What Would They Do? The Customer Experience Podcast For Online Business

I'm a big believer in DIY. Sometimes doing the work yourself absolutely is the right decision.

But there's an important difference between asking: "Can I do this myself?" and "Should I do this myself?"

Because DIY isn’t free.

In Part 3 of my Outside Perspective mini series, we're wrapping things up by looking at when DIY makes sense, when you need to diagnose before you act, and when the problem has enough moving pieces that an outside perspective becomes particularly valuable.

And if you're still not sure which camp you're in, start with my free Customer Intelligence Gap Finder to diagnose your biggest customer intelligence gap and give you specific next steps based on your results.

What we cover:

• The difference between "Can I DIY this?" and "Should I DIY this?"
• The hidden costs of trying to solve every customer experience problem yourself
• The three levels of business problems I look for
• Why symptoms like low sales, poor engagement or declining retention need diagnosis before action
• How one customer experience problem can create symptoms across your entire customer journey
• Why pulling the wrong lever can make another problem worse

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

You probably don't need more customer research. And there's a good chance you've already gathered some today.

The problem?

It's scattered across your inbox, DMs, surveys, support questions, email analytics, cancellation forms, testimonials and probably another seven places you've forgotten exist.

And having information about your customers isn't the same as having customer intelligence you can use to make better decisions.

In Part 2 of my 3-part Outside Perspective mini series, we're looking at how to connect the scattered pieces of customer information and turn them into something strategically useful.

My free Customer Intelligence Gap Finder helps you work that out.

What we cover:

• Why you're likely gathering customer research without realising it
• Where valuable customer insights are already hiding inside your business
• The difference between customer information and customer intelligence
• How to move from information to patterns to intelligence to decisions
• Why AI makes having strong customer intelligence even more important

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

The closer you are to your business, the harder it becomes to experience it like your customers do.

You know why every offer exists. You know what someone is ‘supposed’ to do after they buy. You understand how your emails, funnels and customer journey fit together. But your customers don't have any of that context.

In part one of my 3-part Outside Perspective mini series, we're looking at the blind spots that appear when you're simply too close to your own business to see what your customers are actually experiencing.

Diagnose your Gap with my free Intelligence Gap Finder Tool here.

What we cover:

• Why your intentions aren't the same as your customers' experience
• The 3 versions of your business you need to pay attention to
• How assumptions can send your strategy in the wrong direction
• How fixing the wrong problem can create even more friction
• What to look at before deciding your customer journey needs another strategy

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

If you've ever found yourself posting on Instagram, hearing crickets, questioning your entire social media strategy and then disappearing for the next few weeks, this episode is for you.

I'm joined by Xanthe Appelyard, the creative mind behind Oh Sierra and a leisure-first online leadership strategist who's built a thriving online community while intentionally making room for life beyond her business.

We're exploring something I've personally struggled with for years: how do you create content that genuinely connects with people without social media becoming another exhausting obligation?

Xanthe shares her refreshingly intentional approach to social media, including why every piece of content should have one clear engagement goal, how she uses audience reactions to guide what she creates next, and why chasing trends isn't necessarily the best way to build a recognisable online presence.

We also go behind the scenes of her surprisingly simple content creation routines, how she captures everyday moments without documenting every second of her life, and why real community is about so much more than the number of followers on your Instagram account.

Curious about the video messaging tool Xanthe and I explore: Get 15% off the life of your Bonjoro play with my affiliate link!

What we cover:

• Why posting more isn't necessarily the answer to better social media engagement
• How to build a positive feedback loop between your content and your community
• Why every social media post should have one clear engagement goal
• Why Xanthe treats trends as teachers rather than blueprints
• How to simplify your content creation process without sacrificing creativity
• The daily writing and marketing habits that help Xanthe show up consistently

Connect with Xanthe:

Website: https://ohsierra.ca

Social Life Program: https://www.ohsierra.ca/social-life

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xanthe.appleyard

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

If you've been sitting on the fence about AI because you're worried it'll make your brand feel less like you, this episode is going to be a game changer.

