264: No One-Size-Fits-All CX: Ty Givens on Playbooks, People and Performance

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In this episode of Navigating the Customer Experience, we sit down with Ty Givens, the dynamic Founder and CEO of CX Collective, a consultancy known for building customer experience programs that scale while still feeling human. With a career that began at just 18 years old, Ty walks us through her remarkable journey from her first customer service desk at Office Depot to leading global teams and eventually launching her own company nine years ago.

Ty shares how an early promotion into workforce management shaped her analytical mindset and laid the foundation for her future leadership roles. After years of being called in to “fix” support operations, she recognized that real transformation requires more than one person—it requires systems, collaboration, and a dedicated team. That realization became the catalyst for starting CX Collective.

One of her greatest rewards today is witnessing the tangible results of her team’s work—whether it's improving a help center’s searchability or strengthening an AI knowledge base. Ty describes herself as results-driven and energized by project-based outcomes that create long-term value for clients.

Ty also opens up about the emotional challenges of leading support teams. Early leadership training at Intuit, combined with her MBA in Organizational Leadership, helped her develop a grounded approach centered on emotional intelligence, inquiry, and humility. Recognizing her strengths as an operator rather than a novice-leader coach, she began developing CX playbooks—practical guides that help leaders navigate common challenges, from time management to launching AI programs. These playbooks have become both her most essential tool and a source of self-reflection.

Ty talks about the importance of community, staying curious about industry trends, and the advantage of having worked inside many different organizations. She also shares the fiction authors who shaped her love for storytelling—Eric Jerome Dickey and Carl Weber—and why their writing continues to resonate.

We also explore what Ty is most excited about these days: celebrating her niece’s freshman year at Tuskegee University and being stretched professionally as she leans into marketing her playbooks to a broader audience—an entirely new frontier after years of organic, word-of-mouth growth.

Ty closes the conversation with two powerful affirmations from her grandparents that guide her through adversity:

 “You can do anything you put your mind to,” and “Lace up your bootstraps.” These messages remind her to stay grounded, confident, and ready to face whatever comes.

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