"I am now personally more convinced than ever, that Application Developers writing #code to build Enterprise Application Software, is fast coming to its end!".  When I saw this posted by Francis Carden, CEO & Founder of Automation Den and the Godfather of RPA, I knew I had to spend a few good minutes with him to dig into this....#automation#nocode#lowcode#conversationalthoughtleadership#AFGM

This morning Salesforce announced the general availability of Pro Suite,  built on top of the Einstein 1 Platform and Data Cloud aimed at helping SMBs grow their operations.  So I spend a few good minutes with Kris Billmaier, SVP & GM, Salesforce Self-Service & Growth, to learn more about the offering and how it will help SMBs.

Even in the midst of tech titans restructuring their organizations, repositioning their resources and committing billions of dollars to go all-in on the #GenAI opportunity, do starts completely dedicated to specific pieces of the GenAI/Language Model/Prompt Engineering puzzle have real opportunities to displace the tech incumbents?  TechCrunch Enterprise Reporter Ron Miller joins me for a general conversation on what he's seeing from startups led by leading tech entrepreneurs addressing these areas. Can the startups beat the titans to the punch and breakthrough as has happened in past tech revolutions?  It's a fun topic to spend a few good minutes discussing.. #GenAI #TechCrunch #RonMiller

Don Schuerman, CTO and VP, Marketing and Technology Strategy for Pega, stops by for a few good minutes to talk about news the company is announcing this week.  #AFGM #AI #GenAI #CRM #CX

Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy, Global Head of #Zoho for Startups,  joins me for a few good minutes to share how she and her team work in collaboration with #incubators, #accelerators, #co-working spaces, and #government bodies globally to help #startups grow and succeed.

One of the most interesting ideas that came out of a bunch of conversations taking place at industry events last year was Verint's work on the "Uberization" of the #contactcenter (powered by #AI  and and #GenAI) and its potential impact on #CX, #EX and #WFM.  And we get all into it with Verint's Global Vice President of Go-to-Market Strategy David Singer.

Vala Afshar, Salesforce's Chief Digital Evangelist, joins me to spend a few good minutes talking about the book he recently coauthored - Boundless.

A lot happened this year.  A lot will happen next year.  I spend a few good minutes with TechCrunch Enterprise Reporter Ron Miller to look back and look forward...

"I feel the same way about AI as I did when HubSpot first decided to build a CRM".  That was part. of a recent tweet from HubSpot cofounder that stopped me in my tracks.  Given I've been following the company since its founding in 2006 that statement really struck me.  And luckily I was able to spend a few good minutes with Dharmesh to dig in a bit his thinking behind that tweet, and a whole lot more, This is definitely more than a few good minutes in this one....

With more and more of our holiday shopping being done via digital channels, we have access to a variety of shopping data faster than ever before.  And Rob Garf, GM and VP of Retail at Salesforce, joins me for a few good minutes to share some of the compelling insights based on the global shopping data from more than 1.5 billion consumers.

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CyberWeek2023 is looking shaping up to be a record breaker, according to numbers coming in realtime from both Adobe. And coming fresh off the heals of Cyber Monday, Vivek Pandya - Lead Analyst for Adobe Digital Insights - will join for a few good minutes to go inside the numbers to see what they tell us about the mood of consumers and how that will dictate what the rest of the holiday shopping season will look like.

They Fire the CEO on a Friday. The backlash coming from all sides had them trying to get him back.  Microsoft hires him.  Employees say get rid of the board or they'll leave and go to Microsoft. Customers starting looking into competitors.  Microsoft says they'd be OK if he ends up back at the company.  All in less than 72 hours.  Who knows how it ends, but what has all this already done to skittish industry to begin with?  The Brohammer, aka Jon Reed, joins me with a few ideas.  Join us and bring your take to this circus while it's still going on....#OpenAI #SamAltman #Microsoft #StupidBoard

A lot has happened since the last time I spent a few good minutes with The Botfather, aka Opus Research Founder and Lead Analyst Dan Miller.  And with expectations soaring for tech like GenAI and LLMs to address a growing number of enterprise use cases, Dan thinks it's time to address misinformation surrounding this area.  This will probably take more than a few good minutes, but we'll hit what we can and take it from there....

I'm not afraid to do a 2024 trends show on Friday the 13th, a neither is Don Schuerman - CTO and VP of Marketing and Technology Strategy for Pega!  I mean really, what could go wrong?  So join us we throw caution to the wind and spend a few good minutes looking into our crystal balls to see what 2024 could have in store for CX, AI, GenAI and any other acronym you can come up with.

