Let's Talk About CEX

Customer Experience: how to do it, how to make it real and how to make it matter. Geoff DeVito of Explora Journeys shares his background, TED talk content and the basics of creating REAL/high value customer experiences. His employer Explora is a cruise ship unlike any other on the seas, they're creating deep experience for both passengers and crew. 

We discuss hospitality and the thinking behind creating great experiences, plus how those lessons can cross over to all businesses.  

The "What's Got Our Attention" has Ken angry about self-checkout, Geoff discusses attending an AirSupply concert and Martin shares his joy of dealing with Woot.com's customer service team. 

Author and professor Scott Habegger shares stories about positioning and how companies can do it better. Scott talks about the need for a shift in focus to what he calls "small data". We all know "big data" but it's the small data that colors what people think and say about your company. Scott shares stories related to banking, retail and Harley's. 

We discuss Bed Bath and Beyond as well. 

We throw out a run of show in favor of a discussion about a practical and unexpected application of A.I. that Lekan demonstrated. We discuss what happened and welcome the remarkable Amanda Schneider, President and Founder of ThinkLab. 

With Amanda we discuss the ideas about where work is going and the notion that it's process and not any product that will inform the next wave of how work gets done. Amanda also joins us for our "What's Got Your Attention" feature. 

To put it mildly, Amanda is pretty damned cool. 

We welcome Portuguese entrepreneur and founder Antonio Cuco of Sharish gin to the show this week. A literal start from nothing 10 years ago, to becoming the #1 gin maker in Portugal, Antonio tells a story everyone needs to hear. 

Tolerable Host Lekan Bashua had to answer his version of the Bat Signal leaving Ken and Martin to go "duo".  We discuss storytelling and highlight its value through the perspectives of legendary brands Harley-Davidson and The Coca-Cola Company.  Plus we talk sad songs and our collective shock at the loss of the Wiener mobile.

After 14 months, we're back with Season 2! Rumors of Ken starting a perineum sunning center were proven to be false. Lekan's move from the northwest to the southeast proved to be true. And Martin's perpetual reading of arduous and mostly boring content is a constant.

We discuss everything from the new show structure, A.I. changing the world, Ken's frustration with Hallmark cards and the remarkable - on brand - send off of legendary drag/female impersonator Dame Edna (R.I.P.). 

Get your groove on, Tailgaters! We’re betting you’ve never wondered how adding a “boogie room” to your workplace can make you and your team mates more productive. Or how the timing of a woman’s fertility cycle, combined with dancing, increases her attractiveness. Hoo boy! You’ve got a lot to learn and we’ve got the best teacher for the job, Dr. Peter Lovatt, who’s one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychology of movement, with an academic career that extends from Cambridge University to the Royal Ballet School. He’ll also share how movement impacts thinking, learning, problem-solving, pro-social behavior and memory. And being liked. So how’d he end up on stage with Barack Obama and Oprah? If you sit behind a desk all day or lead people who do, you’ve got to hear this! Listen now! And get moving!

After Episode 19’s postmortem of a particularly painful 2021, your Tolerable Hosts to kick off a new season by copping to the many imprecise projections we posited in the past year’s shows and making pragmatic predictions for 2022. Meaning: We’re setting ourselves up for another year of mid-course corrections and mea culpas (plus more cheap alliteration). But that’s just business as usual. The return to work story will never die. Ditto supply chain issues. But cannabis, crypto and climate are even more fun to talk about. As are four-day and hybrid work-weeks. And the upcoming epic billionaire space disaster the media continues to ignore. 
Hear it here first.

Ooof...what a year! Our Brilliant Guests get a break and we wrap up 2020 with a show about the biggest event each host felt defined the year that was and what it means going forward. 

Lekan talks January 6th that includes part of his life story as an immigrant to the US: Ken talks division and how it's affecting his day to day life; and Martin talks supply chain and the Ever Given that blocked the Suez Canal and how our entire system of business was rocked. 

And we conclude with a year end "What Got Our Attention". 

You've been moved by Robert Tepper. His work creating the artwork we all see for the entertainment we love is burned in your consciousness. As a Creative Director working on the art for movies featuring Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump), Marlon Brando (The Freshman), Robert De Niro, Amy Schumer, Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean)  and animated features like Moana as well as The Masked Singer on Fox, Robert tells a story in a single visual that makes you stop, pay attention  spend your money. 

Robert shares stories about the process of this work as well as stories about a photoshoot with Brando, one with De Niro; and we take a look behind the scenes at a part of the world of entertainment most of us know nothing about. 

We'll also discuss the state of work and new life in the office. 

Alison Levine is an author, explorer, mountain climber and a  kick ass person. Accomplishing unbelievable feats in the elements and in business is even more bonkers given the fact she has had three heart surgeries and suffers from Raynaud’s disease. From a career that includes work at pharmaceutical companies, Goldman Sachs and then as deputy finance director for Arnold Schwarzenegger in his successful bid to become Governor of California; Alison knows adversity and success. 

Her work  at the Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point and stories about starting out and getting noticed created great storytelling for our show.

Additionally we cover the recent troubles the retail shopping world is facing and What's Got Our Attention This Week as well.