Today I'm joined by Kinsey Soderberg, co-founder of Her AI Club™, to answer a question by fractional CMO Madelyn Victoria in episode 27. Kinsey and I explore what to automate, what to protect, and how AI can make your customer experience feel more personalised than ever.

And if you're listening live, make sure you grab your free ticket to the Her AI Era Summit from 12-16 October 2026.

What we cover:

• Kinsey's honest journey from AI sceptic to saving 15 hours a week (and what changed her mind)
• Why vibe coding is more accessible than you think and how Her AI Club members are using it to build tools for their clients
• The three-zone framework: full manual, full automation, and the collaborative middle ground where most of us should actually live
• What Kinsey never hands off to AI, and why her Instagram stories remain stubbornly human
• How to build foundational AI skills before you even think about automation or agentic AI
• Why the Her AI Era Summit is back for year two (and how to grab your free ticket)

Connect with Kinsey:

Check out her signature programs: Her AI Club™ and AI Brand Blueprint® .

Try her free Skills Playbook here.

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

If you have a growing list of offers in your business and a nagging feeling that half of them simply aren't pulling their weight anymore, this episode is going to hit close to home.

In this honest, behind-the-scenes episode, I'm walking you through the reflection process I've just been through in my own business, what's changing and why, and the bigger shift I'm seeing across the online business space in 2026 that I think more of us need to talk about.

Because adding more to your offer lineup isn't always the answer. And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is take stock of what's still earning its place.

Shop the Simplification Sale and get 75% off the bulk of my courses and toolkits until 15 October 2026. Prices start at AUD$2.25!

What we cover:

• Why growing a business by constantly adding new offers is a trap a lot of us fall into
• How AI has shifted what people want from online courses and self-paced resources
• Why tweaking your evergreen funnels won't fix the real problem
• The honest questions to ask each offer in your lineup right now
• Why retiring something you've built doesn't mean you're failing
• What I'm focusing on instead, and why done-with-you and done-for-you are where I'm doubling down
• How simplifying your offer suite can make it easier for your people to say yes

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

SEO isn't just about keywords and Google rankings anymore.

Your potential customers are searching everywhere, from Google and YouTube to ChatGPT and other AI tools. And increasingly, those platforms are trying to understand who you are, what you're known for and whether you're a credible source worth recommending.

So what does that mean for the way you approach SEO in 2026?

In this episode, I'm joined by SEO strategist Laura Jawad to explore why it's time to think beyond rankings and start looking at your entire online footprint.

We're talking about the connection between SEO, discoverability, reputation and customer experience, plus what actually helps Google and AI search tools understand what you should be known for.

If you've ever worried that AI search means everything you've learned about SEO is suddenly obsolete, this conversation will put you at ease.

What we cover:

• Why SEO is no longer just about keywords and rankings
• The difference between rankings and true discoverability
• How AI is changing the way potential customers search for businesses
• The importance of consistently talking about what you want to be known for
• What Google and AI look for when deciding whether you're a credible expert
• Where SEO fits into the customer experience and customer journey
• The three things Laura would prioritise to become more discoverable over the next year

Connect with Laura Jawad:

Website: https://www.laurajawadmarketing.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heylaurajawad/

FREE SEO Scorecard: http://www.laurajawadmarketing.com/what-would-they-do/

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

Just because you can automate something in your business does that mean you should?

As your business grows, automation can feel like the obvious answer to buying back much-needed time and capacity.

But there are two extremes I see all the time: Those who automate everything because they've been told that's what scaling looks like. And those who automate absolutely nothing because the tech feels so overwhelming that running everything manually somehow seems easier.

Neither approach is particularly helpful.

So in this episode, I'm sharing the three questions I ask myself before I automate anything in my own business or my clients' businesses.

Because good automation is about knowing where your personal touch makes a real difference, what you need to keep visibility of, and whether removing yourself from one interaction gives you more capacity to show up somewhere more valuable.

