Getting the Most from CS Communities with Marija Skobe-Pilley, Ejieme Eromosele & Bhumika Arora

Welcome to another episode of Customer Success Talks: Real Challenges, Experts' Advice, the podcast dedicated to helping those transitioning into customer success and early career customer success managers. I'm your host, Byron Terruño. Just like you, I'm still learning about this amazing world of customer success. And through all of your support and love, this has been almost 2 years now since the podcast started, and it has been a whole learning journey, a whole journey where I have been able to meet amazing people and also learn about customer success and even beyond. Today's episode is not the exception. Today is episode number 2 of the Customer Success Community Special. And in today's episode, we will be focusing on building and growing a customer success community. But when I mean building and growing, I don't mean you as a founder, although you can. I mean more into how we can all contribute towards, in, towards growing the community and how we can also engage and how we can participate. How can we add a little bit of our knowledge? And for that, we have 3 amazing guests, 3 customer success community founders. So let's kick off everything and let's start with Maria, would you like to start introducing yourself, introducing how Women in Customer Success started?

Yeah, sure. Hi, Byron, and hi, everyone. I'm Maria Skobe-Pile, the founder of Women in Customer Success. The way it started was, long story short, I saw some very terrifying data about the state of gender in customer success in Europe. Data that showed how if 60% of women entered the industry, only 30% of women actually end up in leadership roles. So thinking, obviously there could be so many reasons for that. I thought maybe, just maybe one of the reasons could be the lack of role models for women. So I decided to start a podcast in which I would just showcase so many remarkable women in the industry. And that was 4 and a half years ago. Still, the podcast is running weekly today. And so far I have featured more than 130 women, which have been, it has been really a privilege for me to learn from each of them. However, as a result of the podcast and different topics that we were discussing, the community organically just happened. So if you think about a community as a physical place in a channel such as Slack or Mighty Networks or anything else. Yes, I do have it. I do actually have two of those, but on another hand, I think of a community more as a movement, as an initiative, where conversations happen regardless of the channel where we are. Community of like-minded women that are really interested in learning from each other and connecting and inspiring each other. So at the moment, Women in Customer Success still offers a weekly podcast, but even more importantly, all year round mentoring sessions for women, masterclasses every 2 months and cohort masterminds and courses. For us, it's all about now, next step, elevating women, providing resources for them so that they can really thrive in their careers in customer success.

So it has been 4 years of constant, I will say, success. There has been a lot of challenges behind it, but I like how you say movement. I like how you say inspiring and connecting.

Yeah, thank you. It has been, uh, well, if you think of challenges, I started it during COVID on top of homeschooling kids and trying to do my day job, which was probably the worst ever time to start another project. Uh, but somehow I was just so driven because because I was completely on a mission. And now 4 years after, yeah, I'm still on a mission, but things are a little bit different. I think that things settled a bit. And in terms of challenges, there is always something that I call reinventing yourself and what you're doing, like how to keep things fresh. For me, that's really the main leitmotif even for next year, like what is next? Are the programs we are doing really good for our members? What is it that they need? And recognizing what community is saying and then creating different programs. So for example, because of community being started so naturally and organically without even my input, it wasn't even my initiative to like put people within the community that was organic. There was a huge need for mentoring and that's how we started Power Up mentoring cohorts firstly. And then from mentoring, we realized, Well, women actually need more smaller cohorts and micro-communities of other similar women, how they could learn together in a safe environment. That's why we are providing courses now and masterminds. So it is constant, like listening, what does community need, what people or ladies are saying, and trying to create programs that can really tap into their needs while still trying to be really relevant with the with the content, especially thinking about podcasts that is really a constant thing every week.

There's just so much that we can all give to the community. It could be either by podcasting, it could be through articles, it could be through LinkedIn posts, it could be also waking up and saying, I want to be a creator community, or also we can also contribute within a community to help others. So this is amazing, Maria. Thank you so much for that. Ejieme, I'm really curious to hear about your, your community and to let everyone know who are you and your background.

