Hey Reader,

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Let me tell you a quick story.

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Back in the early years of my CS career, I thought I was doing everything right – I hit my goals, I supported my team, I made customers happy, I kept renewals solid… in short, I thought I was killing it. 😀

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So when a promotion opportunity came up, I thought I was the obvious choice.

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But I didn’t get it.

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Someone else did – a teammate I honestly thought I was outperforming.

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And that moment stuck with me. Not because I was jealous (okay, yea I was), but because I couldn’t make sense of it. I thought being good at your job was how you moved up.

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Turns out… I was wrong. 🙃

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Here’s the truth I had to learn the hard way:

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​👉 Being good at your job isn’t enough to get promoted.

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And yet, I see so many amazing CSMs fall into the same trap:

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They work overtime, go above and beyond for customers, hit every metric, burn themselves out trying to be the “perfect” CSM…

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And still, they get passed over for growth opportunities, again and again.

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That was me, too, until I realized something that completely changed my career:

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​👉 It’s not about being the best CSM – it’s about being seen as the most strategic one.

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The teammate who gets promoted isn’t always the one with the best QBRs or the highest NPS.

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It’s the one who knows how to make their impact visible. The one who understands what leadership actually cares about and delivers on that, not just customer results.

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Once I learned how to do that? That’s when everything changed in my career.

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I went from getting passed over to getting promoted like clockwork – every year, without fail.

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Not because I was working longer hours (I wasn’t).

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Not because I suddenly became the most technical person on the team (heck no 😅).

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But because I started thinking and communicating like the leaders I was reporting to.

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And by the time I left my last CS role to start coaching full-time, I was earning over $215K as an individual contributor. 🔥

So if you’re in that same place right now, wondering why your hard work isn’t getting noticed, I want you to hear this:

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The problem is not in your skills or your dedication – you just haven’t been taught how to strategically move the needle in your CS career.

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So, my advice would be to dedicate the next few months to building skills like:

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✔️ Making your impact visible to decision-makers

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✔️ Advocating for yourself without sounding braggy

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✔️ Translating your work into clear ROI that leadership can act on

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Those are some of the things I now teach my 1:1 coaching clients because no one taught us this stuff when we started our Customer Success careers.

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And it’s important to remember: you don’t have to change who you are – you just have to learn how to tell your story in a way that gets you promoted.

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Because you deserve a CS role that recognizes your value, and you deserve to grow confidently in your career, not stay stuck doing great work that nobody sees.

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If this hit home for you, I’d love to hear what your biggest challenge is right now when it comes to career growth. Just hit reply to this email – I read every message.

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To your success,

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Carly