139:The Top Reasons Your Design Firm Need a Spanx Strategy
Michele 00:00
Hello, my name is Michele and you're listening to profit is the choice. With me today is Crista Grasso, creator of the Lean Out Method and the 90 Day-Lean Out Planner, Krista helps growing businesses achieve more by doing less. They're a combination of strategic planning and lean business practices. In our conversation today, we're going to talk about what that looks like for your business and my business and the interior design industry. There are many actionable activities that will come about as a result of this podcast, so get ready to lean out your business.
Michele 00:40
Every day empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health, and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses in the interior design, industry, educator and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line, and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice. Hey, Crista, welcome to the podcast.
Crista Grasso 01:11
Hi Michele, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Michele 01:14
Yeah, me too. And I am excited about the topic that we're going to dive into today, really talking about leaning out our company, lean methodology, and understanding that, but before we get started, Crista, if you don't mind, tell our listeners a little bit about you and about your journey to where you are today and what you're doing.
Crista Grasso 01:35
Yeah, absolutely. So when I started off, I always knew I wanted my own business. I've known this since I was very young. So I started off in school as a fine art major. And I had always thought I was going to do something creative. I wasn't entirely sure what it was going to be. But as I was going through, I really started thinking about it and said, if I'm going to have my own business for the rest of my life, I should really understand business. So I ended up switching majors and getting a business degree. And what that ended up affording me as I ended up graduating college, and one of my morning customers, I was actually managing a Starbucks at the time. And he said, you know, I'd really love to have you come work at this company that I have. But in order for you to start as quickly as I need you to, you're going to have to come in as a consultant. And so I didn't know what consulting was, at the time, didn't really know anything about it. But of course, I said, Yes, this was great. And so he had hired me and I came in as a consultant. And they introduced me to two things, introduced me to consulting, which I still do today, and absolutely love. But the company that I was brought into was really big into lean manufacturing. And so I learned lean, and I'll explain a little bit more about what that is. But it just became something that I completely fell in love with. And I've carried with me for these past 20 plus years in everything that I've done. And I did actually start my own jewelry business. So I did go and start a business using my creative side. And I still have that business today. It's going well, but it was not going well. In the beginning, I made a lot of mistakes in that business. And I realized really quickly that I was just one day saying how can I have all this success that I'm getting for all these clients that I'm consulting with, and I'm struggling so much in my own business. And I realized I wasn't using the same lean practices that I was consulting with these businesses on. In my own business, I was making things way harder than they needed to be. I was over investing, over producing, I mean, I kind of and I look at the list of mistakes you could make, I feel like I checked all those boxes. And so that takes me to what I do today where I've created and I help people with my signature process, which is called the lean out method. And it's really taking those lean manufacturing principles and practices that I use with big multibillion dollar businesses and bringing them down to smaller businesses, whether it's a solopreneur or somebody with a smaller team, and really helping them understand how they can also lean out, do less to achieve more, and not make a lot of those same mistakes that I did in my jewelry business early on.
Michele 04:03
I love that, you know, I've shared with the podcast listeners before I built financial software, manage multimillion dollar budgets, you know, staff, onshore offshore, all the things. And then I turned around and did so much wrong in my own business when I started. I think for many of us, it's about the excitement of doing something creative or the excitement of creating our own. But we don't always stop in with forethought, or like I like to say with intention, create a business model that is going to sustain us as we move forward. I didn't do it either. And, you know, a couple of years and I'm going wait a minute. This is not working for me or for my family. Like all the things that I thought that I was signing up to do is not happening, right, not the way I expected it to. And so for me it was it was very similar, Crista, in that I took what I considered big business principles and brought them down to a micro business. I mean, yeah, we're small business. But small businesses what? How many million is like $510 million and under, and I even brought it down to the micro business, right? Same as you. And so I think it's really important to realize, we can know a concept. That's not enough, we have to put the concept into practice. And that's true for all of us. I'm really, I guess, captivated by the idea that a customer at Starbucks would see you managing a Starbucks and say, I want you to come into my company, but I got to bring you in as a consultant. And you're going, Okay, I'm not not diminishing the work you did at Starbucks, but I've just gotten a degree, I've just graduated, and you now want me to come in as a consultant, like, not only learning consulting world, right? Or what is necessitated to be a consultant? What what are you actually doing really? And how are you supposed to act in that case? Like, what are the expectations? But then also like, Okay, and now let's understand lenn and okay, I mean, that's a lot as a young person, just graduating college. And I'm really actually impressed that you said, Yeah, sure.
