Ubiquitous

For over 40 years, Shep Hyken has become one of the most recognizable names in customer experience.He has advised more than 1,200 organizations, written eight books, published thousands of articles, built one of the world's longest-running customer experience newsletters, and spent decades studying one deceptively simple question: Why do customers come back?In this episode of Ubiquitous, we go far beyond customer service tactics.Instead, we unpack how great companies transform customer experience into retention, pricing power, referrals, trust, and long-term growth — and how Shep himself built a category-defining brand around those ideas over four decades.We trace the business behind the public reputation, beginning with a $15 birthday-party magic show at age twelve and following the decisions that ultimately led to more than 1,200 client organizations, bestselling books, a global speaking career, and one of the most respected voices in customer experience.Along the way we discuss why founders consistently underinvest in customer care, why consistency creates competitive advantage, how publishing thousands of articles became a growth engine, why books function more like business development than royalties, and the moment Shep realized his own name had become synonymous with the category.We also explore the relationship between AI, automation, and human service, why customer support should be viewed as a company's retention department rather than its cost center, and what Shep would do differently if he had to rebuild his entire brand from scratch using today's tools.This conversation isn't really about customer service. It's about building a personal reputation that customers trust enough to choose again and again.And ultimately, in the age of founder-led evangelism where those human touch poitns matter more than ever, that's how companies become ubiquitous.#CustomerExperience #CustomerService #SaaS #Startup #Founder #BusinessStrategy #CustomerSuccess #Retention #AI #ubiquitous ==================📋 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬==================00:00 Why AI Won't Replace Customer Experience03:46 How a $15 Magic Show Built a 1,200-Client Business06:23 Selling Expertise Before You Have Credibility14:11 The Cold Calling System That Landed IBM, GM & Anheuser-Busch19:14 The $3,500 Pivot That Built the Shep Hyken Brand22:26 The Exact Moment Shep Hyken Became the Product25:05 1,500 Newsletters, 700 Forbes Columns & One Personal Brand30:10 The Media Strategy Behind a Global Thought Leader35:58 Why Books Are Really Expensive Business Cards41:59 Why 66% of Customers Leave Products They Actually Like46:08 The "Always" Rule Behind Customer Loyalty49:33 Could You Build a 40-Year Brand in Just 2 Years?==================🎙️ 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐩 𝐇𝐲𝐤𝐞𝐧==================🌐 Website ↯https://hyken.com/📘 Books ↯https://hyken.com/store/🎙️ Amazing Business Radio ↯https://hyken.com/podcast/==================📘 𝐔𝐛𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐬==================🚀 VIP Launch Club — early access, behind-the-scenes updates, and the Ubiquitous book ↯https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📰 Newsletter — AI, SaaS & growth ↯https://readubiquitous.substack.com/==================🤝 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥==================💰 M&A Advisory — private representation for SaaS & AI companies under $10M ARR ↯https://michaelbecker.org/brokerage-services◉ Subscribe for more breakdowns of the founders, companies, and decisions behind category-defining businesses.

At its peak, Kodak controlled roughly 90% of the U.S. film market. It also invented the digital camera, then failed to protect its core business from the future it helped create.The usual incumbent story is about disruption: a younger, faster company arrives and takes the market away. But the more interesting question is what happens before that point. How does a company everybody already knows keep moving once awareness is no longer the problem?In this episode of Ubiquitous, I sit down with Jamie Turner, brand strategist, author, Emory University lecturer, and CNN contributor, to examine what we call the incumbent’s war: the fight to remain relevant after a company has already become ubiquitous.We break down Kodak’s failure to move, Coca-Cola’s portfolio strategy, Red Bull’s experience-first brand, and the emotional promises behind Disney, Nike, Harley-Davidson, and Starbucks. Across each example, the same tension appears in different forms: incumbency creates extraordinary advantages in distribution, recognition, capital, and customer habit, while simultaneously making meaningful change harder.We also explore the distinction between being known and being chosen. Awareness can put a brand into millions of minds without guaranteeing that customers still prefer it. That makes relevance a more elusive problem than recognition, especially as customer expectations, culture, and competitive categories keep changing around an established company.Then we move into the next incumbent battle: AI and algorithmic media. Jamie and I discuss what happens when machines increasingly mediate discovery, advertising, customer data, and purchasing decisions, and which parts of brand building remain stubbornly human despite the technology changing around them.The deeper story is about durability. Becoming ubiquitous creates enormous strategic power. Staying ubiquitous requires a company to keep earning its position long after the original product, campaign, or competitive advantage that created it has aged.#BrandStrategy #BusinessStrategy #Ubiquitous #MarketingStrategy #AI #BrandBuilding #JamieTurner==================📋 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬==================00:00 — Why Kodak Invented the Future—and Still Lost04:34 — The Hidden War Every Incumbent Eventually Fights07:09 — Why Companies Like Amazon & Costco Never Stop Moving10:07 — Marketing Doesn't End When Everyone Knows Your Brand13:00 — How Ubiquitous Companies Quietly Become Irrelevant16:38 — The Hardest Decision Every Great Brand Eventually Faces20:33 — Who Really Owns a Brand: The Company or the Customer?26:00 — How Apple, LEGO & Burberry Reinvented Themselves29:50 — Why Big Companies Almost Never Pivot Fast Enough34:10 — How AI Is Rewriting Brand Strategy40:06 — What AI Can't Replace in Great Marketing44:02 — The Secret Behind Companies That Last for Decades46:35 — The One Thing That Never Changes in Business==================🎙️ 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫==================🌐 Website ↯https://jamieturner.live/📘 Newest Book, Better ↯https://amzn.to/4r81ngb==================📘 𝐔𝐛𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐬==================🚀 VIP Launch Club — early access, behind-the-scenes updates, and more from Ubiquitous ↯🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook/📰 Newsletter — AI, SaaS, growth ↯🔗 https://readubiquitous.substack.com/==================🤝 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰/ 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥==================💰 M&A Advisory — private representation for SaaS & AI companies under $10M ARR ↯https://michaelbecker.org/brokerage-services◉ Subscribe for business stories about the companies, decisions, and behind-the-scenes inflection points shaping ubiquity.