Thanks, Byron. So my name is Ejieme Eromosele. I run and have founded Success in Black. We are a platform to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging in customer success, founded in the summer of 2020. So right when COVID was going on. But if you all remember, especially in the United States, the Black Lives Matter movement. So, you know, thinking about Black lives in context to the work that I do as a Black woman, I wanted to be intentional about creating a space that could advocate for our voices in this community. I think the other thing that was really important in creating Success at Black for me was in really challenging the idea of the tech community at large. And so really taking a view of diversity in customer success can hopefully advance diversity in tech in general. You know, I think in a lot of ways customer success is sort of like a gateway. I like to call it a gateway drug into tech. Before I was in tech, I didn't see myself in tech. I didn't see a lot of senior-level Black women that were in roles that I wanted to be in. I didn't have a technical background, didn't do sales in the traditional sense. And so I really see, because customer success is a combination of what I like to think of heart and head, it can be a welcoming spot for many of us. And so I was really excited about kind of challenging the notion of, can customer success actually help diversify tech? You know, tech has a bad a bad rap. And so that was sort of the, to Maria's point, the mission that really excited me in creating Success in Black. In my other role, I'm the general manager of Amiya at Qwik. We are a conversational AI for customer experience platform, and I'm privileged to be able to run our go-to-market for this region. So everything from marketing, new business, sales, partnerships, customer success, and account management. I'm also really passionate about customer success leaders being revenue and being company leaders as well. And yeah, that's the founding of Success in Black and what I do outside of that as well.

This is so interesting, Ejieme, because so far what I heard from Maria and you is one, COVID, and second, challenging the idea. And that's something that is not easy to do. It's challenging the idea. It's not just to wake up and say, I have this challenge, I want to challenge this idea, but it's also like all that comes behind it. So how has it been for you since you started your community?

Yeah, I mean, I think it takes courage to see a problem, identify it, and to want to do something about it. You know, the world is full of problems, and I think we as individuals can feel so insignificant and sometimes feel like we can't make a change, but we can. And I think that, you know, one of the messages is that if we see an opportunity, we see a challenge, we can be that change. It's not, it's not easy. It's quite hard. It takes courage. But I think if you think about the greater good and the opportunity to help other people, which is really what drives the work that I do in Success in Black, you know, I think that that can be a strong motivating factor to be courageous and to take that change.

And let's continue doing that. I love, I love what I'm hearing. I think it's super inspiring. Vumika, I want to hear your, I want to hear your story. I want to hear your, your journey and how everything started as well.

Absolutely. And much like the two wonderful ladies on this call, I didn't start Rafty as a community. And also not COVID, a much newer community. So, about 2 years ago, I was already coaching a number of folks that were sort of trying to find their way into customer success, were struggling to get their voice heard. And I just started Rough Day as a general community, just being like, all right, we're going to do coaching, mentorship for folks that need the help. And what I realized was the folks that really needed the help and couldn't find their spaces, mostly introverts that were struggling to get their voice heard. Because when you're in a sales role or when you're in a client-facing role, the loudest voices are often the ones that are most heard and acknowledged. And it sort of ends up becoming an echo chamber. And so, the people that had something valuable to add but didn't know how to get their voice heard were the ones that were struggling. So, I really started Rough Day as a community for introverts. 99% of our community is actually BIPOC and women. So that kind of goes into the people that don't get their voice heard. We know that it's mostly the folks that have a confidence issue, have traditionally been oppressed with their voices. So it ends up being that. But I think the focus is a little bit different, saying that, hey, let's focus on you and your confidence level. So that's how it started. It's about 2 years old. And aside from that, we have consulting and coaching services for go-to-market and customer success in general. So customer success has kind of changed a lot over the last 2 years because of the economy. And the bigger picture now is how does it fit into the entire go-to-market and revenue structure, as Ejieme was saying? And how do we, again, as customer success, get our voice heard? In that bigger revenue picture. So, a lot of it is an upwards battle of getting our voice heard. Ironically, I just lost my voice. So, I'm struggling with getting my voice heard right now. But that's really the objective of Rough Day is, hey, if you're somebody who cannot articulate what you need to say, you have something valuable to say and you don't know how to do it, this is the way that you can get started. We have a number of different programs. We have a self-paced program, which is again targeting folks that really can't afford to pay a lot of, a lot out of their pocket to get coaching or mentorship. Really admire what both Maria and Ejieme do. Maria, in fact, has been an inspiration for me in my community building quest as well. So the self-paced program is an affordable program where you get access to all of our materials, our AMAs, um, that we do on a monthly basis, as well as some one-on-one support from me and mentors in the community. Again, we realize that there's a lot of content out there, but it's really hard to navigate it. So the guidance in this space becomes very, very critical. So that one-on-one support continues to happen through me and the mentors in the community. So yeah, those are our programs.