Crista Grasso 06:06
It was a lot when I look back on it, but at the time, I was just so like, bright eyed and bushy tailed. And just like, so hungry for the work. Yeah, exactly. I was like, give me anything, I will learn it all. I will do it all. And I mean, I think honestly, if I had that opportunity today, I don't know that I'd react to the same way. But at that time, I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was like, This is amazing. It paid great. I get to be this consultant, which everybody tells me is a good thing. I'm not sure what it is. But let me try this out. And so yeah, I just went and totally bright eyed, bushy tailed. And I love it.
Michele 06:40
I mean, isn't that how we do a lot of things? Sometimes, you know, if we knew every hiccup and every bump and everything that was going to happen in our life, or in our business, we all think we want to know it all. I don't think we do. I know I don't. There's plenty that I wish I hadn't known or glad that I didn't know. There are some things that sure wish I had given and been given a heads up on. But you know, it is just the way that it is. But did he happen to tell you what it was he saw in you? Or what skill set or what it was that he was looking for? Was it the way that you were managing that Starbucks? Did he noticed that there was something happening that that made him think you could be a fit over here?
Crista Grasso 07:21
I think I get asked this question a lot. And I really spent a lot of time reflecting on it. And I think it's I'm really, really, really organized. Most people describe me as the most organized person they know. And I just I have really good attention to detail and really good follow through. And I think he watched me interact with people for so long. I mean, he was a morning customer of mine for years. So it's not like he had just met me. So he watched me interact with people, he watched me manage people. And he knew every single day, I'd see his car pull in, and I'd have his drink ready by the time he got to the counter. And I always was very conversational with him as I was with all my customers. And so I think he just knew after seeing me do things on repeat for so long, that I was reliable, and that I was kind of relentless. I was gonna figure it out and get it done. And I don't know, for whatever reason.
Michele 08:14
So it's interesting. Jenelle Deck is a friend of mine, and she uses lean manufacturing in her company, Adaptive Textiles. But she was on the podcast, and she made the comment one time, I'll put the link to her episode in the show notes. I want to say she was at, oh, gosh, Moe's, she got into a habit of going to Moe's like every day or four days at a time. And she started watching the people on the line at Moe's. And noticed that there were a couple of people that were similar to what you were describing you were that they knew the order. They didn't get flustered. There was a lot coming in, they kept it all together. And she asked him, do you want a job, she ended up hiring three of the people from going in to Moe's over and over and over and watching what they were doing and how they were doing it, recognizing that they had a natural aptitude. You know, she could teach them what she needed to teach them for her business. But that's not something that's always easily taught. And so that's interesting. I was just curious, like he had to have seen like huge potential, or a specialized potential that he could capitalize on, especially to bring you in as a consultant and not let me bring you in as an intern and let's bring you in and a career development program or something like that. So that's amazing.
Crista Grasso 09:36
Yeah, I came into a pretty I don't want to say senior position, because it's not that the position itself was senior, but it was not an entry level position. It wasn't in turn. I just kind of stepped in working with these big executives. I mean, it was it was an amazing opportunity. When I look back on it. In hindsight at the time, I just did what I thought I needed to do for the job. I didn't recognize the opportunity that I actually had at the time. But looking back on it, I'm like, wow, what an amazing opportunity he gave me.
Michele 10:04
So that leads us into kind of really wanting to understand what is a lean methodology that might be a new term for a lot of our listeners today. And I would say that maybe many of us have heard of lean or a thought of lean with regard to manufacturing type company. But the lean methodology in and of itself, and the principles of lean can be applied to any business that is producing anything, right?
