116. Growth and Scale with Crista Grasso

How can we differentiate growth vs scalability? How do I grow and scale my business? How do I male my business more lean? We talk with Crista Grasso, the founder of the Lean Out Method and creator of the Lean Business Scaling System. Crista is the go-to strategic planning and systems expert for online businesses when they want to scale. 

Connect with Crista Grasso:
Website: https://www.leanoutmethod.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristagrasso/ 
Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/leanoutcircle
Instagram: http://instagram.com/cristagrasso
Podcast: Lean Out Your Business  

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You can find Dana @adashofboss, @dana.dowdell and @hrfanatic
Dana Dowdell – Boss Consulting – HR Consulting
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You can find Russ @reliable.remediation
Russ Harlow – Reliable Remediation – Disaster Restoration
Google: https://g.page/r/CXogeisZHEjMEB

Transcript

Dana Dowdell  00:04

Hi Russ

Russ Harlow  00:05

Good day, Dana.

Dana Dowdell  00:08

How are you?

Russ Harlow  00:09

doing? Well, trying to grow scale? I don't know if that means, you know, do I have to clone myself? Do I need to hire 75? People? I don't know.

Dana Dowdell  00:17

Are you investing in cloning technology? Now?

Russ Harlow  00:20

I am searching for some good technology. Yes.

Dana Dowdell  00:24

Well, we have a solution. We are joined by Krista Grasso. She's the creator and CEO of the lean out method. And we're going to talk all things scaling, growth and efficient operations. So Krista, welcome to it's just business.

Christa Grasso  00:37

Thank you so much for having me, I'm so excited for our conversation.

Dana Dowdell  00:41

We're really excited because you literally help businesses who are our listeners, right? The first like zero to five to six years where you're really getting your feet wet and figuring out your operations. And then you want to grow and start to make more money and expand and all of those kinds of pains that you feel when you're in your first five years, so I'm so excited for our conversation. But before we get into the methodology, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got doing what you're doing now.

Christa Grasso  01:13

Yeah, absolutely. So, my journey probably, like so many of the listeners was a very winding road. And I don't know that I would have seen myself where I am today, if we had talked 20 something years ago, but I had initially gone to college for fine art. And I knew that I had wanted to do something of my own. I knew I wanted to have my own business and be an entrepreneur, but I wasn't entirely sure what that looked like, I just wanted to use my creativity. And partially through that journey. I thought, you know, if I'm going to run a business, I should probably know something about business. So, I ended up changing my major getting a business degree. And I thought, let me work for a few years pay off these college loans, while I figure out what I want to do for my own business. And I just so happened to get started in a company that was lean. And that did a lot of what I do today. And the thing that I thought I was going to do is the stop gap, to figure out what I wanted to do with my own creative side of things ended up being the thing that I completely fell in love with, and ended up creating an entire business around. And so, they were a lean company, they did lean manufacturing. So I learned a lot about Lean, I learned a lot about product management and operational efficiency, and found Oh, he's just really good at it and really passionate about it. And at the same time, I did launch my creative business, I launched a jewelry business back in 2004. And I loved that business, it was amazing. I grew it very quickly, I transitioned to a new scaled business model that ended up working really well. And I almost put myself completely out of business, I got myself to the point of burnout, I scaled way too quickly. And it was through some really tough areas of reflection where I had to figure out, can I actually keep going with this business? Or do I need to close it, that I did some reflection and realized, you know, all these businesses that I consult with that have these amazing, amazing results. They're all lean, and my business is as far from lean as could be. And it was that realization that actually caused me to develop the lean out method, which is what I do today. So I was solving my own need to save my business. And in doing so I just realized that so many small businesses need the same philosophies and practices that the larger businesses are using, just in a reimagined way to fit where they're at in their entrepreneurial journey. So what started off as something to save my jewelry business has become what I do now with coaching and consulting and service based businesses.

Dana Dowdell  03:50

So I know about Lean Manufacturing from working with manufacturing clients, Six Sigma, to can you for the maybe nuance listener or somebody who hasn't heard of it. Can you talk a little bit about what that means in a business standpoint?

Christa Grasso  04:06

Absolutely. So, I'm gonna break lean down to it like the most simplistic answer ever. And if you want to increase value while decreasing waste, and I don't care what size of business you have, I don't care what kind of business you have. We always want to be providing the most value we possibly can for our clients in getting the most value out of the actions and the things that we do for our own business. And we want to do it efficiently. We don't want to spend extra time extra money, extra energy, anything more than we needs to. So, I think increased value, decreased waste. That's the name of the game no matter what you're trying to do.