What we cover:

• Why automating everything isn't necessarily the answer to scaling your business
• The risk of removing yourself from customer touchpoints that need you
• Why visibility matters when you're automating a course, membership or program
• How customer data can help you make better long-term decisions about your offer
• Why every automation should buy back capacity for something more valuable
• How to audit automations you've already built using these three questions

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

What if you could automate almost your entire customer onboarding experience... without making it feel automated?

In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of a recent Done For You client project where I mapped out a 12-month onboarding experience for an evergreen group program.

My client had transitioned from cohort-based launches, where everyone started together, to an evergreen model where students could enrol whenever they were ready.

The problem?

She was still offering plenty of live support, community access and opportunities to get help, but engagement tended to drop a few months after someone joined.

And she couldn't spend her days manually keeping track of where every student was, what they'd completed and who might quietly be falling behind.

So we designed a system that could.

I'm walking you through the three layers we used to create an onboarding experience that tracks the signals students are sending, delivers timely automated nudges, and deliberately brings my client back into the experience when a human touch actually matters.

The result is an onboarding journey that's 95% automated, with the remaining 5% intentionally unscalable.

Because scaling your customer experience doesn't have to mean removing yourself from it.

What we cover:

• Why evergreen programs require a different approach to onboarding
• How I mapped a 12-month customer onboarding journey
• Why we started with customer research rather than automations
• How to identify the milestones that predict customer success
• What you can track to understand whether customers are engaging
• Why automation should support your live customer experience rather than replace it
• How to identify the moments where a personal check-in matters most
• 3 questions to help you start mapping your own automated onboarding experience

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

What if your customer experience didn't begin after someone bought from you, but with the way you designed your offers?

In this episode, I'm joined by offer strategist Ceels Lockley to explore a topic I don't think gets enough attention in the online business world: the experience your offers create.

We dive into why many offers don't actually have an offer problem at all. They have a messaging problem.

We also explore why constantly creating new offers isn't the answer, how to design an offer ecosystem that naturally guides customers from one stage to the next, and why AI still falls short when it comes to building meaningful, differentiated customer experiences.

Along the way, Ceels shares the thinking behind her festival-themed business, her unique approach to offer ecosystems, and the intentional customer experiences she's built into every part of her brand.

If you've ever wondered whether your offers are working together or simply sitting next to each other, you'll love this conversation.

What we cover:

• Why poor messaging often gets mistaken for a bad offer
• The biggest mistake business owners make when an offer isn't selling
• Why your offers need time to evolve instead of being replaced
• The difference between an offer ladder and an offer ecosystem
• How to create a customer journey that feels natural instead of forced
• Why themed customer experiences create more memorable brands
• The thinking behind Ceels' festival-inspired business model
• How exclusive experiences can strengthen customer engagement
• Why AI still struggles with nuanced offer strategy and positioning
• How to build offers people genuinely want to buy

Connect with Ceels Lockley:

Website:https://ceelslockley.co/https://ceelslockley.co/

Podcast:https://ceelslockley.co/podcast/https://ceelslockley.co/podcast/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/ceels.lockley/https://www.instagram.com/ceels.lockley/

Threads:https://www.threads.com/@its.ceelshttps://www.threads.com/@its.ceels

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

Most online business owners believe they're creating a great customer experience. But are they measuring it?

In this episode, I'm giving you an exclusive sneak peek inside the brand-new State of the Customer Report 2026 sharing three of the biggest gaps emerging across the online business industry.

From confidence without evidence, to loyalty programmes that never get off the ground, to the growing importance of transparency in an AI-powered world, these findings reveal where businesses think they're succeeding... and where customers are experiencing something very different.

If you've ever wondered whether your customer experience has blind spots, this episode is for you.

What we cover:

• Why confidence doesn't always equal customer success
• The surprising percentage of businesses tracking absolutely nothing
• Why loyalty programmes remain more idea than reality
• The buying factor customers ranked above bonuses and urgency
• How AI is widening the gap between polished marketing and genuine trust
• Why measuring customer experience matters more than ever

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of a recent client project that completely changed the direction of an established membership.

Like many business owners, my client thought she had a pretty good understanding of what her members wanted. But instead of relying on assumptions, we went straight to the source.

