S1 Ep138: Season 1: Award-winning CEO, Elena Gosse OAM

0:08Welcome to the CEMO Marketing Podcast with your host me, Simon Dell. Thank you very much for joining us again. Let's get the introductions and all the little bits and pieces out of the way. I'm the CEO of a business called CEMOH.com. We are a fractional marketing business. If you want to find out more about us, come and have a look at the website. If you would like to connect with me, you can reach out to me, simon at cemo.com or find me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty active there, not hard to find. And then finally, if you'd like to give us a review and tell us what you thought. I would love to hear that.

0:52And by all means, Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can leave a review there. And that is much appreciated. But enough of that. Let's jump in to meet today's guest who I have been taught how to pronounce her name properly. So welcome from AIS Water, Yelena Goss. Have I got that right? You got it perfectly. So let's do the first bit. Obviously, with your accent, you are not native Australian. You've been here a long time, but tell us where you came from. Where's the origin story? It's interesting. I thought that my pronunciation is perfect. Unless someone actually pointed it out. Originally, I came from Russia.

1:42my background I used to be professional actress of musical theater and I used to have my own tv show program called family express and then moving 30 nearly 32 years ago to Australia it just basically changed my life put it from where it belongs to be on being on the feet turning it around like literally moving from one part of the world to another you just turning yourself upside down and that's how my life felt from that point a lot of homesickness a lot of trying to fill in a lot of trying to pleasing people finding who am I in this new world so as you can imagine a lot of leadership like the name of my um of my book uh leadership shit show where i share a lot of the stories um so for first few years um i went through homesickness um self-doubts completely losing who i am like who i am what i stand for what my purpose what my mission that was all or lost until I decided you know what I don't give a that's who I am if people like that they will appreciate whoever is not whoever doesn't like it they are not part of my journey so also that's where I found that being authentic authenticity is the key part and of course like because it was my husband at around the same time I moved to Australia my husband started a is enterprises which now as water and all I wanted just to be useful just to help just to do something because like it was clear that I couldn't speak a word of English and it was clear that without speaking the language even if you are chatterbox in your own language like it's impossible to find a job it's impossible to find your space so all i wanted just to be useful and i started to help my husband around business um and then it came to came to the point i say could you please stay away uh because managing people the way um that it was 30 years ago though as i say it doesn't work unless your people understand your purpose unless they understand that you are one of them but you are leader who can who can drive who can lead who can show them the way uh and make them believe in your in your vision like nothing nothing would happen and i think with years that's like that's where we are uh pretty much now so we started like when i joined uh my husband's business it was um the company of three working from a little shed we are now the company of 50 people we've got three manufacturing facilities in Brisbane we design and manufacture chlorine generators for swimming pool and I'm not afraid to say that we are the best in the world so yeah we supply to 55 countries in the world but innovation is not just part of our company's DNA it's actually at the heart of everything we do.

5:10We are identified as the best place to work by Australian Financial Review. We are accredited with the entrepreneurial organization with the global Institute of Entrepreneurship. We are one of the top manufacturing innovators in Australia and it's just going on and on and on. We've got more than 50 national and international awards so let's let's that's i mean there's a lot of story there there's a lot of story there take take me back to the take me back to i mean i really want to ask questions about musical theater but i'm not going to because otherwise we'll we'll go off on a tangent there but what was the um what was the catalyst for you moving from russia to brisbane was that your husband was that something that you wanted to do was that just you know how did you and and why why of all places Brisbane I mean not that I'm I'm not biased against I live here and I love the place myself but that's obviously a big a big step what was it what was the catalyst that brought you here okay that's my second marriage I never never planned never wanted to leave Russia I was pretty much sad.

6:30I felt like a woman when men stand on their knee, kissing your hand, giving you flowers, writing poems. In Australia, if I would wait when someone will open the door for me, I probably would still wait 30 years later. Same with poems and giving compliments. At the age of 30, I thought, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with those people? I am, Yelena goes, I came to Where are all the ovations? Where are all the compliments? Yeah, but it's another story. So Six months after divorce my first husband who was an army Officer, he was a helicopter pilot. I met my now husband of 32 years We met in Sakhalin Island.