Russ Harlow  04:44

I find it so challenging to wrap my head around what that really means in the small business, because there's just I do everything I do is waste. You because I'm trying to do it all right, because I'm still trying to find those places and the systems and the processes to kind of eliminate waste. So how do you how do you work with somebody? Like, he's wasting everything like I am.

Christa Grasso  05:14

You are not alone. Um, so if you think about the nature of a growing in a scaling business, what do we do, we do more, we do more and more and more, let's try this, let's see what works, I'm going to say yes to this, I'm going to add to this, I'm going to try this, we're very good at adding, we're not very good at subtracting. So, what we end up doing is we end up creating this really complex ecosystem, we've got a lot of offers, we've got a lot of channels that we're on, we've got a lot of things that we do. Sometimes there's these legacy, things that are just kind of like hanging out and sucking up all of our time and resources, but that we're not really using in a really strong strategic way. And so I think the very first thing that makes sense for any business to do is to just get really clear, where am I taking this business? What's the vision? Where do I want to go? In? What am I doing today that's in support of that in what am I doing today, that's no longer in alignment with that, or that's not on that path towards where I want to go next. And there's a couple of activities I usually go through with people. But it's, it can be pretty eye opening, when you really break it down to looking at your offers, looking at your activities and your team's activities to see where are you putting your focus, there's quite often a disconnect from where you actually want to take your business next. So I think that's the very first thing that you want to do. But then once you have that clarity on things, there's 10 common areas of waste to that I see in most businesses at this stage of their journey. And so I think you want to hit the big stuff first, like where am I putting time and resources into things that I don't even need to be focused on. But then once you can get that it's really going a little bit deeper, and saying, Okay, where do I have unnecessary complexity? Where can things be a lot simpler? Where are we spending a bunch of time on things that we never actually implement? And there's, you know, several other things to be evaluating as well?

Russ Harlow  07:06

Can it be as simple as just putting in a process where, whether it's at the end of a project, or if it's a long project, do it you know, sitting down weekly or monthly and asking questions of your team? Like, what do we need to start doing? What do we need to keep doing? And what do we need to like stop doing? I mean, it's can it be that simple?

Christa Grasso  07:24

It actually can, I think, you know, we just we don't make it that simple, because we feel like you know, the simple solutions seem so simple that we naturally make them more complex. But there's an activity that I recommend people do every year, every quarter and every month with their team. And it's an activity I call Chuck. And it's caught, hold, change, keep. And I think you want to look back at all of the different things that you're doing from an activity perspective. But also, when you look at your offers, look at each of the different facets of your offer, how you actually deliver it today. And you want to run it through a couple questions. So are you getting a good enough return on the time money energy investment that you're putting in? Is it from an ROI perspective? Is it worth it to keep doing it? from an investment perspective? Is it something you're doing now expecting some kind of result in the future, like SEO is a good example of that you don't usually see immediate results from that, or relationship building, right? But it's something that pays off in the future. So, you're going to invest the time now. Fulfillment? Is it something you actually enjoy doing? And is it something directionally aligned with where you're trying to take things in? So I think you want to look at everything you're doing, run it through those filters, as a team, have some discussion around it and figure out what can we cut no longer in alignment, no longer fulfilling, no longer giving us the value that we want? Where can we put something on hold? Maybe it's important long term, but when we look at our near-term goals, it's not something we need to be putting time on right now. Where are we getting the optimal results? This is working great. We want to keep it in where we can get better results from something that is sort of work and are already working, where we can change it. And I have people go through that activity before they decide anything new they want to add. Because I think it's really, really helpful to look at that. And the reality is, unless you want to add more hours to your week into your team's week, you have to cut something out before you put something new in. So that activity helps you get a lay of here's what we want to keep doing. Here's what we want to change up and put some you know, investment in optimizing. And then you know, here's where we can create some space for all that new stuff that we want to do to grow our skill business.

Dana Dowdell  09:36

I love this idea of like being reflective each month about what you've accomplished. And I know I don't do it. But the voice in the back of my head of is also saying well, it's just another meeting like it's another meeting. And so part of the success of this is making sure that those moments of reflection are really efficient as well right.