The results uncovered messaging gaps, feature requests and blind spots that simply wouldn't have surfaced if we'd only listened to the loudest voices inside the community.

In this episode, I explain why customer research is one of the most underused growth strategies, and how you can start gathering better insights for your own business.

What we cover:

• Why assumptions are holding many businesses back
• The three audiences you should include in your customer research
• The gap between the metrics businesses track and what customers experience
• How better audience research improves both retention and conversions
• The biggest mistakes people make when designing customer surveys
• Why hearing uncomfortable feedback can become your biggest competitive advantage

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of a recent client project that completely changed the direction of an established membership.

Like many business owners, my client thought she had a pretty good understanding of what her members wanted. But instead of relying on assumptions, we went straight to the source.

The results uncovered messaging gaps, feature requests and blind spots that simply wouldn't have surfaced if we'd only listened to the loudest voices inside the community.

In this episode, I explain why customer research is one of the most underused growth strategies, and how you can start gathering better insights for your own business.

What we cover:

• Why assumptions are holding many businesses back
• The three audiences you should include in your customer research
• The gap between the metrics businesses track and what customers experience
• How better audience research improves both retention and conversions
• The biggest mistakes people make when designing customer surveys
• Why hearing uncomfortable feedback can become your biggest competitive advantage

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

In this episode, I'm unpacking a cancellation survey response from a former Retention Lab member that perfectly captures one of the biggest misconceptions I see in online business:

"I'm focused on getting members right now, so there's no need to focus on retention."

The problem? Retention and acquisition aren't two separate strategies.

Every interaction someone has with your business, from the moment they discover you, is shaping whether they'll trust you, buy from you, and eventually come back again.

In this episode, I explain why I believe retention starts long before a purchase, how I build that philosophy into my own business, and the small changes you can make to create more personalised customer journeys without rebuilding your entire funnel.

If you've ever thought retention was something you could "worry about later", this episode might completely change how you think about your customer experience.

What we cover:

• Why customer retention starts before the sale
• The surprising insight from a member cancellation survey
• What I mean by "Love at First Click"
• Why treating every subscriber the same hurts conversions
• How personalised customer journeys increase trust
• The connection between relevance, customer experience and retention
• Three stages every retention ecosystem should cover
• One simple way to make your email marketing more human without rebuilding your entire funnel

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

You've launched before, your audience knows you, and your offers have sold successfully.

So surely launching your next offer should be easier...

Right? Not always.

In this episode, I share the behind-the-scenes story of working with Krista Miller from Summit in a Box on the launch of a brand-new offer. While Krista had years of experience and a loyal audience, one thing still stood in the way:

Founder bias.

Let’s unpack why being an expert in your own business can make it harder to see the messaging gaps, assumptions and blind spots that can derail launches before they even begin.

If you've ever questioned whether your next offer will land, this episode is your reminder that sometimes the biggest breakthrough comes from borrowing someone else's perspective.

What we cover:

• Why successful launches can create dangerous assumptions
• The hidden impact of founder bias on your messaging
• Why audience research is about much more than writing better copy
• How customer insights shape offers before they're built
• The difference between assumptions and evidence
• Why experienced business owners still have blind spots
• How objective feedback transforms launches
• The role customer journey design plays before someone ever buys

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

If your evergreen funnel isn't converting, your membership churn is creeping up, or you just have a nagging feeling something in your customer journey is off... this episode is going to help you start diagnosing the issue.

The tricky thing about a broken customer experience is that it rarely shows up as a complaint. People simply go quiet, unsubscribe, or cancel. And when you've built everything yourself, you're often too close to it to see where it's falling apart.

Today I'm walking you through a practical starting point for diagnosing your customer journey and finding what I call the moment that matters.

What we cover:

• What a customer journey is and why it's so hard to diagnose from the inside
• The moment that matters and what it means for whether someone stays or disengages
• Why dissatisfaction almost never shows up as a complaint (and what to look for instead)
• How to map your customer journey by phase and spot the blind spots
• The two questions to ask yourself when you're looking for where things go wrong
• Why talking to your people is still the most underrated research tool you have

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

If you've ever caught yourself adding yet another idea to your list and calling it progress, this episode is for you.

