Element Three is an Indianapolis-based marketing consultancy that accelerates business transformation, brand relevance, and performance outcomes. Listen to Tiffany Sauder, CEO of Element Three, share how she was initially hesitant to invest in business coaching and how Lushin has been critical to the past decade of continued growth for her company.
"The #1 advice that I give people who are thinking about hiring Lushin: if you’re ready to be done thinking you know better, then do it. It will work. If you think you still know, then wait a little longer and let the pain get worse."
Tiffany Sauder, Chief Executive Officer, Element Three
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Video Transcript
My name is Tiffany Sauder. I'm the CEO of Element Three. We're an agency that helps build and defend market leading brands. We're six-time Inc 5000, we're constantly in the top three on the IBJ Book of Lists here in our own market.
I'm also proud that a lot of individuals on my team have been personally recognized for excellence in the things that they do every day.
Our relationship with Brian Kavicky started nine years ago. I had heard of Lushin before, was just not quite at the time where I was ready to put resources after it. I think most young entrepreneurs understand sales is a nut they have to crack, but keep thinking you can take a swing at it yourself.
In 2011, I was at the place where I was getting ready to have my second child and I just had this overwhelming sense of fear that when I go on maternity leave bad things happen to my company. Brian cold-called me and I met with him and he said to me, "You are scared because when you have babies bad things happen, that's the thing you've experienced. And so that's what you expect to happen again." And his ability to pierce, so succinctly to the thing that was so close to my heart, got my attention.
And so from there, I really kind of said, like, show me how that's not true. I always say I'm generally likable, and so I was able to cover up the fact that I was such a bad salesperson. And I kept telling Brian, if I can just hire a salesperson and get back to the work, this is gonna work so much faster. And he would say not yet.
For about four years, his recommendation was don't hire somebody because if you don't master this, you will always be beholden to your salesperson and agency owners press the easy button of hiring somebody that they think is going to take away their most compelling problem, which is they don't have enough revenue. I really resolved at that moment, I'm just going to do what he tells me to do. And if it doesn't work, well then he's to blame.
If he told me to make 10 calls, I would make 10 calls. If he told me to say this thing, I would say this thing. If he told me to push back, I would push back, if he told me to not call him back I would not call him. It's breaking all these habits that you think are right.
It wasn't that I was some type of excellent salesperson. I just learned it, and I was so committed to the process. And I trusted him as my guide during the process.
One of the things that he did for me as a young business owner is he normalized things for me, meaning when I was going through stuff, I'd think this is normal, this is what you do next. And so I wasn't as freaked out about the event, I could focus in on what I needed to do next.
And so when I started working with Brian, I said, look, this is a race to a million dollars. That's where I'm trying to get. And he said, it'll take you two years, and we hit it.
So it was like he had this crystal ball about what was going to happen.
Being able to pace for me with an alarming amount of accuracy how long is it gonna take to break that million dollar ceiling? And where we were going to go next from there.
We have had 10 straight years in a row of growth. We don't get to where we are without committing and selling out to this process of respecting the revenue generation process and working the sales process and understanding, this is something that you get better at every single year. And Brian not only works with me at the executive level, my sales team, but also works with the people who are inside our client work because it also was a continual sales process of selling new work, change management, getting to the truth, uncovering pain, all of that applies to that part of our organization too, so we're all in.
The number one advice that I give people who are thinking about hiring Lushin: if you're ready to be done thinking you know better, then do it, it will work. If you think you still know, then wait a little longer and let the pain get worse. (laughing) So then you'll be ready.
Growth is hard. It requires change from everyone almost all the time.
Brian has been a really helpful guide in that process and keeping the past alive and reminding us of the things that we've conquered and how those things continue to play out as we grow for the next 10 years.