And I will say, and let me know if I'm wrong, but your community is of course one of the most quiet in the sense of not being present much on LinkedIn. And there's already a really strong Slack community. But isn't this interesting how we all develop towards a challenge and also a niche within the challenge? So I'm super happy to be in this call with the three of you as role models, because you are also being the voice of those introverts, but who also have a lot of challenges.

Absolutely. And I'm happy to talk more about that because engagement becomes a bit of a conversation. There's, you know, with introverts, how do you engage? And so I'm really excited to chat more about this.

Absolutely. And something that you said, Vomica, was guidance. And I think that as a community founder, you also provide guidance. And but it's easy to say that done. How can, how can we as a community member help to continue building that community and make it, make it to the next level? How can we as a community member stay engaged and active? And I will start the conversation with, um, Ejieme, would you like to start this one?

Sure, it's a great question. I mean, I think that even before that question, there's a a thought of which communities do you engage with, right? So I think that the three communities that we represent here are representing different aspects of how people identify themselves and also a stage, let's say, in their career. There are quite a lot of many different customer success, let's say, even professional communities to seek out and to engage in. Really being thoughtful about the ones that you identify the most with and the ones that can offer the best resources, I think, is a great way to start as you then start to think about how you engage thoughtfully in that community. But I think engagement— I'm also a member of communities as well, right? So engagement starts with really being self-aware of what you need and also what you can give. Communities are a two-way street. I think if we take the mindset mindset that it's all about what we can receive from them, we're doing a bit of a disservice. Because community, if we really think about what the word means, it should be a give and take relationship. So I think it starts with being a bit self-aware of what you're needing at that moment, and then what you can also offer back and provide back to the community.

I would say very, very similar to that. It starts with you understanding what do you need from particular communities, but then it's all about the mindset. What you put in is really what you can get out. So from one hand, you can be a member of hundreds of communities and, you know, never being actually part of engaging with any of them simply because it could be too much for you. You just wanted to be curious about them all and sign up for them. And then suddenly, You are stuck with, you know, your Slack, uh, with so many notifications that you can never go into any of it and follow conversations. So that's probably not the best way of engagement. So being very thoughtful into what you need. Personally, I know exactly into which community I will go for particular question that I have, which also helps very much with communities to understand what is that unique, almost value proposition that they are offering. I believe that one can be part of so many different communities at the same time and gain different levels of insights and even different levels of relationship between them all. So I'm not even, how to say, fussed about how much people engage within one community because it's very personal. So part of Slack group for Women in Customer Success is completely self-led. That's not a place where I will go and put any messaging. Now we are talking about it or Next week it's another team. No, it's very much who needs what. They come there, they ask for resources, for help, and then everything happens in small conversation and small micro communities, which is my goal really. And I guess that that's really the number one thing everybody should understand. Why are they in particular communities and what can they really contribute? What is it that they can offer to others? And very often that's really what they are taking out of the community as well.

Yeah, I completely resonate with what both Maria and Ejieme said. It's, as I mentioned, our community is mostly introverts. So trying to engage them by posting stuff like, hey, how are you feeling? What are you doing? Like, nobody's going to answer me. So what I've been trying to do is have more one-on-one conversations, smaller, as Maria said, like smaller groups where we do our AMAs and we have smaller gatherings where people just talk and vent and, you know, really talk about what they're feeling. But really, I feel like it's overwhelming to join a bunch of communities without an objective. It's okay to do that. But then think about once you start to join all these communities, look at each one and see, okay, maybe this one is good for X, right? So for example, I also lead another community called CS in Focus, which is based in Canada. And our focus is to try and do events and gather people on a monthly basis. So that's great for that community. But then if you're looking for coaching and mentorship, then maybe another community would make more sense for you. So really look at what each community does and set some objectives for yourself of what you want to get out of those communities. Is it, is it just reaching out to people, reaching out to people, understanding what customer success is about? Or is it that you really want to get something out of it, like coaching? Or do you want to be a part of events? Or do you want to speak at events? Whatever it is, start to set those objectives for yourself. And you can always pivot, right? You can say, okay, today this is my objective. Tomorrow I feel like, oh, okay, now that I've done this, this is the next step. Be methodical about how you use those communities. Otherwise, you won't be able to get much out of them.