Crista Grasso 10:31
Absolutely. And so lean, I'll give you like a very brief history of lean, it kind of grew up in the manufacturing space in the term lean manufacturing was actually coined in the early 90s. And it had been based on a study of different manufacturing processes that had been done in the one that had been deemed kind of the most interesting, most effective, if you will, that was part of this book that coined the term was the Toyota Production System called TPS. And that had been put in place in the 1930s. And they had really looked at a way of how they could take their manufacturing process, and make their products faster, how they could reduce the cost, how they could improve their quality, and how they could address their customer needs, so that they could do different variety, because Ford had done something previously called mass production. But it was all about consistency, it wasn't about variety. Whereas the Toyota Production System was more about variety and making sure they were being very customer centric in meeting their customer needs. Because every customer was a little bit different. They didn't just produce one car like a Mustang 1000 times over, they produced a lot of different cars. And so they had to kind of reimagine their manufacturing process. And so this book came out in the 90s, that coined the term, but really, these practices have been in place for a very long time, and really kind of got their grounding in the 30s. Since then, lean is used really heavily in any sort of software development shoes, if you're in any sort of it, in any company, any major company, they probably use some form of lean. And you know, beyond that, I really help people with it in every kind of business imaginable, including people who do service providing, such as coaching or consulting or things like your clients do.
Michele 12:16
I do believe that even going all the way back to the book, E-Myth, right, where they even talk about walking through McDonald's process, very process driven, you know, not Burger King have it your own way, but McDonald's where there is very, very, but I can see where you take that little piece from there. And then you also even right now I'm thinking about what he saw in the Starbucks line. And that is the same as that Toyota principle it is, we are providing a coffee or a drink. But it's not the exact same drink for every single person coming through the line.
Crista Grasso 12:52
But you're still able to put your processes in place in such a way that you have that really high quality, you reduce all the waste in the system, which is really what lean is all about. And you can use parts almost interchangeably. So I'm using the same machine at Starbucks to produce 100 different drinks, but the machine is the same, the poor of the espresso is the same. And so it's like there's no standardized components that make it really efficient and really effective without any waste and high quality. But you can have that variation that really meet your customers needs. So it's almost like that perfect blend of specialization plus standardization.
Michele 13:30
Oh, say that, again, for the people in the back. No special blend, I kind of write that down special blend of specialization. I love that term. And personalization. That's perfect. So I'm thinking about this. Now my my brain is firing, because I've never really had somebody to sit down and have a whole lean conversation with. So this is exciting for me. One of the things when I teach process in this industry, it's better now than it was but 10 years ago, when I was trying to teach process, I would get a lot of pushback. And here's what the pushback would sound like that Michele, every one of our clients is different. But Michele, every one of the designs is different. But Michele, every window treatment is different. And I would say yes, but the steps that you go through are the same. You may select a different fabric, you may select a different piece of furniture or art. But you still go through a design process, you still go through a fact finding process, you still go through an ordering process and then a fabrication process and an install process. We're still going through these processes the same. And now I know that people are hearing it seeing it because everybody's screaming process at everybody right now. But 10 years ago, I mean it I had people that literally in the industry shut me down, because in their mind, they couldn't separate out the specialization from the personalization, and they own they were so full On the personalization that they couldn't see, like, I'll ask how long on average? Does it take you to do this? Like plug and play? We can plug any sofa into the mixer will play any lamp or lighting? How long does it take you to design it? How long does it take you to source it. And so now we're seeing that they're thinking more that way, it's become more, I would say acceptable to, to look at it like that. Whereas before, I think it was almost seen as such a creative endeavor, that there wasn't the bandwidth or the understanding or even the allowance, for it to be processed, driven, that almost seem like you're throwing out the creative process, which is not it actually enhances the creative process, if we allow it to.
Crista Grasso 15:46
Yeah, it gives you more time to focus on the creativity and the thing that people are hiring you for. Because typically, they aren't hiring you for your process. Your process is what allows you to give a really consistent and really high quality customer experience, make sure you don't miss anything that's important. And then focus your time on the thing that you are uniquely skilled to do, and infuse your creativity and skill into giving your clients what they really want. And I think that process is absolutely critical. And I'm not surprised by your story, because I've worked because of my jewelry business, I work a lot with people in the fashion and accessories space. And I would get a lot of that similar pushback. But then once they would actually standardize and put some of those processes in place, it's like this has nothing to do with your product itself. You are going to be as creative as you want to in the design of what you're putting together. But the processes in doing it and how you sell it and how you communicate it and all of that, that saves you so much time that it gives you the space to do more of your creative work.