Christa Grasso  09:59

I was like because meetings are a huge area of waste. And a lot of businesses if they're not done well, and they're so frustrating, there's nothing worse than spending an hour and you walk out and you're like, that is an hour in my life, I am never getting back, that could have been a four second slack update, or an email write in. So you want to make sure the things you're doing in your business are very efficient and very effective. Meetings, highly valuable. And they can really help propel your business forward and help you achieve your goals. Get the team on the same page be used for reflection, but only if you do it with a lot of intention. And it's not just a bunch of people kind of staring at each other, like, what should we talk about today? Yeah, all the things going on that project, you know, it should have some real intention. And I think the most successful meetings are ones where you're clear on what the outcome of the meeting is going to be going in. And you do some kind of pre thought or some post work afterwards. So my team knows, we're going to chuck in today's meeting. And so they come in prepared with, here's all the stuff that we did this month, here's the stuff that you know, I feel like worked really well, here's the stuff, I really feel like I'd like to brainstorm and see if maybe we could get some better results with it. So, they come in prepared. So that discussion ended up really efficient, and we leave with decisions made not just a whole bunch of talk time that we then have decisions that we have to make coming out of the session.

Russ Harlow  11:24

So I hear a couple of things, you know, one, when you're talking about what's the return, you know, what's most profitable, you know, what, you know, what are their margins on certain things. And I need to dig deeper, because I think, you know, listeners have to know their numbers, right business people and have to know their numbers, and a lot of people don't they have a feeling about Well, I think this is making us the most money. And if the numbers aren't there, you don't know. Right? So how important is it to kind of people, and it doesn't have to be real complicated, right? I mean, you just really gotta get in there and kind of dig in and know. So, what's your recommendation there?

Christa Grasso  11:59

Yeah, I really believe that you should have a really simple dashboard that you use that should help you make data driven decisions in your business. And that dashboard, I think, should have a blend of both quantitative data and qualitative data. Because I think it's important that you're looking at both. So, fulfillment, for example, is it something you still enjoy doing? Is this directionally aligned? That's very much qualitative measure, right? Quantitative is how much actual revenue is this bringing in? What's our cost of goods sold on it? What's our profit margin on it right. And so I think you need a blend of both of those. And where I see a lot of businesses not track their numbers or not leverage their numbers is when they try to track too much. And they end up making it so complex that they don't maintain it, just figure out the core things that are going to move the needle in the business, or that are going to help you make smart decisions, and to track those things. But I think you do want to have a dashboard that you track minimally each month. And you certainly look at that each quarter each year. But you do want to look at your numbers. And it's not just revenue, you need to know how much profit, something is generating in the business. Because you can have something that looks real good on paper, but you actually are not in a good place, or good financial health, your cash flow might be absolutely terrible, right. And so I think it's important that you do know some key numbers in knowing how much profit something is bringing in really, really helpful understanding the lifetime value of your clients really helpful, because sometimes you don't make as much money on the initial investment. But you know, if a client's gonna stay with you for a year or longer, or whatever that cycle looks like in your business, it does actually pay off. So figure out what those numbers are put a simple dashboard in place, have a process around actually keeping it up to date. And again, going back to the topic of meetings, I feel like that should be part of your review that you do each month, as you're planning out what you're going to focus on. Anytime you plan for the future, I think you have to start with a reflection on the past time period. So if it's a monthly plan, you want to look back at the past month to inform what you're going to do in the next month. If it's a quarterly plan, same look back at the last 90 days to inform what you're going to focus on in the next 90 days. And keep it super simple.

Dana Dowdell  14:18

Like keep it simple, stupid. You have this great quote on your website that says saying no is just as important as what you say no to is just as important to what you say yes to, and I need an intervention. So, I'd love if you could talk a little bit about that philosophy of like saying no, as a business owner.

