Evoke Greatness Podcast
Do you have an insatiable hunger for growth and knowledge?
Are you interested in hearing the stories of how successful people have navigated their journey towards greatness…all while stumbling through valuable lessons along the way?
My name is Sonnie and I am the host of Evoke Greatness, the weekly podcast driven by my curious nature and fascination with the champion mindset. I am a HUGE book nerd and a wee bit of a "control enthusiast" with an obsession for motivational coffee cups.
On this podcast, we share the ups and the downs, the highs and lows and all the lessons learned in between. It's my most sincere hope you hear something in one or maybe many of these episodes that resonates with you and reminds you that you’re not in this alone.
I believe that a rising tide raises all ships and I invite you along in this journey to Evoke Greatness!
Evoke Greatness Podcast
The AI-Ready Customer Experience Playbook with Ty Givens (Part 2)
🎧 Episode 180: The AI-Ready Customer Experience Playbook with Ty Givens (Part 2)
In Part 2 of this conversation, Ty Givens, founder of CX Collective and CX Collective Advantage, goes deeper into the human side of customer experience leadership—where imposter syndrome, self-trust, and resilience collide with the demands of scaling in the age of AI.
Ty shares openly about her own battles with feeling “not ready,” what it really takes to trust yourself as a leader, and why sometimes the best CX strategy isn’t about speed or automation—it’s about empathy and meeting customers where they are.
We explore:
- The emotional cost of being promoted before you’re ready—and how to overcome imposter syndrome
- Practical strategies to build self-trust and resilience as a CX leader
- How to balance metrics like efficiency and speed with empathy and well-being
- The most common help desk “patchwork” problems—and the simplest fix to stop losing tickets
- The evolving skill set CX leaders need to thrive in 2025 and beyond
- The truth no one talks about: there’s no single “right” way to do CX
- Ty’s one piece of wisdom for leaders everywhere: you’re enough
🔑 Key takeaways:
- Self-doubt doesn’t disqualify you—it can fuel growth if you let it
- Trust is built not by being perfect, but by being transparent about mistakes
- The best customer experience is the one that fits your company, not someone else’s model
- Great CX leadership today requires mastering processes, knowledge management, and AI—not just people management
đź’ˇ Quotes to remember:
“I only make mistakes on days that end with Y.”
“The best customer experience is the one that’s right for your business.”
“You’re enough.”
“Efficiency without empathy isn’t customer experience—it’s customer neglect.”
đź“š Resources mentioned:
✨ Learn more about Ty’s work:
📲 Connect with Ty:
LinkedIn – Ty Givens
YouTube – CX Collective Advantage Channel
A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!
Check out my website: www.evokegreatness.com
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When I was 24 years old, I got my first management job at Intuit. I was 24. My boss would tell me that I wasn't strategic. Well, of course I'm not strategic. I'm 24, right. So now what do I do? I try to help leaders figure out how to think strategically, because no one taught me any of these things. I went to the school of hard knocks.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Evoke Greatness, the podcast for bold leaders and big dreamers who refuse to settle. I'm your host, sunny. I started in scrubs over 20 years ago doing the gritty, unseen work and climbed my way to CEO. Every rung of that ladder taught me something worth passing on Lessons in leadership, resilience and what it really takes to rise. You'll hear raw conversations, unfiltered truths and the kind of wisdom that ignites something deeper in you your courage, your conviction, your calling. This show will help you think bigger, lead better and show up bolder in every part of your life. This is your place to grow. Let's rise together.
Speaker 2:In part two of my conversation with Ty Givens, we dive into the human side of customer experience leadership the part no playbook or software can fully prepare you for. You're going to learn practical ways to build self-trust and resilience as a leader in high-pressure environments, why being transparent about mistakes is one of the fastest ways to build credibility and trust, and how to balance metrics like speed and efficiency with empathy and well-being. Okay, let's hop into it. You've talked about the emotional cost of being promoted before you're ready and you referenced it a little bit like hey, I'm this age and I find that so often in leadership. Sometimes we promote people into a role because they were really good in their last role, with very little training or setting them up for success in this promoted role. Yeah, I'm curious for your journey. How did imposter syndrome show up and how did you overcome it?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. First of all, funny story. Before I went to Intuit, when I was 24 years old, I was working for the Expo Design Centers, which is a Home Depot company. This is like during that you know, huge surge in the real estate market, where everyone was buying, remodeling, flipping homes, things like that. It was around 2006. And this lady her name is Jules I hope she doesn't mind me saying her name Jules was emailing me a lot and, you know, on my Yahoo account, to give you an idea of how old this was, and I would see her messages and I it was like you know, workforce manager, and I'm like I'm not ready to be a manager, so I would ignore it.
