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Welcome to the Sales Transformation Podcast, the definitive stop for leaders driving change in the sales world. Hosted by Collin Mitchell, we dive deep into the minds of Founders, CEOs, VPs of Sales, and Sales Development Leaders from trailblazing startups to industry-leading public companies.
Our mission is simple: to illuminate the path to extraordinary sales leadership. We explore a broad spectrum of sales territories, from the intricacies of Founder Led Sales and Outbound Sales to the transformative potential of Technology in Sales and Social Selling. Whether it's mastering your CRM, optimizing conversions, scaling sales teams, or engineering a complete Sales Transformation, our conversations are set to challenge the status quo and redefine sales success.
With a new content every day of the week, we bring you unfiltered interviews with the luminaries of sales, people who have not just succeeded but transformed the way we think about sales. Collin Mitchell also shares sharp, tactical sales tips every week, packing decades of sales wisdom into bite-sized insights.
So, if you're ready to rewrite the sales rulebook and learn from the best in the business, the Sales Transformation Podcast is your ticket. Write us a review, share the show, and join us on this journey of sales evolution. Let's transform the way we sell, together!
Welcome to a Friday throwback episode of the Sales Transformation Podcast. This is where we listen back to a great guest with a fantastic message that is still very much relevant. On this episode, Elise Archerin, the founder and CEO of She Sells, joins to talk about her sales journey, the creation of the She Sales brand, and the importance of self worth in achieving financial success. Now, let's open the vaults, go back in time, and listen in. Colin, take it away.
Speaker 2:I'm very excited today. I've got Elise Archer on. She's the founder and CEO of SheSells. Elise is the founder and CEO of Shesells, a coaching program and community for women in sales who are revolutioning revolutionizing the way sales is done. Lisa, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Colin. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 2:I got a little tongue tied there.
Speaker 3:People usually get tongue tied on the she sells part. So you made it past that, which is which is great. So we're already ahead.
Speaker 2:Winning already. We're beyond in the conversation.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Very excited to have you on. Curious to, you know, learn a little bit more about your sales story journey. And we've got some interesting topics planned out that we planned, like, 33 seconds ago. So we don't know where it's gonna go, but we're gonna have fun. It's gonna be highly educational.
Speaker 2:I know that, just based on the research that I've done on you. Mhmm. So take us back. Like, what's your sales journey been like? Where did it start?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely. Well, it started in a way that I'm not incredibly proud of, which is I guess I was relatively entrepreneurial at a young age, the age of 3 or 4. And I don't know if you remember the, McDonald's happy meal toys. I'm guessing there's still a thing.
Speaker 3:We don't we don't eat at McDonald's these days, but I did as a little kid and my younger sister and I had all of these little plastic toys that we would play with growing up. And I just remember one day getting the inspiration, like, I could make some coin off of these things. Like, I could really go sell these things. And I don't know what a 3 or 4 year old needed to do with money at that point, but Yeah. I gathered all our all our toys and got them in a little ziplock bag and literally went door to door selling them through our neighborhood.
Speaker 3:And, much to her dismay later, she found out all her toys were gone. So that was probably not my most ethical start in sales selling somebody else's stuff without telling them. But I guess it showed entrepreneurial spirit early on. So anyway, from there, went off, you know, went to kind of fast forward a lot, went to college for journalism actually. And I remember that was the vision for a while.
Speaker 3:I remember being in my journalism school. I did news that I was gonna be a newspaper, writer. And my professor was sharing like, okay, so here's what you can expect as a newspaper writer and here's how much you'll make. And even at, again, tender age, but I think it was 18 or so when he said the amount and I don't remember what it was, but I know it wasn't impressive and I just did some quick calculations and I was like, I think I may be on the wrong career path here, I don't know.
Speaker 2:You probably were thinking I could make more maybe selling McDonald's toys.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Exactly. Like, I made more when I was 3. Right? So so anyway, so I along the way, I was blessed to have my parents pay for school.
Speaker 3:So I didn't really need a job, but I always I just loved working. I loved going out. I loved being entrepreneurial. I was working multiple sales jobs at the same time in college and just it's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 2:be something One one sales job wasn't enough?
Speaker 3:One was it an I mean, pillow typical overachiever, right, which is actually a lot of what led me to some of the things I've shifted in my life, since then. But, yeah, I think I was working 5 at once at one point.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. Did you ever sleep?
