Q&A with Cupola CX founder Sarah Andrews
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Sarah Andrews has spent over two decades putting smiles on the faces of customers, engaging employees and teaching companies how to do the same through her work in the customer experience space.
In September 2023, Andrews launched Cupola CX, a boutique consulting firm to help leaders design and implement a customer experience strategy that retains both clients and employees.
As a woman in spaces mostly dominated my men, Andrews always had to put in extra effort, but she said an unexpected group of people has made her question her previous conditioning.
Andrews spoke with Inside INdiana Business about what can come out of a bad situation and the importance of being open to change of all forms. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Can you tell me what your career journey has looked like and whether it’s what you envisioned for yourself?
I was born and raised here in South Bend, Indiana. I went to Purdue University, and I had my heart set on becoming a compounding pharmacist until I realized that meant standing for 14 hours a day checking scripts. So I pivoted a little bit, still in health science, but added in some marketing so I could get back to storytelling, something I picked up from my grandmother. Although I’m a big city girl, I came back here to be closer to my grandmother.
When I graduated from college, I started working at a community mental health center. I was in the marketing department there and building relationships with our local community. After that I worked at Press Ganey for 11 years. I traveled to hospitals all over the country, helping them to improve delivery of care which was really meaningful to me. Health care has always been part of who I am and I really loved that job.
I joined private equity firm Graham Allen Partners in 2017. I was in charge of starting the customer experience teams for companies they invested in. I left after a few years and joined a consulting firm before starting my own consulting business last September. I’m a party of one right now, but it’s been really exciting to take all the experience I had gained throughout my career and put it into something that can impact people, and reinforce my values of connection and contribution.
How did you go about finding your first client?
I was super lucky. In consulting, you usually get your first client from a former client or a former colleague. I hooked back up with someone I worked with at Graham Allen, who was looking for help for a company they had recently invested in. So I put together a pitch and presented it to them. I was so nervous because I’d never had to be the salesperson before, I’ve always been the consultant that’s delivered. I remember I was in the checkout line at the grocery store when I opened my work email and saw I’d gotten the job. I was so excited, I came home and told my family. My husband is a public school teacher, and my work provides for my family to live, so running my own business was a big risk for my family. When I got that first sale, it was like I could do it; people want to buy what I’m selling and people believe in me as much as I believe in myself.
What would you say to a woman who’s making more than a man and there’s some tension or she’s trying to reduce herself because the man feels insecure?
My mother made more than my father, so that never really became a point of conversation. The idea was we would provide for this family that we’ve created together and it doesn’t matter if you bring in a dime and I bring in a quarter. Together we have 35 cents and we’re going to make the best of it. So I grew up in an environment where I didn’t feel like I had to demean my husband because he didn’t make as much money as I did.
It bothers him that he can’t contribute more to our family but I tell him all the time that I wouldn’t ask him to get a different job because he will be miserable and I wouldn’t want to live with him if he were miserable. In his book, “The Big Leap,” Gary Hendricks talks about the zone of genius—when you get into a flow and you lose track of time doing something that brings value to others and brings joy to you. Teaching is his zone of genius.
I wish we valued teachers the same way we value business leaders. There’s no businessman without a teacher. We get stopped all the time about town by former students who want him to know he’s the reason they work in engineering now. No one ever stops me on the road to recognize me for my work. There are days I wish he made more money, but the trade off is just not worth it to me.
As a female leader, what unique perspectives or strengths do you bring to your profession and industry?
I’m the oldest of my family and it’s really easy for me to read a room; I have really strong intuition. I use that to my advantage as a leader. I also have a lot of grace for people when they act a certain way. People don’t want to come to work and be mean and awful and competitive and cut other people down. Hurt people hurt people. So if that person is doing that, they have some sort of wound inside of them, so I try to have difficult conversations. Just the same way you cannot parent all your children in the same way, you cannot try to take the same leadership approach with your entire team of 10, because it’s not going to work. So you have to put in the work and effort to build individual rapport with each of your team members. That’s what I try to lean into as a leader regardless of my gender. Relationship building is key to unlocking people’s potential.
What do you think is one of the biggest challenges for women in your profession?