It is scary to ask a question where everyone will see you. It is not easy to raise your voice or to ask for help sometimes in a place where, you know, you should feel safety because the communities— and I mean, my case in the podcast, but when I participate in communities, it's like my safe place to nerd about customer success and ask for help. But sometimes it is scary to maybe answer the wrong way. So I think that that's a challenge. And I don't know if you have seen that challenge come up before.

Yeah, I mean, we've seen that. I mean, look, these are— we think of them as large communities, but they're also small communities, right? So we've actually had a few situations with our community in Slack for Success in Black where you know, people saw coworkers or former coworkers, so people that they actually knew, worked with in real life, right? So while we say it's a safer space, they didn't always feel necessarily safe to share a certain thing because, you know, they were encountering people that they knew, which is normal. So what we did, and this is in Slack, I'm sure other community platforms have other features, is we created an anonymous bot. And so we have a channel that's just a venting channel. And you can, you know, vent anonymously or ask a question that might be a bit of a hot topic anonymously. And so you don't have to attach your full identity to that question. So that is something that, you know, I discovered that Slack has. And so we now have an anonymous bot that allows people to do that safely. I'm sure some of the other community platforms have that as well. The other thing that we encourage is for people to reach out one-to-one as well. And so, you know, obviously a lot of community platforms, you can do a broadcast message, but we encourage people— I'm also an introvert, by the way, Boomykah— to leverage the one-to-one connections interactions, right? That is a great opportunity to build deeper connections, but also maybe have opportunity not to entirely put yourself out there to a broader and wider audience. And so we encourage those one-to-one connections as well.

I would say that in our case, since last year or so, it all became really about learning together. That's the reason why we have now mentorship available constantly and small groups and cohorts. For me, it, that, that's really the future. It's all about micro communities where you as an individual can engage with other 6, 10, or 12 people, not more. And you can feel that it's a safe space. Uh, it's very unlikely that you would be in the same cohort with somebody else from your organization or other people that you may not feel that comfortable sharing ideas. So it's really learning in small environment where you're getting almost your board of advisors, like a little group of people that you can really get in touch with. Because what I have noticed, there are so many of those big communities and probably I could say that Women in CS is one of the large ones where, you know, who can, as you said, just ask questions. Like it's too large for you to get hundreds of responses because you may not need hundreds, but all you need is really a small amount of people around you. Like when something is too big, you don't know who are those, you know, people much close or most close to you that you need at a particular moment. That's fine. Like micro community that is easily sorted and there is a safe space for people to learn. So for me, that is the goal, creating as many as possible, those smaller cohorts where people can really feel they have their board of advisors, and they have that little group that is with them throughout their careers.

Again, completely resonate with both of you. Our community is pretty small to begin with. And I think that the way that you build the community also matters and the voice of the community. Needs to be supportive in general. So knowing that you have an administrator who will, you know, obviously look at what's being posted and kind of navigate what's out there and make sure that, you know, there's no solicitation, things like that. That's important. But also, maybe having like Maria mentioned, a board of advisors. So we have something called founding mentors, who are basically your go-to people to ask questions. So if you don't want to put your question out to everybody and all of your peers, you can direct it to either me or any of the folks that are founding mentors with their expertise. So yeah, I think that the one-on-one conversations, having your board of advisors, smaller groups to ask those questions. But, you know, one thing I would say is that that if you genuinely have a question, um, you do need a little bit of courage just to ask it, even if it's to an individual, right? Um, there is some part of you that's like, I don't— this individual seems like they're supportive, but I'm too afraid to ask. Even with all of the support around you, you still might be afraid because it's just not your personality to go out and ask for help. Um, so I would say that that's part of, you know, what, what you want to achieve as well, is if you're a part of a community try, try to start small, you know, just ask one question or just say hi, ask for a coffee chat. And usually I know that both of these communities are very, very supportive, right? So just know that the community is here to support you and you can start somewhere if you don't feel comfortable asking a larger question in the larger group.