A behind-the-scenes look at how I repositioned HackerRank for the AI era, rebuilt the narrative for enterprise buyers, and launched a tightly scoped ABM motion to penetrate high-value accounts. Covers the systems, tradeoffs, and execution that turned positioning into pipeline while strengthening long-term exit readiness.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

Ubiquity is the only option in 2027 and beyond.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

In 2019, SAP acquired lifecycle personalization provider Emarsys for $500M. At the time, Emarsys had grown from $135M ARR in 2017 (when I joined) to $175M ARR in 2019, a ~14% CAGR that valued the deal at roughly a 3x revenue multiple.In this episode, I break down why SAP made the move, how Emarsys fit into the CX portfolio, and what perspective investors like Summit Partners and Vector Capital (likely) had in pushing for the exit. I’ll also explain why the price reflected Emarsys’ mid-market growth ceiling.On a personal note, I share what it felt like inside the company — from the chatter about what might change, to the reality that almost nothing did — and how watching that exit firsthand sparked my obsession with M&A as the higher-level game behind SaaS.Disclaimer: None of this is private or insider information. Everything shared can be found in, or reasonably inferred from, publicly available sources.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

Twilio is one of the clearest examples of expansion revenue driving enterprise value. In this episode, I break down how Twilio’s developer-first GTM, usage-based pricing, and broad product catalog produced dollar-based net expansion rates of 170% in its early years, held 120–130% at scale, and sustained net negative churn for over a decade.We’ll look at the mechanics behind usage-aligned billing, why a $20 free trial could scale into $10M+ accounts, how cross-sell into email and data shifted margins, and how Twilio’s valuation swung from $60B at peak to 3.5x forward revenue as net retention cooled.If you’re building SaaS, this is a clear case study in how pricing models and retention metrics dictate growth and market cap.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

This episode comes from a conversation I had with Mehmet Gonullu on The CTO Show. We cover the shift from old-school marketing tactics to system-driven models, why outreach still matters but needs a new approach, and how startups can build momentum in content without a full marketing background.I talk about reputation as a growth lever, the move toward decentralized content teams, and how founders can apply neuro-emotional techniques to get real traction. We also dig into AI—where it fits, where it doesn’t, and how to use it without losing the human element.If you want a straight breakdown of how I think about content, outreach, and growth in today’s environment, this episode lays it out.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.

You don’t need to wait years before people see you as an expert. In this episode, I walk you through a 30-day plan to build credibility fast. Here’s what I cover:1/ How to capture speaking footage that makes you look established, even if you book your own room.2/ Why hosting your own small event series gives you consistent proof and fresh content.3/ How to get guest articles published in niche sites so you can use their logos in your “As Seen In” section.4/ The right way to collect and showcase client testimonials that actually build trust.5/ A system for getting on 10–15 podcasts in a single month and using those appearances as authority.6/ Why a single photo or Zoom screenshot with a recognizable name can instantly raise your status.7/ How to rewrite your bio and headline with numbers and results that people can’t ignore.By the end of the month, you’ll have stacked enough credibility signals that people treat you like an authority—and the process itself will push you closer to truly becoming one.========================📒 RESOURCES========================🚀 PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOOKThe playbook on how breakout companies become omnipresent ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/ubiquitousbook📩 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACKBreakdowns on SaaS growth for ubiquity-minded founders ↴🔗 http://readubiquitous.substack.com📖 GET MY 1st BOOK, CONTENT CAPITALISTHow to turn content into a revenue engine that compounds ↴🔗 https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/🌐 CONNECT🔗 LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker🔗 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUbiquitousPodcast◉ Subscribe. Share with someone building.