Christa Grasso  14:43

It's so important and it makes so much logical sense. You only have so much capacity. So you have to be really intentional with what you say no to and what you say yes to so you don't overcommit you don't overwork you don't spend your time on things that are unfulfilling logically it makes so much sense but it is so hard sometimes to say no, it's hard to disappoint our team, it's hard to disappoint our clients or our potential clients, it's hard to feel like we're missing out on opportunities. What if that one thing if I said yes to it was the thing that was gonna pay off for get me in front of my ideal client, and I just didn't realize it. Right. And so I think that we can put so much pressure on ourselves to be everywhere and do everything and be everything all the time. Even if logically we know if I want to work 40 hours, I have to be super selective with what I say yes to and what I say no to. And so I think it's just about really setting that boundary and protecting that boundary with yourself of how much do you want to work? How much do you want to work? And how much capacity do you have available total? And how much capacity do you have available for not just the things that you need to do that are committed in your business are things that are goal oriented, but I think it's really helpful sometimes to have capacity for experimentation and innovation to like, give yourself a couple of hours in a week, where you could say yes to that random interview request that somebody had, this seems like it has nothing to do with your audience or what you do. But for some reason, you just kind of really want to do it and see what happens. Right. And so I think it's okay to give yourself space to experiment to play in your business. It's not just the working on your business, but it's kind of forward looking even. And I think if you have that set capacity, you know, where you're putting your time and you give yourself some of that space for things, it helps it, it just helps it a little bit more to be able to say no to certain things, so that you can say yes to the right things. Because you tap out, you tap out eventually either you end up working way too much. Or you burn out because you work too much. And I tried that it's not a good path.

Russ Harlow  16:58

So is as much as saying no, you said earlier about subtracting as well. And taking out the things that aren't, you know, working for you. But new business owners have a tendency to want to even with products or services, they want to add more services, add more products, well, we can make some money doing that we can make some money doing that we could. So can you tell me is it possible to scale and do less?

Christa Grasso  17:24

Yeah, it is actually. So, let's define scaling for a moment. Because I think so many people confuse growth with scaling. And growth, right is kind of what it sounds like you're growing, you're reaching more people, you're selling more of your product, you're working with more clients, you're bringing in more revenue, right? There's all of these things where you are expanding what you're doing. And it's great, it can be exhilarating, it can be super exciting to see that growth. But it's also super overwhelming, because with that growth typically comes a whole lot more complexity, your expenses go up, sometimes higher than the revenue that's coming in, and your profit margins can go down. Growth is wonderful in a business, it's a necessary part of how you're kind of getting ready to scale your business. But growth can be a little messy, and especially can be messy if you grow in a really accelerated or on kind of unexpected way. Scaling, on the other hand is where you're actually increasing your profit, you're increasing your reach or working with more people or you're bringing in more revenue, but you're not increasing your complexity and your resources at the same pace. So as a result, your profits going up. And I think that's ultimately what we all want in our business, we want to be able to make a bigger impact, we want to be able to bring in more profits. So we have more flexibility in what we do and what we invest in, in our business. So, I think that that makes a ton of sense. But if you think about it, if scaling is, you know, basically being more efficient with your resources, it's reaching more people or bringing in more revenue without investing tons of new time, tons of new money, tons of new everything. It's really more about optimization than it is about more people think scaling is more and more and more. And it's not that it's not I mean, you absolutely can go work with a new market segment. There's things that you can do as you're scaling your business. But the easiest way to scale your business and especially to scale your profit is to optimize what's already working, instead of going off and trying to create that brand new program to hit that brand new market and do all of that brand new work. Right? What if you just looked at your existing offer, and said, what's working? How can we get even more people into this offer? What can we do to bring more people into this? What can we do on the back end to make it so that it runs a lot more smoothly so that we can serve more people with the same resources that we currently have? And so that's how you end up actually scaling your business. And to me, this is actually one of the 10 areas of waste that I mentioned is focusing on new versus focusing on optimization, because it happens so often as you know, visionary leaders, we're innovators, we're creators, we love new, new is exciting, newest fun, our happy place isn't optimization. It's not trying to take something and make it better. But that's ultimately where I think the secret to scaling comes in, if you want to do it in more of a simple and sustainable way.

Dana Dowdell  20:23

Newest shiny, and I I'm very much about No, I fall into that trap all the time. But and also to the point of our conversation before we started recording is, there's often so many influences when you start a business of things you should people tell you things that you should be doing. And so sometimes that idea of like, yeah, if that's gonna bring in more revenue, I should do that. Do you have any recommendations on like, how to take those influences and like, filter them through to see if they're really a good potential project to take on?