Michele 16:47
And you know, I think there are a couple of additional benefits to it. To me here was a benefit. I wanted to be able to ask my clients, where are you in process? And many of them couldn't tell me at which I don't know, I got all this to do. Okay, but where are you along this continuum from it? We just met to we're installing, like, where are you? Well, when you have a process, now you are able to say, Well, here's where we are. And here's what's behind us. And here's what's in front of us, or here's the next step. I know that even from the time I owned a drapery workroom and then, you know, light interior design and all the things that I was doing. The first question when somebody calls to meet with us no matter what, even now as a coach, right? It doesn't matter. They say, Tell me what you do. And then what is your process? Like? What is the next step? How do I get started, what comes next it may show up couched in, you know, different phrases, but they're trying to figure out, I would almost go as far as to say they are buying our process. They just don't know it.
Crista Grasso 17:47
I agree fully.
Michele 17:48
Yeah, right. They don't think they're buying our process. But I will say that by having a process that we can walk them through, that's what creates the expertise. That's what sets us apart. That's actually what builds trust, and what allows them to relax through it, especially when they're working in our industry. And it's a high ticket dollar item. I mean, we're talking, you know, oh, yeah, this $300,000, $400,000 for us to buy things for your home or multi millions for us to build your home. They've got to trust that we have a process that we're not just out there tooling our thumbs every day going, what am I going to do today? Right. So I would say that, to your point earlier, they're not buying our process, they are not buying our process in their mind. But we know that it is our repeatable process that also allows us to provide a successful product or service. And that is why every single time we break the process, and we don't break it intentionally we just break it because we're trying to make them happy. We actually don't make them happy. It comes back to bite us, right?
Crista Grasso 18:54
Oh, yeah, I agree with you 100%. And that's the thing is, I think, without a solid process, you don't get repeat clients, because you don't get the results in you want that really consistent client experience, they should be able to reliably know what to expect when they work with you. And if you make a commitment to them, you tell them what's next. That better actually be what's next. Right? And so having that process helps you kind of fulfill what you promised to your customer and really deliver that consistent client experience.
Michele 19:24
So there's one of my favorite books I've shared this before is John de Julius' Secret Service, where he talks about the client should have the same experience with you the first time the second time, the third time, the fourth time, you know, and I use the experience of me going into order shrimp and grits my favorite meal, and they change the shrimp out one day at my local restaurant and I'm like, look, I ordered this every Friday. So I know. I know that something's different here and it's not as good this was not like you upgraded your shrimp. And I asked the manager can you tell me what happened to your shrimp? My shrimp and grits doesn't taste the same. And honestly, he said that their truck was delayed, they couldn't get it and they had to substitute but they weren't as happy as, and I was like, that's fine. As long as I know, I'll be back next Friday, hopefully your new truck is in. But you know, that's just one way to look at it. But it also allows us that if we do something in a client's home, or in their space, or for home one, and then home to and then home, three, that they know what to expect from us, they know where they are, and they know that they're going to get the same level of product and service in both places. Okay, so let me move on and ask you this, Crista. Because I also know from building a business over the years, we start to add on a little here add on a little there. And so the process that maybe when we first created, it was streamlined, it can kind of become a hodgepodge mess, or we have elevated our product or service. And so our processes had to evolve along with it. And it's not. So I'm going to do an air quotes for those who can't hear this, but lean. So explain how we take these lean principles and put them into our process. So once we've all agreed that we need to process how do we make them lean? And then keep them lean?