So many small business owners are sitting on genuinely brilliant ideas that never make it out of the planning phase, and it's not because the ideas are bad. But deciding what to act on, and actually committing to it, is one of the hardest parts of running an online business.

In this solo episode I'm digging into why the idea-to-execution gap exists, what keeps us stuck in the loop, and what it looks like to finally get out of it.

What we cover:

• Why saving ideas feels productive but isn't moving the needle
• The decision-making loop that keeps brilliant ideas stuck on the list
• Why trying to execute everything at once is one of the biggest traps
• The difference between planning and progress (and how to tell which one you're doing)
• The questions to ask yourself to work out which idea is worth acting on right now
• Why an outside perspective changes everything when you're stuck inside your own business
• A real client story: how a membership owner went from months of overthinking to a full restructure that reduced member churn and reignited her motivation

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

What if your email automations could do the heavy lifting of personalisation... without you writing a separate email for every type of subscriber?

That's exactly what we dig into in this hot seat episode with Rachel Smith, freelance journalist, copywriter, and the founder of Rachel's List, a thriving jobs board and membership community for writers of all kinds. Rachel is a Retention Lab member, and came to me with a real headache around her email marketing, and we worked through it together live on the show.

What we cover:

• Why personalisation isn't really about first names (and what to do instead)
• How to use application form data to create conditional content that feels bespoke
• Trigger links and what they can tell you about hot leads sitting in your sequence
• The case for re-engagement flows at the three and six month mark
• How to incentivise feedback so people actually complete your surveys
• Milestone tagging inside your email platform and why it matters for retention
• Activity scoring to spot disengaged members before they quietly cancel

Connect with Rachel Smith:

https://rachelslist.com.au/

https://rachelsmith.com.au/

https://www.instagram.com/rachelslist/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelsmithsydney/

https://rachelslist.com.au/portfolio/the-pay-rates-report/

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

Most of us think about customer experience as something we do for other people.

But the most intentional brand experiences start with how clear you are about your own direction as a business owner.

In this short and actionable episode, I'm introducing my brand new Love Letter to Future Self concept, a two-minute exercise where you set your intentions today and I send them back to you when you least expect it but probably need it most.

What we cover:

• Why the customer experience you create for others starts with the one you create for yourself
• The one reflection question to sit with today
• How the Love Letter to Future Self works and what happens after you hit submit
• The sneaky on-brand surprise waiting for you on the other side

Write your love letter 💌 to your future self right here.

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.

Last year's State of the Customer Survey fundamentally shifted how I think about what online business owners and their customers need in the online space.

Right now, I'm running it again, because 2026 feels like a very different conversation.

In this short episode, I'm telling you exactly what's in it for you when you take five minutes to add your perspective.

Revisit the 2025 State of the Customer Report in Episode 29 right here.

What we cover:

• Why 2026 needs its own data set and what's shifted since last year
• How the two-hat structure of this survey gives you perspective on your own business
• Why a more diverse respondent group makes the findings more useful for everyone
• What you get for completing the survey and leaving your details
• How your answers shape the conversations happening in the online business space this year

View the episode transcript here.

Where to from here?

Grab the State of the Customer Report FREE right here.

Generate 10 tailored-to-you survey questions FREE right here.

Join Retention Lab🧪, the community to help you build a signature customer experience that keeps people coming back, gets them talking and grows your business without you having to start from scratch every single month. Join here!

Find out how you can get my strategic customer experience brain on your brand here.

Check out my favourite CX tools and resources here.

😍 Love the show?

Hit subscribe or follow so you never miss a new episode.

Submit your question so I can answer it in an upcoming episode (or invite the perfect guest expert!).

Leave a positive review to help the show get found by more small business owners just like you. To leave a review:

👉 Find What Would They Do? on Apple Podcasts

👉 Scroll to ‘Ratings & Reviews’

👉 Tap on the stars to rate the show before writing a review

Post a screenshot with your key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @candocontent and #WWTDpod so I can repost your content.