Christa Grasso  21:02

Yeah, absolutely. So again, I think that every single thing you do in your business needs to filter through your vision. And so you are the only person who can really define your vision. Nobody else should ever define your vision, you can have people who help you with strategy, with planning, with implementation with all the things, but as the owner of your business, you are the one who holistically owns that vision. And so I think a really clear filter to ask yourself is, is this aligned with where I want to go? And if you simply just take a two second pause to run it through that question, there's a whole lot of things that never make it past that question. The next filter, I think, is, is this the most important thing for me to be doing right now? And you know, is it something that you should be doing relates more to long term vision, is it something I should be doing right now relates more to near term goals, and running it through those filters usually can weed out a whole lot of things that could be potential distractions. Now, just because something isn't something you should be focused on right now, doesn't mean it's not something that maybe you should experiment with, maybe you should look at it in your business. And one of the things that I recommend every business owner has is something called an innovation backlog. And so this is just simply a backlog of all of the amazing ideas, you have all of the things people tell you, you should do all of the things you want to look at, like should I be using AI, let me figure that out. Let me sign up for an account, right, you can easily distract yourself at any point in time during the day with all of the ideas that are either generated by you, or generated by somebody else and shared with you. And so the innovation backlog gives you a way to get it out of your head or onto your inbox or social media feed and have a place to park it to go back to when the time is right. Now, there's some things that truly are going to be like I must act on this right now. But it's so rare that that's the case. And I recommend people give themselves space in their schedule, again, to go through their innovation backlog and choose what they want to work on, I recommend you start with what I call innovation hour. So give yourself one hour every week minimum to go and look in that backlog and pick something to just simply experiment with if you'd like to, I'm at the point now where I actually have my mornings fully protected, and my entire Fridays fully protected. So I can do either, you know, passion projects, I can work on kind of the next big thing in my business, I can go really deep on innovation, things that are in my backlog. So it's taken me a while to build up to that much space in my schedule specifically dedicated for that sort of thing. But pretty much everyone can find an hour and have you know, you have an hour and you know, have a place to park those ideas. It really does help you not get distracted, and pull your focus away from what you're currently doing.

Russ Harlow  23:46

Yeah, there's no lack of free advice out there and people telling you what you should be doing and can. And I think about when we were first time homebuyers, and everybody's like, Oh, you got to do this. And you got to check. Make sure you check that or God forbid, when my wife and I started having children, perfect strangers would see that she's pregnant and be like, Oh, this is what you have to do. Make sure you do. And I'm like, you don't know us. So it's the same with our business, right? Like for many of us, it's our baby. So, we have to protect it. And everybody's got advice. They got things they want to say they want to tell you, Oh, you need to be doing that. Do this, do this, do this, but they don't understand your business. So how do you help people kind of understand what is important to their business? So they know what, what direction to go in for growth, and then how to scale that.

Christa Grasso  24:34

Yeah, and obviously everyone's in a different place for what they're able to invest in kind of their own next level for themselves or their business. But just one word of caution that I will share what you can take or leave right advice. So up to you if you listen or don't. But one thing that I have learned is in the past, I've made investments in programs or masterminds or experiences where it really was much more transit functional, been transformational, meaning the person leading it gave everybody the same answers in the same advice. And they weren't really doing anything with your business in mind, they were just kind of sharing things that it was up to you to go off and sort through and filter through and kind of figure out if it makes sense or not. I think when you're ready to really invest in your next level, it can be so valuable to have coaches or consultants or strategic advisors or mentors, or people surrounding you that can help you or to put yourself in a mastermind or an environment around the right people. But I think you want to be really selective in what you choose. And I think you want to go somewhere where somebody is answering you and giving you recommendations based on your vision and goals, and not based on what they know and share. And I think it's a really, really important distinction. It's something when I work with clients, I keep everything super small circle, even in my programs, I limit it to 10 people, because I get to know everybody in their business, it's you might ask me a question, and somebody else might ask me a question, same question, I will give a completely different answer because it's highly contextual. And I think that's really important. And so if you're not in a place yet, where you can invest in working with somebody in that place, or it's just not a priority for you, from where you're kind of putting your dollars right now, I think it makes sense for you to do that for yourself. And to always just run it through this advice that somebody's giving. Where is this right for my business? Where's this not right for my business? Are they giving generic advice like this to everybody? Or are they giving advice, specifically to a business at my stage with my challenges with my next level goals, and just kind of try to run it through that filter? Because there's a lot of stuff you could do in your business, there's no shortage of opportunities. But a lot of those, well, they might be right, and they might work really well, for the person who shared the idea. It might not have anything to do with your particular context right now.