7:22It's very close to Japan. It's far east of Russia He came there because he used to be an air traffic controller and he also had a friend who was working as a head of charter, like flying charter. And Shell just started moving to Russia for joint projects with the Soviet Union. and because my husband, Kerry, he actually has a Russian background. So he grew up in Australia, but he has Russian background. So he could speak Russian. So his friend approached him to go to this island, Sakhalin, which my husband had no idea what it is or where it is. And he finished up in Sakhalin and I used to work on TV and they basically had a they visited TV station for to do an advertisement and we met and we spoke for probably couple of hours and they were leaving Russia in the same evening and then for some reason I knew that he would come back he would find me and he did in one month and of course he proposed look at me what else could you do and then when he proposed I thought about it and I thought I don't want to leave Russia like I'm pretty sad here I've got my family I've got my friends I've got like everything my life is there and I couldn't speak English but he convinced me I had my two daughters from my previous marriage and one of my daughters she has cerebral palsy so Katie then said look don't say no I was trying to convince him to move to Russia but he say don't say no come and visit for a few months and then just make a decision then and when I came to Australia to Brisbane because that's where he was resided when I came to Brisbane in 1993 in June and as that just was the months I was turning 30 and basically I just fell in love with Brisbane and its people immediately because like it was and I could see of course so many opportunities for my girls especially for Julia here and not being able to speak English and we hear a lot about like Australia is a racist country look I'm here for 32 years I never never experienced that I believe it's what you put to the world it's what world giving giving back to you uh you open your heart the world is given open heart to you i used to come to um to the city center with a small piece of paper with some address where i needed to go and it's just like not being able to talk it's just like and people start to chat to you and they just like walk with you whenever you need to go and just like I don't understand but they just like continue making you feel welcome and that's what that's what I experienced and and I believe that Australia gave not just to my girls that gave me so many opportunities look being dumb in mathematics and not being able to speak English I finished my second degree here in the in the business accounting like years later I was chosen as outstanding alumni with QUT.

11:05So if not that the opportunity and using your opportunity, like being determined to use the opportunity, then I don't know what other country in the world will actually provide you with that. Now, obviously, the background of this podcast was marketing and AIS has been a massive success story. You said 55 countries, I think you said you supply into around the world um and the company's been running for obviously well established um and as you said lots of awards and and all those kind of things how do you how do you find how do you guys find customers what's been the best way because you obviously it's a very niche product in terms of its industry and its market and and obviously you're you know you're doing fantastic things but how do people find out about you what and and has that changed from when the business started to sort of where you are now um when we started in the business it's it's basically was a very small pool shop um who um we we did produce some um very basic chlorinators but mainly focus was on selling chemicals and selling chemicals making some cash and and then when when I joined like firstly I started to see okay because like no one heard at the time in 1992 no one heard about chlorinators like in Europe or USA when someone is say like in US they great in promoting themselves like being a marketer you know and they say like US is a great religion the way but I can tell you that their technology is very primitive when it comes to pool water disinfection still is so back into 1995 when we just started to travel around the world we could see that not Europe not US knew anything about that technology so we were one of the pioneers started to introduce that technology but then you quickly realize that you cannot go global unless you have a global global product that interested for that and whatever is like in Australia for example everyone is looking for the tank very robust when it comes to Europe they they looking for for some sexiness like not just the robot bro like the the aesthetics of the product it's much more important and US is in between so then you start to design on a design that product and I think that's where our focus on innovation came from we started to be very intuitive in what market needs and and basically design that the product at first we were and we were always there to go where no other company wants to go.

14:14For example, we introduced which more power supply in chlorinators and our industry was saying no it will never work it's just this and that but we succeeded and now it's like a standard no one even remember who introduced but it was us. Then we developed our own a node material which is at the heart of every chlorinator and that helps us to make it not just sustainable but the longevity of the product because a lot of products that come to Australia they are very inferior product which then finish up in our landfill and unfortunately our government's not doing much to protect local innovative technology even they say it's on their agenda.

15:01It's not happening, I can tell you now. And then we started to build commercial chlorinators. And one of our proudest achievement is basically to develop commercial chlorinator for competition pools. And that is like that produce chlorine in very low salinity water because like salinity affect buoyancy so affect your swimming time so we produce chlorine and very low salinity and that is a must for any competition pool so I hope Brisbane City Council is listening and they are our customers like in in 22 pools 16 pools have our technology so we have good relationship and when I want my business person of the year I say look now when Olympic Games are in the horizon.