Especially in my field because I’m a customer experience consultant, customer experience can be seen as fluffy or cute despite how important it is. Businesses should want to do the right thing by the customer because it’s the right thing to do and it has a huge business impact. A customer will come back to you and spend more if they have a good interaction and so it’s getting people to see that the work that I do isn’t just cute or sweet or soft, but it has real economic impact to your bottom line. It’s easier for you to keep the current customers you have and sell more to those customers than to go and try to find brand new customers.
How do you balance your professional and personal life, especially in this new season where you are now your own boss?
Yeah, I recently finished up the book “Love and Work” by Marcus Buckingham, and there were a couple of things I really appreciated. He says the concept of work-life balance is actually not something we should be striving for. Because if you think about something in balance, it’s not moving. And so instead we should be thinking about the constant movement and the trade offs.
That has been the biggest gift since I’ve become an entrepreneur. My kids come home and know exactly where to find me, I’m right here in this office. I can hear about their day, I can hear about what went well, what didn’t go great, they ask me how things went with Cupola today. They see their mom building something and they’re part of it.
Each of my children has a role in the company, although I don’t pay them. When I started the company, we sat down as a family, like I said, because it was a risk that I was taking on behalf of all of us. My husband is the chief technology officer. My middle son is the chief HR officer because he has a tender heart. My oldest son is the chief financial officer because he’s good with numbers.. My youngest son is the chief innovation officer because he’s super creative. At Christmas time I wrote each of them a letter as I had done when I used to be a leader of a team and let them know how their unique gifts are helping build Cupola. So for me, it’s about integration over balance.
What advice will you give to any young woman who’s currently either at the beginning or mid career and is looking to reach the pinnacle of their career?
I think the biggest thing is to be really clear on your values. I’m a huge lover of Brene Brown. I love her work so very much and I would recommend to that young entrepreneur or young woman professional, do the Values Exercise from Brene Brown. Be super clear on what is important to you. Not important to your mom, or important to your girlfriends. What is important to you? Get clear on your values and what legacy you want to be leaving behind and live that every day.
What are your thoughts on mentorship and the role of mentorship in building a solid career?
I got an executive coach early on. She was the one who encouraged me to launch out on my own. Mentors serve so many purposes that are so beautiful. They can shine a light, they can hold a mirror for you, they can remind you of who you are when you get doubtful and want to be like someone else. I think it’s also really important to have mentors of a wide range of ages. I have mentors that are 30 years older than me, and I have mentors that are 20 years younger than me. Each of those mentors can give you something that you need and that you haven’t been able to learn from books or from a boss or anyone else. So I think mentorship is such a huge key to unlocking potential in people.
What’s one thing you’ve learned from a younger person?
The team that I led most recently had a lot of younger folks and they helped hold up a mirror to me and I saw some things I didn’t like. I used to have to be tough and loud and really strong in the rooms I had been in previously and that just wasn’t really appealing to them. So they were like, “Relax a little bit. Just chat with us like we’re your friends, and we can still keep a very healthy boss-coworker relationship. You’re an eight, you can take it down to a four, and we’re still gonna do the right thing and work hard for the clients.”
They really helped me see that there’s a different way to get to the same outcome. There was a lot of conditioning from my previous roles being in a lot of rooms as the only female and having to match the masculine energy of the room. So the younger generation taught me I don’t have to do that anymore. You can just be you. I’m in touch with some of them and it’s really fun just to see the flexibility with which they see their career. I never saw it that way. I saw it as your job is to get on this ladder and go straight to the top, but so many of them are like, “I’m not on the ladder, I’m on the lattice, I’m on the jungle gym, I’m just moving around,” and I think that’s amazing. They’ve taught me so much. I get mad when people are like, “Oh, the young people now are lazy.” They’re doing better for themselves so they don’t end up like us. So just everybody chill out.
What’s one thing you’re deliberately trying to teach your kids?
My two oldest children watched me crumble after hearing I was laid off on a Zoom call. I’m a three on the Enneagram, an achiever. My work was my worth, which was unhealthy. So to be let go was like the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me in my life, which I now know is insane and not true.
But I wanted them to see that truly from the brokenness of what happened to me, “Hey, you channel that brokenness, you channel that hurt into something that serves you and serves other people.” So I wanted them to be part of the business so that they could see bad things are gonna happen to you that you can’t control. So much is out of your control, but all I can do every single day is what is in my zone of control today, and I’m going to do that one thing.