The community is here to support you. Attendó, that's key. And this challenge, a lot of people, we go through. So as you can see, there are solutions that either the community founder implement, or sometimes it's implemented because we raise our hand and reach out to the, to the community founder and say, I'm going through this challenge. So it's also, this is the part of engagement. Like if you're going through something, you can also find a solution and you can also bring solutions suggestions to continue improving and growing the community. Something that has helped me a lot when it comes to networking within a community, because it doesn't have to be necessarily of one giving ideas or solutions to problems, although that it's ideal, great. But another way will be also to network and hear other person's experience and maybe have a coffee chat and there are communities that they offer this specific channel where you can have a conversation with someone and mimic an interview, right? So if you volunteer to be the interview in that case, that's where you are creating a new, a new connection. That's where you can, you're creating that small group that you can go and send a message directly. So there are ways that either the community founder can help to influence into having that safe space. Or you can also do it, you can also have the initiative to create that for you and for others. So there are many, many ways of doing this. But I'm really curious to hear, Maria, let's start with you. I would love to hear your opinion about the benefits of online events and in-person events, because they all, they both have a lot of benefits. But but they also come with a lot of challenges. And in-person events, something that I go through is a lot of my energy gets drained really, really easy. So it's how to manage that. But yeah, I would love to hear your, your comment on this.

So it's interesting. I would describe myself as an extrovert, but when you say going to the events and trying to master up not only courage, but like that, that inner strength for everything is, probably after COVID, a little bit of a challenge for me as well. For us, Women in Customer Success is primarily an online community and it's definitely online first, so it could be really inclusive. We have members from all around the globe. So many don't have the opportunity to be somewhere in person. Many are working remote. So with online programs, there is no limitations. And that's my number one motto. That's how it's always going to be. We did have some in-person events and we are collaborating a lot with different conferences and other communities. And that is also continued to be the case because of course people like to see each other face to face in person as well. Although those relationships are firstly built online and then people just seem to be so, so happy really to see each other in person. It's so much easier. However, on next year, we are going out on a roadshow and we are going to have a few live podcast recordings, like podcast live shows. Yeah, that is really exciting. But again, it is in line with what we do. It's still podcast. It's going to be a conversation between probably only 2 or 3 people, but the small audience will have an opportunity to be immersed in that experience and ask questions at the spot, which I think will be incredibly beneficial for them, including networking as well. Uh, but yeah, primarily we are online firstly, so it can be really inclusive and accessible for everybody. That is my number one priority. Like everybody has a right to have access to amazing resources and mentors so that they can develop in their careers.

I absolutely love that you're doing roadshows, Maria. Um, we haven't done anything as extensive. Most of our in-person events have been partnerships. Um, I do travel quite a bit and we have people globally, so it's very challenging to do anything outside of the digital events. But one of the things that we do try to do is curate events and send those out in our community so that people know what's happening in their communities, in their cities. So that's something that we're trying to do more of is, hey, if you're, you know, in Germany, if you're in the UK, if you're in any part of the States, like we want to make sure that you are getting access to what's going on in your cities or at least your state. So that's something that, that the focus is going to be on. But absolutely, I always want to meet people from the community wherever I go. But yeah, it is, it is definitely challenging. And I think that it's not going to change just because if it is truly a global community, Starting chapters is an option, and that's something that we will consider. But again, there's so many other great communities out there that I feel like the focus is always going to be on partnerships and digital events and curating events as opposed to— for our community especially, as opposed to starting a new event.

Yeah, I mean, aligned with that strategy, Bhumika, I think we are also a global community. Community, but we do have an understanding of where there's concentration of people. And we have been getting a lot of asks about in-person events. So that's something that we're going to do more of in 2025. We have been hosting in-person events, but they've been off of the back of already existing larger events, right? Because we know there's already going to be critical mass there. So for example, some of the Gainsight conferences, Trans Zero conferences, will host like a meetup or will host an event off of the back of that. It just again helps us optimize time and efficiency. People are already traveling for these events. But yeah, we do want to consider even more of that. Everyone has said that, you know, they've gotten so much more value out of an in-person event. Agreed that like, I think being kind of digital first and being virtual like you said, Maria, for sure allows for more accessibility and access. But I think complementing that with in-person events is a great kind of balance and additional way to build deeper connections, have maybe even more focused engagement as well. And just the energy level, you know, you can't replicate it with virtual events either.