15:57So just watch me. I will knock on your doors. I will climb your windows. There is no way to hide from Jelena Goss. That sounds quite scary, but I understand. So that is that phrase actually now used by many people who attended that lunch with Brisbane City Council. So it's basically saying that it's not only we have to um we have to showcase our best athletes it's time when we need to showcase to the world the best technology and best practices and we know that there is no one in the world like we introduced this freshwater chlorinator back in 2008 and until this point no one was able to um to come even close to that and if someone is making climbs that's not there that's not the reality yeah in markets people do make climbs right yes those those early days of the business when you were effectively at some point you were a startup weren't you you were uh what i think you said earlier on there was it was a team of three to start with what was how did you how do you get how did you get your first customers was that was it really you just sort of knocking on doors and going out and seeing people was it you know what what was the what was the struggle back then when you were that that startup oh my husband was the best salesperson you could possibly really okay he he was good in small talks and gossiping and all this stuff so that works in industry i think it's still the uh the the main factor yeah and it took me years and years years before I master I don't think I'm there 100 % but small talk is very essential and industry wasn't that big and wasn't as competitive there were about two three pliers like main pliers in coordination so we were operating like we had basically only three level of prices like we had um retail price uh trade price and um it was something else an expert price so so basically it was very easy but as competition become and now i don't even know how many people produce chlorinators i think we were trying to count it's about 86 and it's only what we could find like the majority of them are crap that as i say they will finish up in the uh in in our landfill because like longevity is not there, the function is not there but they've beaten you with price.

18:46So the word of mouth that is a repetitive customers that would propel you forward. I think also what makes us stand apart our innovation of course then of course that we are integrity is very like we are of very high integrity the company so we only promise what we can deliver all our data whatever our clients when i say that we produce chlorinators that produce at very low serenity we've got independent university research that proves that proves our climb and the water saving like in 150 meters swimming pool our technology saves 1.6 million liters of water annually. Can you imagine 100 pools or whatever, how much water can we save?

19:39Yeah. You must, I mean, I guess, obviously you've won awards, you've done a lot of speaking. I'd imagine you've seen a lot of other entrepreneurs out there in Brisbane, some in manufacturing, I would say some outside of manufacturing. What do you think the biggest mistake is made by people starting a business today? I think the biggest mistake is people trying to sit with one bum on hundreds chair. They want to do this and that and that and that. And I think it's one of the things what makes, what sets us apart. It's no matter what, after global financial crisis, during pandemic, when everyone is trying to diversify, everyone is trying.

20:26And that's like what books would tell you, diversify, diversify, do this, do that. Like we always were like when there was financial crisis and companies started to diversify, companies started to move out of Australia to put it to China, we decided no we are Brisbane based company, if anything we focus on rebranding and we double down our effort on our core business and I'm so glad that we did because we are I can truly say we are experts in water disinfection via electrolysis. There is no one like us because everyone is trying to, oh, we're doing filters, we're doing pumps, we're doing this, we're doing that.

21:09We are doing only water disinfection via electrolysis and our technology, like our customers, all the testimonials that we've got from our people and how they speak. So this is the best marketing when your customers, when you let your customers speak, not yourself, because like I can talk about our technology for hours but when you let your customers speak about how the technology changed their life, how they save water, how like say in the valley pool or centenary water pool and they say we have Olympians training with us and everyone comments on the quality of water and they don't understand why and they say and we attribute it to AIS because they know it's because of our technology the water quality is so good where do you see the the growth then in your business um as you say 55 countries um you have a product that lasts a long time and i guess you know there's a challenge around that as well is that you know people don't need to replace it as often which is which is obviously a good thing from a landfill perspective but where do you guys see the growth in your business in in the sort of next five years what where are you looking to to see um you know to to grow revenue or grow market share north america and europe because north north america is still untapped for us even we um um we we we sell product to 55 countries um we haven't touched north america for a long long time.

22:46It's only from year 2018 that we started to really look at that market. Then it took us a few years to complete certification and that's what when I'm saying that our government not doing anything to protect local technologies try to enter US market. It cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars and three years just to complete certification for the product that we know works well but they will just keep putting barriers and barriers for other for international businesses to to enter and then the numerous of of course like their pandemic slow slowing it down so we were ready to go with the case study with the MGM resorts.