Speaker 1:And so I had gone to an event for Expo with one of our vendors and I told them hey, if you guys need me, give me a call. Well, if you called outside phone numbers, it would show up as unknown. So I get a call from an unknown number. I think it's work, so I step out to answer it. It's Jules and she's like I'm trying to email, like get in touch with you, I think you will be perfect for this role. I was like I am not ready to be a manager and then she's like but I really think you are. And so I go in for the interview, I get the job.
Speaker 1:I didn't even really know what I was supposed to do and because the term manager to me sounded so official, I mean, I was blessed. My first employee was a guy named Scott we're still friends to this day and I think that I had this expectation of how I was supposed to show up because I was a manager. But I got lucky because at Intuit they trained us. Well, it wasn't training, it was well, it was kind of training, but it was like 40 hours a week, I mean, excuse me, a year of learning that we had an opportunity to do. So what was cool about that is that I actually kind of got guided through what does it mean and how do you show up and like your personal brand and how to manage. So that helped me a lot.
Speaker 1:But I never felt what's the word maybe worthy Like? I always felt like, maybe like is this, should I be doing this? Is this the right thing? And you know, to be honest with you, I don't know that that has ever truly gone away. It doesn't matter what I accomplish Every day I get up and because I am never satisfied with the status quo, I'm always a little bit unsure and I kind of like it. For my company, like I said, I've been around nine years. It took me two years to say that I was the CEO. I didn't want to say that because I felt like that was like who was I to think that I should be a CEO? You know, and yeah, it happens every day. But I, you know, I get up and I do my best and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we take a lot of lessons, though, and as we work, as we have been through that, and I don't know a person who hasn't felt that way at one point in time or another. What you just shared, reminded, took me back to my very first management role, and I remember I went to the very first meeting, like, where all the leaders sat around the table and I was sure I was certain that someone was going to stand up and say what is she doing here? Like I was certain of it. Somebody like the gig was up, I was busted, somebody was going to be like she has no idea what she's doing, because that's how I felt, and so I reference that story a lot as I work with leaders. But I also take that experience and I think about leaders today In my business.
Speaker 2:Today we're doing some reverse engineering where making sure that our leaders have the training they need. They may have been on board for a year now we're going back to square one and building a playbook, a training playbook. It's never too late. It's never too late to recognize that. But I think sometimes taking our own experience and actually it reveals the human side of what we do, and there are some of those feelings of unworthiness, or you know who's going to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and you know, being 24, this person on our team was 13 years my senior and they would like refer to me as little Ty Ty. And you know, like I remember there was like a chain to the guard. We had a new VP that came in and he wanted me to work on a different project and so he was going to make me a project manager. And so he's like, but I need you to find someone to backfill for workforce management. So I started looking into that, found someone who I thought would be good on the team and I'll never forget her boss said oh, ty's a junior manager.
Speaker 1:I'm like I think I'm the same kind of manager she is, but okay, cool, like whatever, you know, whatever makes people feel good, because I guess to have a 24-year-old on the team didn't feel the same, you know. And so those things chip away being told you're not strategic. That chips away, but it also, at the same time, can be fuel because, you know, I feel like I'm pretty decent at my job, but I definitely have opportunities and I'm human.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, when you think about the strategies around like self-trust as a leader, what strategies can you can help, I guess, those customer experience emerging leaders as they kind of start to build self-trust within themselves or resilience as they step into more higher roles or more demanding roles.
Speaker 1:You know, make new mistakes, because if you're worried about being perfect, then good luck right Making new mistakes, and then be transparent about the ones that you make, because what that does is that builds trust, not only for you, but it builds trust for the people that you're working with, and you'll start to learn to trust yourself more. You'll know what you're good at and what you're not good at. So, for example, I don't fancy myself a good people manager at all. I can be introverted, very much like being an individual contributor, but I cannot be that and operate in the capacity that I am. So I constantly have to remind myself to, kind of like, step out of my box and to actually help other people shine, instead of me being the one that's, you know, good at building this process. It doesn't matter Build the process, hand it off, let someone else own it and run it, but I think that one of the ways in which I've been able to get past, you know, being worried about or consumed with, you know what people may think is to just be like yeah, I only make mistakes on days that end with Y. I say that all the time.