Speaker 3:No. No. I did not. And this is I get so much flack from this from some of my clients, but I went to UNC for school and I never went to a basketball game because I was just, it's like love them or hate them, you know, you gotta go to a basketball game while you're there. And I, but I just, I loved working.
Speaker 3:It was for whatever reason, it was my jam. And so got out of school, went into corporate media sales and, did very well at a young age. I was like the, you know, the youngest in our office. But this pattern started that I noticed that has really led to a lot of what I do today with myself and my clients, which was I was constantly hustling to push to be top of the leaderboard, and it was never enough. Like, it was it didn't matter how much I made, how, you know, top of the board I was.
Speaker 3:It was still never enough. And what I didn't know at the time because I hadn't done the inner work that I've done now was that it was all about validation. It was all I thought if I can make a certain amount of money, if I can be top of the leaderboard, then I'll feel valid, then I'll feel worthy. And so it set off some really unhealthy habits in terms of how I took care of myself or didn't take care of myself. I'd be like getting up at 2 in the morning to, like if I can just get one more hour in before everybody else, then I'll be okay.
Speaker 3:Right? Which it sounds extreme, but I think you probably know people who think like this. And I don't know if you've ever had experiences like that, but it's like there's so much of what's taught especially in sales culture and I think in business culture too of, like, if you wanna be successful, it's literally just grind, grind, grind, grind harder than everybody else. And there's there is some truth to that, but I think I've also uncovered a much more, elegant way of doing it than than how I used to. So anyway, I found myself, you know, mid twenties with outwardly looking successful.
Speaker 3:But what I wasn't sharing was I was struggling with an eating disorder. I was really unhappy. I think I was probably depressed. I wouldn't, like, I didn't get diagnosed, but I'm I'm certain I was. And kinda just reached this breaking point where it was like there's gotta be a different way of doing this.
Speaker 3:There's gotta be a different way of doing this. And so when, I think it was right before I was 28, I decided I'm out of here. Like I can't do the the grind anymore the way I've been doing it. And I felt inspired for a while to go into sales coaching, because I felt like back when I back when I was in corporate, so much of what was taught was, like, it was just straight, like, cold calling, using the same script again and again. And that can work.
Speaker 3:You and I both know that, but I also had been having a lot of success with, like, building a brand online and generating client leads that way and podcasting, like, we're doing here. And so I was like, there's a better way to for people to sell and generate leads. And I had one client who had paid me $300 to help him edit a presentation, and I was like, it's proof of concept. I've got my own company. I'm out of here.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Which is
Speaker 2:All I gotta do is get that first paying client.
Speaker 3:Right? You know? Yeah. I felt like I was rich. It was
Speaker 2:It's enough confidence to just go on.
Speaker 3:On. Yeah. And, you know, I bet I'm certain you and probably a lot of your listeners, it's like we maybe have a higher risk tolerance than certain part of the population because sales sometimes requires that. Not for the faint of heart, but, but that's what I did, and I left a very comfortable, you know, 6 figure corporate job to go out on my own and go into sales coaching. And it's definitely been a deeper journey beyond that, and I we can kinda go more in for corporate, taught in corporate in terms of selling, a lot of it worked, but parts of it didn't work for me as a woman, and it wasn't working for the women around me either.
Speaker 3:And it really inspired me to go off and create, this brand of she sells, which is all about helping working with women specifically with how we're wired naturally to go out and be more successful than we could have ever imagined in sales, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're a sales professional. And it's been an incredible journey. So again, there's kind of lots in there we can go into, but that's the very high level of, of the journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah. There's there's a lot to unpack there. So we're gonna, before, I mean, thank you for sharing all this, number 1, because I think it's a very powerful message that a lot of people you know, I think there's a lot of people who still struggle with sort of just the hustle culture and thinking they got to put it, you know, everything into it and unhealthy relationship with money and this constant sort of bro message of, like, you have to be money motivated, which is a whole topic we can we can go into. But I wanna just, go back for a second. Right?
Speaker 2:Because early on, you had a really successful stent in sales. Right? Mhmm. And and from the outside, everything looked great, but you mentioned that you were really struggling. So tell me, like, was there, like, a big moment where you're, like, this is just no longer working or, like, tell me what happened to where you went on this quest to kinda, like, do some work and find a better way of of managing things?
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's a great question. Absolutely. And I think it's it's all in how you define success too. Right?
