Bart Fanelli is the CEO and Co-founder of Skillibrium and a seasoned GTM leader with 25+ years in tech. Bart is best known for helping scale Splunk from ~$60M to ~$1.5B and driving growth at OutSystems from ~$100M to ~$300M. Bart is a co-author of The Success Cadence and an executive advisor focused on building predictable, high-performing revenue organizations through alignment, discipline, and scalable operating rhythms. In this episode, Bart and James discuss what it really takes to build high-performance teams without losing the customer. And what happens when Customer-Driven Leadership meets “hire for will, coach for skill" in today's AI-hyped, rapidly changing world of work?

James welcomes Tony Loyd to the Customer-Driven Leader Podcast. Tony is an author, speaker, and executive coach who helps business leaders build endurance in a world of constant change. A former Fortune 500 executive with companies like John Deere, Diversey, Medtronic, and Buffalo Wild Wings, he has led teams through uncertainty and understands the strain leaders feel when expectations rise and change is constant. Over time, he saw that most leaders weren’t failing. They were fatigued.

Tony’s perspective is shaped by his own endurance journey. After cancer surgery reduced his lung capacity by 25 percent, he learned how to perform, recover, and keep going with less. That experience reshaped how he understands leadership.
He developed the Endurance Leadership Framework, a practical, research-backed approach that teaches leaders to regulate emotion, clarify purpose, adapt to change, connect with others, and maintain momentum. As the founder of Culture Shift Advisors and a TEDx speaker, Tony helps leaders build cultures that stay calm, clear, and aligned so they can make confident decisions and last.

James welcomes Dr. Ben Granger, author of A Leader Worth Following, who serves as Chief Workplace Psychologist at Qualtrics. James and Ben discuss his new book and how leadership drives the ultimate business outcomes we hope to achieve in Experience Management (XM). His research has been published and featured in major academic and media outlets, including ABC News, Business Insider, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fast Company, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Don't miss this one!