Crista Grasso 21:05
Yeah, absolutely. And I think you're absolutely right. We tend to in businesses, and, and I always say at some point, you need to start ordering instead of ending. Because there's only so much space in your business. There's only so much time in your day. And even if you're bringing on additional staff, you don't want them to be spending time on things that are non value add. Right. So I think the most important thing is you just simply need a regular recurring commitment to looking at your process and just looking at everything that you do in your business to say, is this effective? Is this still serving the need? Right? Is this still getting me? Is it getting my clients the results that they expect? Is this driving the profitability, or the value into the business that I expect? Do I personally still find this fulfilling, right, and so I think you holistically need to be looking at your business on a really regular cadence. And so I have a process that I developed that I work with people on, it's called Chuck. So it's called hold, change, keep. And it's really pretty simple. But it's something I tell people to do every single 30 days is every 30 days, you should be going in and just looking across your business, look at the activities that you're doing. Look at the processes that you have, look at your services and your offers that you have for your clients, and just run them through that Quick Filter to say, am I getting the return on investment that I actually expect to get on it? Is it still aligned with kind of that next level I see for my business? Is it directionally where I want to take things? Or is it kind of something I'm doing that's legacy that I really need to reimagine? Is it something again, that's fulfilling, right? Something that still aligns with what you want to do it? Or is it something that's an investment in something that's going to pay off in the future in your business, you're starting to lay that groundwork now, for maybe a new offering that you want to add or a new service you want to add? So you're starting to build up that, you know, like, and trust and brand awareness for something in the future. And so I always recommend that people do this at kind of a high level every 30 days, but every 90 days, I think you really want to do a deeper dive. And then twice per year, I usually do spring and fall is I recommend you do the spring lean out in the fall lean out. Okay. And that is where I think you go through everything in your business to say do I still need this. And this includes your finances, because one of the number one things that my clients find a lot. And I bet if you all do this, you will find the same. There are things that you're paying for, there are tools that you have, there are things that you have money going out the door on, that you aren't even using yet, or you have two or three things that are doing the same thing, because you started with a tool to do something else, you added another tool to do something else, that other tool had the functionality of the first tool. So you kind of abandon the first tool, but not completely. And so at least twice per year, I think you should look and do that real deep dive in everything that you're investing your time, your money and your energy into in your business and look at how can you simplify? How can you automate? How can you really just lean out your business.
Michele 24:04
So I would totally, we're on the same page here. Because we are on the same page. We are kindred spirits. I'm a profit first certified coach. And I'm also a fixed this next certified advisor. And so with both of those as the same kind of things that we're looking at is we're looking at repeatable processes. We're looking at how to go through your dollars, how to go through your expenses and your income. And there's a book that I've shared with the listeners before that has been instrumental to me over the last couple of years, and it's called Who's in Your Room. And in that book, it really talks about who are you giving space to right now and it's written more for person to person, but I use it to think about my offerings. I even talked about this. And back at the beginning of the year where we talk about planning for the next year. And I encourage the listeners to to ask yourself, I call it Marie Kondo in your business. Does this still spark joy? Am I still enjoying this? Does this still sound good to me, and then the who's in your room, they talk about some processes or people or things become an anchor, instead of an engine to move you forward. And it could have started as an engine, meaning to your point, it could have started as something that we loved and that we enjoyed and that we wanted to do. But now all of a sudden, it's holding us back, because we've not cut it off, we've not moved forward and allowed ourselves to completely move forward with that product or service or offering kind of like the, I've got three apps that do the same thing. And I didn't cut one off. And so I totally agree with all of that. One of the things that I think is also important. And another question that I like to ask my clients is this two things? If I were to build my business over today, knowing what I know, now, what would it look like? Right? Because that that provides a lot of I wouldn't do this anymore, I wouldn't do that anymore. I'm doing. And the second is, if I had to re hire, what are we hire the same people for the same positions. Because when somebody leaves the company, sometimes we just re hire that, like a creation of that person, not what the company really needs in that position. And so allowing ourselves to not look so much in one layer of looking at the company at the people, but look at the position and the need of the company. Sometimes we just get so clouded with who the person is, and we love the person that we're trying to cram our business around the person instead of saying what does the business need, and then hiring for that position. So last year, I hired a new person to help me. And one of the first things I had her do was I said, I'm going to set you up as a client. And I want you to get everything that I would be giving out to a new client, because I know that there are some lean, we're sending multiple emails, and then something's getting lost, or the emails too convoluted. There are too many things happening here that I don't think we're good. So help me go through, I'm going to hear your experience. To your point earlier, I want you to tell me where it felt overwhelming where you thought you needed more? What was clear what wasn't clear? How do we make something clickable so that you can get it right there, you know, it's a hyperlink behind it, instead of an agenda that has to be added, like, help me figure out so that we can touch it the least amount possible. And that has provided because you know, we know what we know, we see what we see. And then our brain fills in the rest of it. So to have that, that new set of eyes and thought processes to go and walk through everything. I cannot even tell you how exciting it was like and there are parts of it, you have to remove the ego, I think that's an important part of the lien process, you have to check your ego at the door. Instead of going well, this is how I built it, or this is how I've done it for the last five years. And we got to check some of that and let somebody walk in and say no, that's that's really not working anymore. Do you find that to be difficult? I mean, it's hard sometimes to self check our ego when when we look at this business, or parts haven't really, this is my little baby. And I did it and I did it when it was all by myself. And now I've hired a team and they're telling me We shouldn't do it that way anymore. Do you? Do you see those challenges playing out?
