Not another CX Podcast

Hey there - I’m Ashley, the passionate (feral?) support lady behind Professional Helpers. I’ve spent the last 20 years working in customer-facing roles—15 of them at startups and high-growth companies where “wearing many hats” wasn’t just a phrase, it was a lifestyle. If you’ve worked in support, you know what I mean. It’s not just a job. It’s a relationship—often with people you’ll never meet, across time zones and ticket queues, where empathy is your currency and burnout is your shadow.

The Weight We Carry

Working in support is exhausting. Not just physically from long hours or emotionally from difficult interactions—but soulfully. It changes you.

• You learn to hold space for someone else's frustration, even when you're barely holding it together yourself.

• You develop a sixth sense for tone, urgency, and what’s really being said.

• You become the calm in the chaos, the translator of tech jargon, and the invisible glue holding the customer journey together.

This work demands so much of us. And yet, it’s rarely celebrated or rewarded in the way it deserves.

The Change We Don’t Talk About Enough

People on the front line become masters of emotional labor. We absorb. We adapt. We solve. And slowly, we’re shaped by it.

Sometimes we become more compassionate, more patient. Sometimes we become more closed off, more guarded. Sometimes both—on the same day.

I want to talk about that. Out loud. Let’s doff the armor of self-depreciating humor for a sec and be real about it.

I want to know how this work has shaped you.

Unveiling the Unseen

I’m reaching out to customer experience professionals, job seekers, career changers, even those building the next generation of support platforms—not with advice, but with an invitation:

Let’s connect. Like, for real, connect. Let’s talk beyond metrics. Beyond CSAT and NPS and first response times. Let’s talk about the humans behind the help.

• What has support work taught you?

• How has it shifted your perspective?

• What parts of yourself have you found—or lost—along the way?

A Call to Remember Our Humanity

In a world chasing automation and scale, don’t lose sight of the actual people behind every interaction. Let's remind each other that we’re not alone in this.

So, if you’ve ever felt unseen in your support role, or if you’ve been transformed by it in ways you can’t quite explain—I see you. And, same.

Let’s talk. Let’s share. Let’s be human—together.