that work faster and more efficient. And as that flywheel is building, like using that as like this generator internally so that, you know, Greg can talk to more customers and Liza can get out there and talk to more customers is working internally in the organization to get that moving faster. And that just affects all the outcomes for 2025. 

Speaker 2 (01:26:17) - I love it. Well, you guys are literally doing a dynamite job. Every single person that I've had the privilege of meeting with and talking to over these last couple of days, dynamite. 

Speaker 3 (01:26:24) - Great. 

Speaker 2 (01:26:26) - This business and the mission and the community has just got so much opportunity. It's not funny. And then Liza, going back to what you and Erica just said, there are going to be, there's going to be an abundance of the right types of customers and the right type of clients who already have this dollar spend lined up in budget for the next decade. 

Speaker 3 (01:26:47) - Right. 

Speaker 2 (01:26:47) - Let's get it. We just need to get the story in front of, we need to find which specific seats and roles and people that they need that additional support from or that extra pliability or that extra flexibility that its teams can provide. And you guys are going to be off to there. You already are off. This is an awesome business. And I hope both of you are extremely proud of what you built. 

Speaker 7 (01:27:07) - Yes. 

Speaker 3 (01:27:07) - Thank you so much. 

Speaker 2 (01:27:08) - Before I let you guys go, this has been awesome. Thank you for joining. Thank you so much for having CXChronicles as a part of this entire event, a part of this whole week with this, the virtual summit. But before I let you go, where can people get in touch with you Liza first, if they want to get in touch with you directly, and then Erica, just let people know where they can get in touch with you guys. 

Speaker 6 (01:27:23) - Sure. 

Speaker 3 (01:27:23) - You can find me on LinkedIn. 

Speaker 6 (01:27:25) - So Liza Rodewald, LinkedIn slash in Liza Rodewald. My name is the easiest place probably to get in touch with me personally. Of course, I'm, we're all over all the social channels and things. So you can go through those if you want, but I check my messages personally, so I will see it even though I get a lot of them, but it is important to me to keep that up. So find me on LinkedIn. 

Speaker 7 (01:27:46) - Awesome. 

Speaker 2 (01:27:46) - Erica. 

Speaker 3 (01:27:47) - Yeah. 

Speaker 6 (01:27:47) - On LinkedIn all the time. We love LinkedIn. 

Speaker 4 (01:27:49) - It was what gave us a lot of our first opportunities eight years ago. 

Speaker 6 (01:27:52) - So we're champions of networking on LinkedIn. 

Speaker 4 (01:27:54) - So Erica McMannes, but also instant teams.com. So easy, easy to remember. We kind of walk through our, all of our solutions and services and some of our story right there on instant teams.com. 

Speaker 2 (01:28:06) - Love it. Well guys, keep it the fantastic work. Thank you so much for having us. And we're looking forward to seeing you on the golf course. 

Speaker 4 (01:28:11) - Thank you guys. 

Speaker 6 (01:28:14) - Thanks. 

Speaker 2 (01:28:15) - Thank you for listening to another episode of the CXChronicles podcast. We're thrilled to have you as a part of the CX Nation, tuning into customer focused business leaders from across the world. Be sure to check out the CXC website and as always find us on any of your favorite podcast players, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more. Thanks so much for making this show a reality and being a part of the CX Nation. And as always folks, remember to make happiness a habit.