Crista Grasso 28:14
All the time. And so I think it's honestly, it's really an identity thing. People associate their identity with their business so much that when somebody challenges it, or even when they themselves recognize that something needs to change, and they need to let something go, it's really hard to do, because it feels like your identity is so tied to it. And I think that that's a beautiful thing and a lot of ways because it causes us to be very passion fueled in our business. But it's also a really dangerous thing and a lot of ways, because it causes us to keep things that are very far from lean. And we end up doing way too much or doing things that are ineffective, or on the really extreme end, things that ultimately cause us to not be successful and can put us out of business. And so to your point, you do have to let the ego go, you have to separate your identity and kind of be like, I did some really amazing stuff. And I got my business to this point. And it is I'm really proud of everything that I did. But to take it to the next level. I need to think different. I need to do things different because what got me here, what's that, quote? What got you here won't get you there?
Michele 29:16
Exactly. What got you here won't get you there. Okay, same level of thinking that that created the problem is not the same level of thinking needed to solve the problem or something like that.
Crista Grasso 29:25
So it's not really a criticism. If you need to change something. It's an evolution. It's something that you should be celebrating to say what I did got me to this point. Now I need to kind of almost throw that out in a way and reimagine it with fresh eyes. And I may take some of it forward with me, I may not. But you need to constantly in your business be doing that. And really looking at things to say what is it going to take to get me to the next level. And a lot of times that includes leaning out and letting go of things that may be do hit the ego a bit or do hit the identity a bit.
Michele 29:58
So one of the things that I remember going through when I was telling you that I was taking my big business principles and kind of pulling them down. One thing I did was I renamed my company, I changed the formation of my company from a sole proprietor to an LLC. So I separated it from me, right? I understand it's still a pass through company, don't, don't text me and tell me that I know that. But an LLC is a limited liability company, versus Michele as the company, right? So there is a separation. I made sure I set up everything separate bank accounts, everything. And then I started writing things about Scarlet Thread Consulting, or, at the time the scarlet thread of Scarlet Thread Interiors. I wrote it separate from Michele. Right, so that I could start to I realize that I'm instrumental in my business, but I am not my business. And the way that I started talking to my coaching clients and my educational clients, when I was teaching them the different how to start a business courses, I would say to them, if, for example, Scarlet Thread Consulting cease to exist tomorrow, would Michele still exist? Yes. Right. So that shows me right there that we're not saying. And so then I started creating that mental separation first, that allowed me to create a separation and processes and and all the other shit. I'm not saying it's always easy. I'm not saying they don't still get convoluted, right. And we already be passionate about those things. The other thing that I found super helpful, and I'd love to hear your opinion on this too, Krista, is, I like to do a SWOTT analysis, but I like to do it and from about five different directions. In other words, a basic SWOTT analysis that we all were taught to do in Business School, just looked at the company, I like to look at a SWOTT analysis of a company, a SWOTT analysis of the owner, a SWOTT analysis of each individual person, a SWOTT analysis of marketing, of finances of processes are very light. So just take that strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and trends, and break it across every layer, or every single way that I want to see my company. And it started to help me remove me, if you will, from what was going on. And it helped me remove one of my employees from what was going on, or to put them in if they needed to be, but to look at all of it, kind of separate from me as an owner, do you? Do you recommend that? And do you find that helpful as well?