Dana Dowdell  27:04

I think it's Russ that always says that if someone's making money off of the advice that they give you, like, you should always question it, you know, if they're, if they're recommending a platform or something, but they get a piece of the pie, if you sign up for it, you have to be conscientious of what advice someone's giving you. Yeah, true. What within your own business, you know, once you started the lean out method, and did you have to ever take a step back and say, like, oh, shit, I'm not actually practicing what I preach. Right? Because we get we get wrapped up in things. So, did you ever experience that?

Christa Grasso  27:41

How many times have I experienced that? I think is the question. Right? Like, I just, I believe so fully in, leading through integrity, right? And not saying do what I say not what I do, but actually saying, do what I do, because I actually do it and live my own methods, right. And nobody is perfect. And nobody does things all the time. And I will say I'm really big on capacity-based planning, I have an entire strategic planning framework that I designed specifically for businesses at our stage. And one of the things there is let's avoid overworking overwhelmed by being really intentional with what your time is, and being, you know, doing capacity based planning. And then I find myself working on the weekends and working at night. And I'm like, wait a minute, how did I end up here? I'm following my own system. So, what's not working? And it was just eye opening? To me again, how many things was I saying yes to without saying no to something else first. And even though I know it, I coach my clients through it, it's still an ongoing challenge at all points in time, but I have at least that recognition to be like, I know my patterns, I love to work, I would work from the time I woke up till the time I went to sleep every single day if left to my own devices. But I also know that's not great for health and relationships or you know, just balance in any way shape or form. So I know my own patterns in so I start to see where they slip. And then I have to re shift myself back. And just this week, I brought on another new team member to give myself back a little bit more of the capacity that I've been starting to eat into so that I don't end up back in that same cycle again.

Russ Harlow  29:30

So yeah, I do work from the time I get up. Go to bed and then sometimes I dream about work. Not on purpose, not in a good way. So yeah, I get it like I do need some more structure. How do you what are the best ways to kind of go through and evaluate that and to kind of pick the most important places or the most? The best places to make those changes?

Christa Grasso  29:57

Yeah, one thing that I will say is I find fine too. be really effective is to play to your unique strengths. And there's so much advice out there, you have to wake up early, and you have to start your day first thing, and you have to do the most important thing first in the morning, or the hardest thing first in the morning, or the easiest thing first in the morning, so you get momentum. There's all of this advice out there about what you should do. I think the key is you just have to figure out how do you work best in what works for you. What works best for me is to work in focus blocks, I don't do really well, spending just a little bit of time on a lot of things takes me a lot longer, like can I do it? Sure do, I want to know, so I structure my days around focus blocks, I do interviews for podcasts, my own or others during certain times I do client calls during certain times, I have free space on my calendar every morning to work on the business or work on personal projects. So I've structured my day in focus blocks, because I know that's how I work best. And I also know I'm most creative in the mornings. So I changed my schedule to take out all client commitments and calls and team meetings in the morning. So I have that space to work on my business. So, I can be creative. So I think sometimes there's, I work more than I want to. But other times, it's just that you're not setting yourself up to work in a way that plays to your strengths. And your time isn't as efficient as it could be. It's more about optimizing the time that you have in the way that you're working sometimes than it is about the number of hours. And just simply restructuring my days, in that way actually gave me back a lot of time because I was able to do things quicker, because I was playing to my strengths. And so I think that's one thing that I highly recommend that you start with. And then there's certainly a lot of things about how you structure your day, and how many hours you work and all of that. But it's really a personal, I think, a very personal decision and what works for you.

Russ Harlow  31:52

Everybody's different. How are you familiar with Daniel H Pink's book when, because it helps kind of walk people through, you know, their different personality types, and when what's good for them.

Christa Grasso  32:04

I've not read that yet. But that one in my I actually have a backlog for self-development. Also, because I have a backlog for everything. So when someone mentions a book, it goes in the backlog and the next time I have space I pull from it.

Russ Harlow  32:17

It helps people evaluate, you know, whether it's doing it first thing in the morning, whether it's at 4am, or whether it's at 11pm. And you know how they you know, because they have a different personality type, they have different, you know, bio rhythms and everything else, and it helps you kind of determine what's best for you. And you know, you might be most productive between one and 4pm. And here you are, you know, getting up at 4am trying to, you know, kick the hustle and then you're dead by then. So, it's great. So that's interesting. What other advice do you have for people who are trying to just grow and scale?