Speaker 1:I make mistakes every day. I just try to make new ones. That's the thing. And sometimes I make the same ones. I don't mean to but it, you know it happens. Fake. I make the same ones. I don't mean to but it, you know it happens Right. But the idea is that you know I'm constantly trying to learn from what I did before so that I can be better in the future. And you know I'm also okay with what I don't know. So you'll see. You know, if you look at my Slack, you'll see a lot of like oops, I'm sorry, yep, I really screwed that up. Okay, like you'll see a lot of like oops, I'm sorry, yep, I really screwed that up. Okay, let me know how I can help you in the future.
Speaker 1:It just, it just is. So just you know. Be confident, be confident in the fact that you will overcome it, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's, and it's. It's lessons, not losses, right, it's. It's facing that in a way where you take those things not as a hit to your ego or that you that you're not, you don't know what you're doing. Rather, it's like OK, great, like you said, I want to learn new mistakes. Like I want to learn the new things, because then I've learned the old things, I've actually got the lesson out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how do you balance the pursuit of metrics like speed and efficiency with maintaining the human side of things like empathy and humility and overall well-being? It's funny you ask that because I have. I can think about a time at Thrive Cosmetics we had a team member who was excellent on the phones with customers, loved her, but her calls were hours. It could be two hours one hour, which is a long time because you're trying to operate with you know five, six minute handle time and with that you really have to take it case by case. But the idea is, what is that trade off right? So if this person, if she's on the phone for an hour but she's increasing average order value because now that person was going to buy you know one product but they ended up buying six products because of her guidance, that's worth it Right Right Now. If she's just on the phone with someone just letting them vent, that's a little bit different and in those cases what you have to do is have a conversation with the person to just kind of help them see how they might be different from the rest of the team and you give them the opportunity to course correct and make changes, because I think what startup founders sometimes forget is that and this is not anything specific to the startup founder at Thrive Cosmetics, because that's not who I'm referencing in this, but the startup founders tend to forget some of the others that I've worked with that when people take your word to heart, so when you tell them that you want them to, you know deliver the best possible experience and to make the customer happy, that is exactly what they're going to try to do.
Speaker 1:It's on the fact that they should have a five minute handle time and so you have. It's just a balance and like you take a company like Zappos I think their longest with eight hours or something wild like that If you call and talk to this day, they'll just converse with you. Like it, it really is about what they understand. Is it's really about the net promoter, like what other people are saying about your business to people that they love and trust. That matters more than you know that time. So the metrics thing can be hard. What I found that was just giving people the awareness really really helps, because a lot of times they just don't know and they really do think they're doing the best work they could possibly do.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure you've worked with a lot of kind of help desk, if you will right, like air quotes help desk, but like whatever that department is that helps customers navigate. What's the most common kind of patchwork issues that you've seen, those types of help desk systems, and what's the simplest step for people to actually start fixing them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the way that they organize their workflow. So you take a tool like Zendesk. The workflow is organized through views typically, and if you don't set up those views properly, then can't find my tickets, and the answer really is in the way that the views are organized. So we have a standard system we do, which starts with tickets assigned to you. Then, ironically, the next one isn't just tickets that are like waiting. There are tickets that are older than your service level. So if you want to enter 24 hours, then we go to tickets that have been waiting for 24 hours, whether they're assigned or not. Why? Because if I call out today but my customer replies back, they're going to have to wait until I get back. Unless the ticket's in that view, then we'll jump down into new tickets and then we'll go on to your on-hold tickets. So we have a really clear strategy on how we approach that, and I think one of the biggest ones we find is I don't know where my work is. I can't work. I can't see what I need to do next.
Speaker 2:As you look ahead at the future, what core skills or mindsets do you think will define successful customer experience? Leaders in the age of AI and rapid scaling in the age of AI and rapid scaling, you have to be really good at processes.
Speaker 1:I know back, if I go back to like my Home Depot days even Office Depot, because I was there too that customer service leader was very different than the one that we have today. So back then you know you had that your job was people management and leadership coaching discussions. The reports that you managed to, someone sent those to you. You didn't have to go and find your own information. You want to find out if someone's doing well on the phones, then you just ping the quality department for them to send over the scores. So you had everything pretty much given to you so that you could have conversations with people.