Speaker 3:This is something I've learned is, like, financially, I was, I guess, successful. Although for me, it was like my and I'll I'll share numbers because there's more of the story later that speaks to, you know, healing relationship with money. But for me, it was like 6 figures was kind of what I did consistently. And in your early twenties, that's pretty good. Right?
Speaker 3:I guess it's again, it's all relative. For me, that felt pretty good, but I couldn't quite break through that. But for me, that was like financially, I'm good. I'm quote unquote successful. But again, inwardly, like struggling in so many ways.
Speaker 3:And I think it was really a culmination of things. I think many of us, and if someone is listening and they haven't had this moment yet, maybe they won't have one in this life, but I think more often it's we all have it. It's just what are you gonna do with it? You know, you reach a point of seeking self worth and so much outside of you that we can almost accumulate these layers of things that aren't really true to who we are. Right?
Speaker 2:I mean, I know. I even struggled with it early on. Right? Like, we're Yeah. I think it's so like, salespeople are told, like, you gotta be competitive.
Speaker 2:You gotta be money motivated. Like, you gotta outwork everybody else. You gotta do all these things, and it's hard not to tie your self worth to your number.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. It's so true. It's so true. And to me that the switch, and I'll go back to your question about what prompted everything, but the switch to me has been really learning that your level of income can never exceed your level of self worth.
Speaker 3:So we think I'll feel good when, I'll feel worthy when I make this amount. And so we're actually perpetuating separation from that. The key, and this is actually part of my journey as I went from 6 to 7 figures very quickly. You've gotta feel worthy first. You've gotta feel good first.
Speaker 3:It has to not matter about the money. And this is it's counterintuitive and it's not a popular thing in sales culture, but you'll actually make more. And that's been my experience. That's the members of our community as well. When we do the deeper inner work, the money is almost byproduct of who you're being.
Speaker 3:But to your point
Speaker 2:because the interesting thing is is that, like, if you even look at your experiences, right, like, I know for me personally, and I I think you kinda hinted to this point as well is, like, you have this target and then you hit it and you're supposed to feel better when you get there, but you don't. You just move the target or there's a new target. Yeah. And you're just constantly chasing that new target or number thinking that that's gonna make you feel like you've arrived or you're now worthy.
Speaker 3:Right. Exactly. Exactly. And so it so it never ends. Right?
Speaker 3:And and I'll tee up everything we talk about with like, I'm all for people making tons of money. It's what our brand is all about. I love it. We, you know, we look to science behind some of what we do in our brand. We look to quantum physics.
Speaker 3:Everything is expanding in our universe if you study it. So I I believe we are part of that. We are meant to expand too, which means we get to expand financially. But it's how we do it that's the key. And if we're if we're chasing it because we feel I'll I'll give you an example.
Speaker 3:So I work with a fair amount of male clients as well behind the scenes, and I have a great client. He's in technology sales and, you know, he leads a team there too, and we were working on he wanted to go to 7 figures in income. And I always check-in with clients when they talk about their financial goal, and I just am curious why? Like, tell me why, that's great, why? And he kind of paused, and I could just see his, you know, he's a proud guy, works out strong, all of that, but I could see in that moment his shoulders kind of slumped.
Speaker 3:And he said, because it's, I think I'll be validated then. And it was this moment of like, oh, yeah, that's the real reason why I think I want it. And so it's a switch. It's a it's a switch that I didn't make for a long time in my career. And so because of that, this will kinda come full circle to your question originally.
Speaker 3:I've been chasing and accumulating all these things outside of me, and I kinda just reached this breaking point where, you know, not only was I dealing with the eating disorder, I was in a relationship with a recovering alcoholic. There's just a lot of stuff that wasn't it was that wasn't a healthy relationship at all. And I kinda just reached the point where it was like, it feels really scary to make a lot of changes. The thought of leaving the quote unquote safe job, leaving the relationship, you know, what would people I was married to him, so it was what would people think of me being divorced in my twenties. I had a lot of stigma around that at the time.
Speaker 3:And just to unravel and undo all of the stuff that I had done, that I thought was what I was supposed to do to be happy and successful. And that felt really scary, but I kinda just looked at it and it was like, it can't be worse than what I'm living every day. To go off into the unknown cannot be worse than how I'm feeling every day right now. And so the pain of staying the same was greater than going off into the unknown. And so Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's what I did. And I think we all have moments like that, right, where we we have to make that change.
Speaker 2:Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. We hope you enjoyed it and that you didn't forget to subscribe and share so that we can help more people transform the way they sell.