Crista Grasso 32:20
Yeah, I think that's brilliant. I love the way you approach that. And one of the things I always work with people on I think that you need context to really know what the right things are to be doing in your business. And so I always talk to people about creating vision. And when I talk about vision, I talk about it in three facets that kind of aligns with what you're talking about, of course, you wanted to have the vision for your business. But I think you also need to be thinking of yourself in your lifestyle, and kind of what you see for yourself in the future as well, and how that relates to the business. And then the third component that I think so many people miss, and that's critical, is you have to be thinking about your customer, and what is your customer in the future? What do they need from you? How do their needs evolve? Does that align with the business that you see and with the life lifestyle that you see? And usually when we do those, and I do those, not just do i do those with the business, but I do those for my team members as well. Because their personal is going to be different. And they in some cases, work with different levels of clients that I'll work with, like my accountability coach has a different customer lens than me who's doing more of the strategic coaching, right. And so it's really fascinating to do that. But I love the SWOTT analysis take on doing that and looking at all those different facets. I think that's honestly really brilliant and a really smart way to do it.
Michele 33:36
Yeah, so my coaching clients, one of the things that we have them do when they are doing their yearly strategic planning and their yearly planning with their teams, we have each person do their own individual SWOTT analysis, we have them do a company analysis, all of them individual. And then we have them do an analysis for the area of the company that they're in. So they bring those three pieces of documentation to the company conversation. Now they are not necessarily putting out all their dirty laundry for everybody to see. But that then feeds in to their review with their with the employer. Like here's my personal SWOTT analysis, here's what I see. So it It provides private conversation ongoing, but it also helps build company. One of the things that I also love to do, and I love that you brought this up, too, is when we're thinking about the vision and we're thinking about long term strategy. I know at the beginning of every year I tell everybody, all right, go tell me the time you're planning to take off next year. Go tell me what balance means to you or being centered, right. So we don't want you to just know what what is that? That phrase everybody says nobody says I wish I'd worked more when they're on their deathbed. So tell me what does balance look like to you? Like for me, it looks like you know cooking dinner twice a week with joy. And not because I'm running in the kitchen and I'm irritated but with joy and music going and just really enjoying myself but the Like the creative process of cooking, it is going out with, you know, when we're all able to get out and go out freely going out with my girlfriends at least once a month, it's going out with my husband or hanging out with my kids. But building that into my life, because the last thing I want to do is go build a business dependent on me working seven days a week, that never allows me to do the other because now I'm going to it doesn't matter how much money comes in, doesn't matter how much my ideal clients calling me, I'm irritated and I'm frustrated and overwhelmed. And I'm burned out. And I'm actually not going to keep a lean business, what I'm going to do is start piling on all the extra expenditures of people and energies and processes and apps and technology and all the stuff because I'm just harried. And that doesn't serve me. And it certainly doesn't serve my client. So I'm so thankful that that you mentioned that. Curious one of the things that you and I mentioned prior to jumping on the call was about building a high performing team now that we're talking about people in teams, just as passionate about the business as you are, what do you see is some best methods to do that.
Crista Grasso 36:07
Yeah, I think honestly, the hiring decisions that you make are absolutely critical. And one of the mistakes that I see people make is they wait too long to hire, and they hire in a place of desperation. And when you're in that place, it's really hard to make a good hire decision. Because anybody looks like they're going to be able to fill the gap that you currently have. And you're like hair on fire. Yes, somebody, they'll take them,
Michele 36:29
And so I always say somebody who's got breath,
Crista Grasso 36:32
Like wait, you can spell your head. And so if you are in that place where you end up where you do have to hire and maybe you didn't hire early enough, I always recommend that you get somebody objective outside that can help you with whether somebody is a good fit or not. But really, you want to look again, strategically forward, look at your year, look at what you think you need, look at what positions you think you need, look at what's really going to help you take your business to the next level, whether that's freeing you up to do more of your kind of unique genius work, and having somebody else take over things that fall into their line of genius, that aren't yours, or whether that's just simply adding additional capability to your team. So you can you know, reach in and meet with new clients, whatever that looks like, look at that really strategically and try to proactively hire. But I think you know, somebody's being capable of doing the job is table stakes, you kind of need that person to be capable of doing it. But beyond that, I think people often over emphasize on skill instead of fit. And as long as you are evaluating candidates, and you have let's say you have three different candidates, and they're all capable of doing the job, you really want to dig into who is going to be the one who fits the best, who is going to be the one not just what you're hiring that person for. But when you think to that vision like that future of your company, which is the one that's going to be able to grow with your company in the right way. And you want to think about work style, right? Do they complement your work style as as somebody you're going to want to work with every day, if they're customer facing is that somebody your clients are going to want to work with. So I think that the skill is table stakes, they kind of have to either have the skill or have the ability to gain the skill, one or the other. Right, they have to be capable of doing the job. But beyond that, it really is all about fit. And a big part of that I think is sharing your company vision mission values, and making sure that that person has those same aligned values. If you have misalignment on values, it's ultimately never going to be a really good fit. And honestly, the person isn't going to stick around.