Zoho is making a special announcement the morning of Tuesday September 5th, and their chief evangelist Raju Vegesna will spend a few good minutes with me to discuss it. UPDATE: 100 MILLION customers!! That was the announcement. :-) 

Earlier this month Salesforce introduced Starter, a new offering designed to help SMBs more easily adopt its customer relationship management platform.  To learn more about Starter and how it addresses the ever changing needs of the SMB market, Kris Billmaier, SVP, Self-service & Growth for Salesforce, joins me for a few good minutes to discuss.

#generativeai

TechCrunch Enterprise Tech Reporter Ron Miller joins me for a few good minutes to talk about where things really stand in enterprise tech with respect to #generativeai now that we've heard a ton of announcements coming out of the spring conference season.  What companies are doing more than just hyping it up.  What is the potential short and long term impact of what's been announced.

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A tale of a former rock and roll star transforming into the leading CX influencer in the UK. James Dodkins is the real deal. And he was LITERALLY a rock star.

It wasn't that long ago I spoke with blockchain marketing guru (and the guy I call the OG of #Blockchain) Jeremy Epstein.  But it was definitely before #ChatGPT took over our collective attention span.  So I wonder what happens to blockchain #marketing now that all the hype has been transferred away to a different hot toy, which is why I can't wait to spend a few good minutes with The OG!

Bad news - CRM Playaz is on hiatus this week while Paul Greenberg is cruising the Caribbean.  Great news - in its place is a special A Few Good Minutes!  First a one-on-one convo with Pega CTO Don Schuerman.  Then a "go-wherever-it-goes" convo with Esteban Kolsky, Jon Reed and Anand Thaker to finish up the hour..  Who knows where this will go, but it will most certainly go somewhere...

Earlier this year Walmart Commerce Technologies and Walmart GoLocal announced a partnership with Salesforce to provide retailers with access to technologies and solutions that power frictionless local pickup and delivery for shoppers everywhere.  To learn more about the partnership I'll spend a few good minutes with Rob Garf, SVP & GM, Retail for Salesforce, and Sunil Kumar, GM of Walmart Commerce Technologies.

Neha Bajwa, Head of Global Product Marketing for #CRM&#CDP Solutions for Microsoft, joins me for a few good minutes to discuss how #chatGPT can impact the job of enterprise sales and the relationships it builds with customers wanting more control over their buying process.

More and more your seeing reporters leave traditional media outlets like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to start their own newsletter and build their own readership audiences, with Substack being their platform of choice.  So I'll spend a few good minutes with Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie to learn why newsletters are gaining traction as an important communication/engagement channel for building a community around your content.

YouTube is coming after TikTok.  They recently announced they will start sharing ad money with YouTube Shorts creators on February 1st.  And many TikTok creators have already been transitioning their TikTok audiences over to YouTube because of greater tools to build communities around their content.  Which is why I wanted to spend a few good minutes with Jeff Brathwaite, who has used YouTube Shorts to grow the community of subscribers for his Comedy Divas YouTube channel from 5K to 92K in less than a year.

Dan Miller,  founder and lead analyst of #conversationalAI research firm Opus Research, also known as The Bot Father, joins me for a few good minutes on the impact #ChatGPT will have on the direction of conversational ai.

With Amazon scheduling a second Prime Day for the year from October 11th – October 12th, what does this mean for small or independent businesses that sell on Amazon? How can sellers prepare themselves while making sure they stand out to new customers among the competition?  Fernando Angulo, Sr. Market Research Manager for Semrush, joins for a few good minutes before the big day kicks off.

Tiktok star, Jeb the Boxsmith talks about who he is, why he has 360K followers and what it takes to be a Tiktok star. Oh, yeah.

Live from this week's SuiteWorld, Evan Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Oracle NetSuite, joins host Brent Leary for a few good minutes!

According to a soon-to-be released study from Pega, the digitally native tendencies of millennials and Gen Z will drive a radical reshaping of what constitutes good customer service.  And Fortuné Alexander, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Customer Service and Sales Automation at Pega, joins for a few good minutes to get a sneak peek at some of the findings from the report.

Hosted and livestreamed by Brent Leary, A Few Good Minutes features casual but informative conversations with thought leaders, business executives, experts, entrepreneurs, and best-selling authors many of whom are not part of the CRM/CX/CE marketplace. This episode features Tech Crunch Star Journalist Ron Miller and long time tech entrepreneur Jon Ferrara, founder of Goldmine and now Nimble.