23:40But then it's just like through pandemic, people left, so it didn't go through. So we had to basically start from scratch attending again trade shows for me speaking at the industry conference in US. And now we have a partner who is willing, who wants to sell our product in US. And I believe that would be the best collaboration that will just skyrocket us to the market. Also, we just started like one technology, one unit was sold and currently installed, going through commissioning in the U.S. And one unit is on the way to Las Vegas to be installed in the resort world. And the deal is that we will do marketing.

24:34we will record their testimonials and case study from where we take the water quality and to what level. So that will also help our new partners to sell that unit. So, you know, if you were to advise other people, you know, wanting to move into, you know, the export market, is that generally how you operate in all of those 55 markets with partners selling your product? Does it vary from market to market? It varies from market to market and varies from product to product. Because for, say, for residential products, you need a distributor. It's a must. For commercial, because like commercial, it's any public pool, school, university pools, water parks.

25:20Then you can go through pool builders or product specifiers or directly to pool engineers at that particular. in that particular organization. It's different strategies for everything. I would suggest to work with the Trade Investment Queensland because they provide a lot of help entering awards like Lord Mayor Business Award. But then when you enter these awards make sure that you follow up and you climb the windows before anyone forgets what you look like and what your company represents. But I must say that Lord Mayor and Economic Development Agency, they are our great supporters, great supporters.

26:13And they visited our facilities a few times, so they know what they're talking about when it comes to our technology. And they know what our technology, when it comes to operation. that's why we keep getting Brisbane City Council when they are looking for new technology for you for pool upgrades. Yeah now you just to sort of sidetrack there you mentioned one of these one of the these going into Las Vegas where in Las Vegas just in case I'm there in the next Resort Vault it's one of their eight pools so it's a big hotel chain and they also have cruise ships. So we just need to get into that market so then we can expand.

27:02We are looking for, say, big hotel chains. Like our technology at Sheraton Port Douglas. So if you happen to be at Sheraton Port Douglas, every pool there, lagoons, they are treated with our technology. Intercontinental at the

27:21not with Sunday. What is the? yeah so our technology is there in every small pool and uh also um in the resorts uh in the continental in the hope hope islands um so it's a lot of uh it's a lot of um uh areas where we are in and we've got very amazing case studies and testimonials from our customers from yeah look and i think you know you've mentioned that a couple of times and i think a lot of businesses don't realize the power of a good case study, a good testimonial. And I think you mentioned it as well, a good video testimonial. Video testimonials are just, you know, they're absolutely gold.

28:04Because if you can, you know, show people in a 90 second video how good your business is, that pretty much does the sale for you. So I think that's a huge lesson for everybody to learn out there, irrespective of the size of the scale of your business. But my last question to you today was, this was more of a sales question, sales marketing question. I guess that one of the challenges you must face in a business like yours is that there must be a relatively long sales cycle. You know, from that initial conversation from a customer to actually the product going in, I'd imagine that could be years.

28:45Is that right? Again, depending on the product. So with residential product we have customers like the Swimart We've got customers like pool works. They are very big franchises across Australia. So they buy in our product. So it's just like their customer support is paramount there and and it's repetitive business and before distributors that are with our company for the past 30 years and this and they're still with us and they like they are making up our product and they just like the best marketing goes through them because like even when they bombarded with shiny objects like new products or whatever they they still very loyal to to local brand but when it comes to commercial yes the cycle can be it can go up to three years and that one of the tips like follow up is crucial it's sometimes and you know i am ceo which is um you know what ceo stands for right yes yes do you yes in my case it's chief entertainment officer i i i i met another chief entertainment officer years ago and they used to had they had dj decks in the office and they used to do i um i i don't you don't strike me as a dj though but you know You probably don't know me well.