Speaker 1:Today, the CX leader is expected to generate all of that information and still have the conversation. So if you don't, if you're not good at setting up and organizing processes and leveraging AI in different ways to help you automate that work and surrounding yourself with good people who can take things off your plate, it's going to be hard, because the name of the game is no longer just, you know, coach people. The name of the game is how do you become more efficient, because you know companies are seeing AI and they're baking that into budgets, thinking we're going to hire 50% less because now we have AI and it's like it doesn't exactly work that way. 50% less because now we have AI and it's like it doesn't exactly work that way. So I would say understand processes, understand knowledge management. Those are things that are really going to shape up the way that the CX leadership role changes 2025 and beyond.
Speaker 2:When you think about customer experience leadership, what's a truth that nobody openly talks about, but needs to be said out loud?
Speaker 1:That nobody really knows the right way to do anything, because there's no such thing as right, it's just what's right for that company or business. So sometimes I'll interview people that I may be considering bringing on and I'm like so what do you think is the best customer experience? And if they give me a very clear answer on what they think is right, they're not a good fit Because at the end of the day, the best customer experience is the one that is best for that company. So we have a client who is not interested in AI and automation. People think might think that's odd, they don't want it. It's not bad, it's just not what they want. That's okay.
Speaker 1:Then we have another client who's like the last thing I want is to get a ticket. So can you please help me to set up everything to deflect as much as I can? I'll answer one, but I don't want to Help me. Sure, so it's really about what is understanding? That there's no such thing as a right way to do things, and I think that that is one thing that nobody wants to talk about. When you know, even when you go to events, everybody wants to sound like they know how to deliver the best experience. It's like that's so subjective Right. The best experience is the one that your client wants. Love that.
Speaker 2:Well, as we wrap up, there's always a question that I love to ask, and just really usually. The answer sometimes surprises you, it surprises me. But if it were your last day on earth, and of all the things you've learned so far, you could only impart one piece of wisdom or guidance to the world, what would it be?
Speaker 1:That's a very good question. One piece of guidance, you're enough. You're enough. You know my niece is going off to college. Shout out to Tuskegee, hey, she's going off to college, and so we get to for our you know, our last dinner while she's living in Los Angeles, before she heads out. And so I'm like trying to give her all of this stuff that I wish someone would have told me at 17, 18, so that she can be as prepared as possible. I can't prepare her for everything. Her mom can't, none of us can, but you know, one of the things that I did tell her is like one day you're going to go through something that you're not going to be able to explain, you're going to be good to someone who's not good to you and at the end of the day, I don't want you to think there's something wrong with you. Right, because there isn't. Sometimes people just make decisions and you alone. You're enough.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that Amen to that. I love your ability to weave in again like the human side of what you do and it really is so ingrained in it. But you just articulate it very well, thank you. And so I appreciate you sharing your story and sharing more about what you do. But, ty, I would love for you to share, we'll put all this in the show notes, but where can people find you, find out more about your business? You know, if they're looking for some of these playbooks that you talked about, where would they find them?
Speaker 1:So the playbooks you'll find at cxcollectiveadvantagecom and then from there you'll be able to like, browse a list of what's available. We actually have a YouTube channel where we do overviews. It's AI generated. I don't hide that. It is what it is, but it's an AI generated podcast style overview of each of the courses and the idea there is for you to really understand like, hey, do I, do I need to do this, or is this enough? Because if you find what you need on on YouTube and more power to you if you want to learn anything about consulting, it's cxcollectivecom. I'm on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:I am super responsive because I'm a customer support person, so feel free to reach out, but yeah, like where I mean I'm super accessible and I try to. If I take on a consulting client, I want to make sure that it's me that they see most of the time.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming on. Thank you for sharing time and your wisdom and knowledge of what you do. That is applicable to so many doesn't mean that someone has to have necessarily, even like, a dedicated customer experience department. It means how do we want our customers to feel our support right? And so you have talked about your services and what you do, and really your expertise, so well that anybody can take something away from it. So I appreciate your time, ty. Thank you so much for going on.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me. I'm grateful to be here.
Speaker 2:If today's episode challenged you, moved you or lit a fire in your soul, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with somebody who's ready to rise. Could I ask you to take 30 seconds to leave a review? It's the best way to say thank you and help this show reach more bold leaders like you, because this isn't just a podcast, it's a movement. We're not here to play small. We're here to lead loud, one bold and unapologetic step at a time. Until next time, stay bold, stay grounded and make moves that make mediocre uncomfortable.