Yeah, that's true. You cannot replicate that. Energy in person or even hug someone like, oh, you know, like giving that hug that makes, that makes a whole difference. But it also brings some challenges, but also brings some benefits. I remember Pulse 2024, no, 2023 in Amsterdam was my first customer success event in person. And I came already with a plan, right? But when I was there, I noticed how I could easily overthink stuff into how to interact in person with people. Oh my God, what should I say if I see Maria there?

And you saw me there.

And I saw you there. Yeah, that was a good, cool thing. And, you know, we think over that, but at the end, I noticed that we are all in the same boat.

And I—

and that, that's a great point. I think that boat is we're humans and we're built for connection. Right. You know, I think virtual, remote things like this that we're doing can help simulate that. But at the end of the day, we're built for in-person touch, feel, human experience. I think that that's what you're, you're feeling and describing.

Absolutely. I was just going to say that I know even though I said that we're not really doing in-person events personally, but We do a lot of get-togethers in Canada. And so if anybody's here, half the time I'm inviting people home. So really, I feel like it's great to have smaller gatherings as well because bigger gatherings are great for the energy. But again, if you're a community of introverts, bigger gatherings can be very overwhelming. So having smaller coffee chats, workshops, workshops. That's kind of the goal with our community too, is when we do them in person, it's to focus on the energy of the folks that come in to those events.

It's so interesting how it seems that we all are thinking in similar ways. Byron, when you asked me when is, you know, is there any roadshow in Germany, you know, unconfirmed, but yes, it's probably going to happen at the back of Artist Circus event in January when we are kicking off with London live, it's happening at the back of the customer conference. So again, Ejieme, what you said, it's, it's, you, you want to really, uh, make sure that, you know, we are there where there are already bigger events, when there are people coming. Uh, as you said, it's so much more efficient for everybody participating to come on multiple events and, you know, be inspired and energized and filling in your batteries for another chunk of how many weeks we won't see each other. So yeah, I really feel that we all are on the same path. It somehow seems to be a good strategy for moving forward.

I hope other people from other industries or roles, when they hear us, I hope they get jealous and they come into customer success. I think we have an amazing community in general. Thank you everyone for your time. It's time to start wrapping up today's episode, unfortunately. But it has been a great second episode of this customer success community special. But I would love to ask you, each one of you, for one last question, one last thing from you. And this with one or two words or one sentence really quick. What, like, what not to do in a community? Like, what mistakes have you done in a community?

I mean, I think this is very, it's probably common sense in some way, but like, don't be rude. Like, just, you know, be nice. Like, everybody's there for a reason to connect. I would say like, you know, selling, being like hardcore, like sales and just like bringing your company in and trying to do that. Most communities don't allow that anyway. So don't do that either. Like, if you're genuinely looking for feedback on your product and it's a new product, sure. But, you know, just, just don't be very, salesy and try to reach out to people and don't be rude. Like just use it as a mechanism to connect with people more than trying to get money out of it. I think that's sort of what I would, would say if you're joining a community.

Oh, I would echo that. Don't, don't be there and post only about your products and services, which sometimes people do. But you know, if you're seeing the threads, like you will know who you are just because people stop engaging with that really. It becomes annoying. So yeah, that's, don't try to sell it.

Yeah, it doesn't help. It's like, it's the same as like, it's almost like cold calling in a community that doesn't work.

Yeah. Like people just disengage or like go into ignore mode. So what do you do with it? You should just stop.

Yeah. I mean, I agree with that. Those two, um, also agree with yours, Byron. I think, you know, show up, right? Like communities are an investment. Um, so. So don't not be like, okay, I'm part of this community and not show up. You know, they do require a little bit of your investment too. So yeah, all great, great suggestions. Thank you.

Thank you, Vumika. Thank you, Ejieme. Thank you, Maria. Has been nice to see you both again. Ejieme, has been nice to meet you for the first time, but hopefully we will see us at some point in life. And everyone out there, remember, Keep learning, keep growing, and let's keep improving the world of customer success.

Until next time.