Christa Grasso  32:55

So many things? Well,

Russ Harlow  32:57

I would think so I mean, that's your thing.

Christa Grasso  33:00

So, if I were to give any kind of key advice, if there's one thing that you could do, really one major thing that you can do to simplify what you're doing and to set yourself up for success. It's to give yourself some protected space to revisit your vision. It sounds like one of those aspirational things, I'm not talking about a vision board, I'm not gonna really seriously get clear on the vision for your business. And I consider your vision to include three facets. There's the business itself, and where you see it in the future. There's you within that business and what role you see yourself in and what you see yourself doing in the future, as well as what you have protected space for outside your business. And then there's your clients, your customer base. So, who is your customer of tomorrow? What are their needs? And how do their needs change based on what you're doing today. And if you have that clarity of vision across those three facets, it makes it really clear what your business model should be what your marketing model should be, it just informs so much of what you do in your business. And when I go through this with my clients, they come in saying, Oh yeah, I know where I'm going, I've got my vision, I've got my goals, but so much of what they're doing is not actually in alignment with it because they don't really have their vision or goals. And so that's the one thing that I would recommend, because it does give you that really clear filter of is this thing that I'm considering this random idea somebody threw at me this must have tool or thing I need to do. Is it directionally correct. Is it were in alignment with where I want to take this business or myself in the business, where my customers are going? And is it something that's important right now. So I think that really does just set the stage for success and it weeds out a lot of the things that you don't need to be focusing your time and energy on.

Dana Dowdell  34:49

All right, Krista, we do a lightning round with all of our guests and we're gonna hit you with five questions that are related to your business. So the first one is what's one thing that you wish you had known before starting a business This

Christa Grasso  35:03

that I should hire before, I felt like I was ready.

Russ Harlow  35:10

That is sage advice. Because that means you don't get buried, right? Because you can start to continue to maintain that same pace. That's good. What's the what's your favorite way to market your business?

Christa Grasso  35:26

Collaborations My Word of the Year this year is collaborative connections. And I just love doing awesome things with awesome people. And that, to me is so much more willing to do something collaboratively with someone else. We both get in front of each other's audience, we expand our reach. There's built in trust with it. And it's just so much more fun way than doing a paid ad or any of the other things that I also do. But that's the one.

Dana Dowdell  35:52

What is one business platform that has changed your life?

Christa Grasso  35:56

Monday.com I could not live without Monday could not love it.

Dana Dowdell  36:02

We just rolled that out in my consulting business. And it's, we're still getting used to it. But we're, fans as well.

Russ Harlow  36:11

When did you feel like you made it?

Christa Grasso  36:15

I don't know that I even feel like I made it now. There's so many different moments. But I think if I really think about it, one of the really key ones was when I was able to hire my kind of executive level team. And I did not have to be the only person within my business responsible for strategy or for setting strategy for my team. Like I'd always done that with the support of outside help. But this is where I actually have a team that can strategize on my vision and make things happen without me that that felt pretty good.

Dana Dowdell  36:50

And then last, but definitely not least, what is your favorite business book?

Christa Grasso  36:54

No, no, that it's exactly a business book. But I use it for business a lot. And it's the big leap by Gay Hendricks I just love zone of genius so much. And I think so much of our time is spent outside our zone of genius. So that book to me was pretty instrumental and I refer to it often.

Russ Harlow  37:11

I think I need some more. Krista Grasso time you have a podcast, right? Lean out your business. Can you tell us a little bit about that, and then also where else people can find you?

Christa Grasso  37:23

Absolutely. So, the podcast is really about a lot of what we talked about here. It's about ways to simplify your business. It's about ways to scale your business. And its ways to really just live what I call your rich fulfilled life as you're building this amazing, impactful profitable business. So that you can find over at lean out podcast.com And you can find me at Lena method.com for all of the things.

Russ Harlow  37:50

Wow. I can't believe that just flew by. We had a great time. Thank you for stopping by the podcast sharing with us and our listeners, we want to thank our listeners for being here as well. Krista Grasso and the lean out method, you can find her and we're gonna have all of her links and all the places on our show notes. So please go and learn more share this conversation that we've had because there's a lot of good nuggets in here. And a lot of good things for business owners and I think life in general. So, thank you again for being here. Like and share the podcast, subscribe, where you can reach out to us invite us on it's just podcast. It's just business podcasts on all the places and all the things. Remember, it's not personal, just business