30:14So, yes, so the follow-up is crucial because, like, for me, I'm great in making an initial contact and just start the conversation, everything. But I'm not great in following up because, like, I'm sidelining with some other issues. and it's very important to have someone like our chief of sales and marketing Lee he's just incredible in terms of follow-up he's so disciplined in that and sometimes you know you are bombarded with hundreds of emails each day and you just go away go away go away so my majority of them as CEO I like unless it's something catch my eye in in the first line or whatever I'm just deleting that but if someone is like persistent persistent persistent so one of like one in 20 times you probably click and just like what what is that and that could be something oh my god why i didn't why i didn't open that and then when people persistent then they are more likely uh to take it um across the line but if you just made your initial contact and then not follow up okay they told me they will come back to me i'm waiting when they will come back to me that most likely it will be never yeah if someone's if someone's selling to you yelena what because i you know you struck me you strike me as someone who's who who knows what they want right that say say that in the politest way that i possibly could there um don't be shy I can handle it.

31:54If someone was selling to you, if someone was like a supplier, even if it was just not inside your business, even if it was like, you know, something else in terms of, you know, luxury item or a car or whatever it is. What cuts through to you? What makes you pay attention to a salesperson? It depends. If it's car and the same when I was buying my Porsche and I came in and they started to talk about the engine and I say, can we cut that? Look at me. It's all about the look. Let's go at the external things. when it comes to the product yes we know exactly what we what we're looking for and I don't like the cheap cheap sales person strategy I start here you start there and then we negotiate and I don't have time for that unless you come to me with an attractive attractive offer I would say thank you very much don't waste my time and I would tell them exactly why why I why say that So I say the way I work and I work that with my with my with our customers.

33:04I give them the best offer I can possibly. And I say that there is no further negotiation. Guys, I'm giving you the best already. So that saves your time. That saves that saves my time. We're all busy. We're all bombarded with with other stuff. So just let's if you want my business, give me the best offer. OK, perfect. Last question. if anyone wants to reach out to you if they want to talk to you ask you a question aside from lunch next friday if you're if you're in brisbane um i think there might be two tickets left or something like that but um what's the best way for people to reach out to you and and do you want to plug the book one more time as well so yes and i want to mention because when we were talking to uh janelle and i say um we will have those books for style yes it calls leadership shit show people who read it they say they can go through this book in two to three hours and they can't stop until they actually finish because it's so interesting and the offer is that whatever whoever will buy books at the event or or at amazon and bring it with them firstly like i will sign it and secondly a hundred percent of the profit will go to your charity awesome wonderful and so and And if someone wants to reach out to you, you're on LinkedIn.

34:22I am on LinkedIn. I am on Instagram or go to swater.com.au website. Always happy to help. If someone is looking for a guest speaker while I am not practicing, but I'm making it standout presentations, like I've got two new brilliant key notes, which call Leaders Enhance Live. and lead like a woman so anyone is um looking for for the presenter for first five offers i offer like inquiries i promise i can do it for free awesome and my last question why why the duck on the front of the book um you see i actually designed this duck challenge because i was looking when I was working with the grammar factory because they were editing and helped me to work on the book and when we were looking working on the on the cover and that was part of the initial design grammar factory gave me but the duck I wasn't happy with the duck because like duck usually and mother duck represent the leadership but because it's leadership and it has on on its head leadership look how dumb he looks or confused so and and and why like what is this book about it's basically about the cycle of like we're going through because um people are afraid of the word leadership but we use shit all the time i i counted about 56 way we are using this word now in our life um and basically but when it comes to leadership for some reason we think it's it's not a good thing but i can tell you we need to embrace that and why we need to embrace it because majority of our time we are in leadership and that's where uh we come out about innovation that's where we we understand that change is needed in our life and then we decided okay i need to do something with that and then we are making a shift leading a shift and then for the short period of time we're building our muscles we are we're practicing our moves we'll be going through innovation cycle and then for the short period of time we are leading a ship and unless you are not an ego driven person and unless you like the one all i know everything so when you're in that i know everything you are finished we are constantly learning something new so it's like a cycle is going in spirals up and up and up back in little sheet leading a shift leading a ship back to the square one because you want to learn new skills you want to do something something with your life that propels you.

37:24Awesome. Hey, thank you very much for your time. It is going to be fantastic to meet you again next Friday. And I may have had a few drinks by the time we meet next Friday. So that's okay. Let's talk about your fractional marketing before that. We will do. Thank you very much for your time today. It is much appreciated and have a good rest of your Friday. Thank you, Simon.

37:53Thank you.