In this episode of The Growth Signal, Alyssa Nolte sits down with Rachel Provan—leadership coach, CS expert, and psychology nerd—to explore why the human element is vanishing from modern business and what we can do about it. Rachel argues that corporate culture has become emotionally abusive, treating employees like disposable cogs instead of people with real needs, fears, and ambitions.

They unpack the psychological roots of fear-based leadership, how our brains are wired to resist change, and why logic often takes a back seat to emotion, even in B2B. Rachel shares practical frameworks for coaching first-time managers, aligning teams without micromanagement, and making room for self-actualization at work.

The conversation connects leadership psychology, employee experience, and customer success into one powerful idea: you can't fix customer churn without first fixing how you treat your team.

Whether you're leading a CS team or rethinking how your organization operates, this episode will challenge you to put humanity back at the center of business.

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Empathy over ego...true leadership starts by regulating your own nervous system so you can lead others effectively.
2. Burnout isn’t a personal failure...it’s a systemic signal that something in your approach or environment needs to change.
3. Customer Success leaders need space to think, not just react...and that starts with stepping out of survival mode.

CSMs are dead. AEs are dead. Account managers? Also dead. At least, that’s what your LinkedIn feed would have you believe. In this episode, Cinthia Silva breaks down why these roles are collapsing—and what’s replacing them. We dig into AI’s role in the chaos, the myth of clean CRMs, and why automating a broken process just speeds up the failure. From full-cycle sales to the future of service desks, Cinthia doesn’t hold back.

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Role consolidation is coming – BDRs, AEs, CSMs, and AMs are merging into fewer, full-cycle roles driven by AI, cost pressure, and customer expectations.
2. AI won’t fix what’s broken – Automation only works if your underlying processes and data are clean. Otherwise, you’re just scaling dysfunction.
3. Recurring impact drives recurring revenue – Strategic discovery and value delivery aren’t optional. They’re how you earn trust—and the renewal.

What if your customer feedback loop is actually making you miss the point?

In this episode, Dan Ennis joins Alyssa to unpack why “listening at scale” has become a crutch for B2B teams...and what’s really getting lost in translation.

From building customer-led programs at ServiceNow and SAP to advising startups on growth strategy, Dan shares why most organizations don’t have a listening problem - they have a thinking problem. If you’ve ever wondered why your voice-of-customer efforts feel like noise instead of insight, this one’s for you.

Key Takeaways:

1. Listening at scale often turns into passive data collection—real insight comes from intentional analysis.
2. AI and automation are great, but they can’t replace the nuance of human interpretation and shared context.
3. Customer growth isn't about fixing what's broken—it's about designing better questions from the start.