In the early 1900s, two French brothers named Édouard and Ándre had a problem: demand for the car tires they made was lagging. Afterall, there were only around 3,000 automobiles in France at the time — people were more inclined to travel by bicycles, locomotives or horse-drawn buggies. But cars — the new self-propelled buggies — offered a greater sense of freedom and adventure. Even though people weren’t limited by tracks and hooves, they didn’t know where these new machines could take them. The brothers knew they had to give the world a reason to drive. And that’s how the Michelin Guide was born.

Michelin created its Red Guide to give motorists enticing information about hotels and restaurants to generate interest and awareness. If people had more places to go, they would drive more and, consequently, they’d burn more rubber. And that’s great news for a tire company. In 1926, Michelin added its famous star rating to restaurants with remarkable cuisine and today, nearly 100 years later, the Michelin star is still among one of the highest honors a chef can receive.

Last spring, when my colleagues Josh Reed, Mari Yamaguchi and I set out to create “Take a Moment,” the first official Genesys podcast, we adopted the Michelin approach. We knew that other tech companies have podcasts, which are stuffed with lots of yummy tech talk goodness. But we wanted our discussions and guests to focus less on technology and more on the human experience. We wanted to hear stories of success and failure from people involved various of industries — from contact centers to international airports to future governors. And, like Michelin, we wanted to grow Genesys brand awareness — not by talking about all the incredible technological innovations we provide our customers — but by giving you a special place to listen, laugh and learn from some of the brightest minds you’ve never heard of.

The first season of “Take a Moment” features incredible stories and business best practices from a variety of guests, including the Executive Director of the Indianapolis International Airport Authority, Mario Rodriguez. Mario shares his insights into creating exceptional, personalized customer experiences at his airport and tells the story of his harrowing experience running the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport during hurricane Katrina.

We also devote an episode to celebrating the Genesys Heroes award winners of 2019. CX Heroes Kate Kuehn of Crisis Services Canada and Nicole Martin of Australia’s MyBudget share their philosophies on what it takes to go above and beyond to help people during times of extreme distress. Season 1 also features behind-the-scenes stories about sales, marketing, engineering, leadership and customer experience — all from within the Genesys family.

Season 2 of “Take a Moment” debuts on October 2nd, 2019, in celebration of CX Day. This new season promises even more compelling stories of success and failure from guests like a gubernatorial candidate, a pastor of a growing online church and our new Genesys CEO, Tony Bates, to name a few. In our discussion, Tony shares his vision for the company as well as what it means to truly provide personalized experiences that nurture and grow B2C relationships.

You can listen to “Take a Moment” anywhere podcasts are available or find it at genesys.com/podcast. The new season airs Wednesday, October 2nd and new episodes are released every other Wednesday. From all of us at “Take a Moment,” we wish you a very happy International Podcast Day.

To learn more about how customer experience is changing with the experience economy, check out our webinar “Get personalization right for your customers,” with Genesys CEO Tony Bates and customer experience industry pioneer, Jeanne Bliss. And keep up with all CX Day activities online.