Michele 38:33
So I just did a podcast in January, called I can't remember the title, I'll link it. But it's why is why so important. Right? And it's about being very clear on what our personal Why is and how that why carries over into the company to then create the company vision and the company mission. And then you use that with your values as a litmus test for all decision making. And so I use my why and my company values literally as like a little matrix. And it's like if I if a vendor were to call me and say, you know, hey, Michele, can we work together? I look and go do we align? If somebody when people asked to be on my podcast, I look at it do we align if there is an an misalignment of a value, or of something that I can see and tell from either their one sheet or their Facebook page or LinkedIn page or whatever it is that they've given me to look at. If I see something that I think we are not in a line, even in the way that we believe not, I'm not saying I don't bring somebody on, that's got a different opinion. In some cases, that's totally fine. But I'm saying we're a value is misaligned, right. I won't even bring them on the podcast. When I look at hiring decisions. I want to know what they value what is important to them. If it's misaligned, I say no, that has been so freeing for me Crista it because before there's this guilt that kind of creeps in and that kind of takes The guilt away. And then the other thing that I've learned through trial and error, like I've done what you mentioned, I've hired somebody when I was too busy to hire because I waited too late. I have hired had to hire somebody on an immediacy because somebody quit. Thankfully, that one I had all operating procedures written. So it was, you know, we had to do it, it happens. But it was a smoother process. And my latest hire, the way that I went through that one was very much having an outside firm help me go through some of the process just so that I wasn't doing the interview alone. It helped me because I sat down and wrote down, here's my why my mission, my vision, my values, all the things you mentioned, I also shared, here's what irritates me, here's what I don't like, when I'm working with people, here's where people might not like working with me, here's where I'm high level. And here's where I'm low level. And here's, here's what it looks like to be in my organization. So that when we could get together, we both knew where the other was coming from to go. We both are happy here. Right? I also would agree with you, when you were mentioning about skill sets important. Not gonna lie. But there's so much more to skill set. You know, if somebody has a nasty attitude, if they're negative, I don't care that they can do the job, I need more than that. There are some skill that I can train, if they have the aptitude. That's what I'm looking for aptitude and character, and then skill that I can train, if it's a skill that I absolutely need, then I'll hire for that, but not at the cost of aptitude, and coachability, and character and friendliness, and you know all the things. And we miss that right? Because we just we hire I love you said it, we hire out of desperation.
Crista Grasso 41:44
Yep. Or what I've seen, because I do a lot of consulting and corporate, and they'll hire the person with the best resume. But they aren't thinking about how that person is going to fit in the team dynamic and how that person is going to fit in the company. And it ends up being hugely disruptive, and it actually kills kind of your quality, and it kills your productivity and everything else, because the person just isn't a really great fit. And I see that on a similar level with smaller businesses, too, who are more over anchoring on the skill. Without thinking about those other facets to your point skill is obviously important. But you need to think about those other things as well.
Michele 42:21
Simon, you've seen the book, Simon Sinek, Start With Why I'm sure you have, okay, he makes a comment in there, it just came into my brain, when you were saying that you wouldn't take a Microsoft engineer and take them to Apple and take an Apple engineer and take them to Microsoft, while their skill sets may be very, very similar. their personal values and their personal way of doing things may show up very differently. They're not just interchangeable when you start looking at character and way of fitting into a company and a company, kind of lifestyle, if you will. And I think that's exactly an example of the point that you're making. You know, some of the people that I've talked to when they interview they take like if there's a husband and wife team, they'll take them both to dinner, just to see what is all the dynamic, because the smaller the company, the more you hear this all the time. I know because I do. We're a family, we're a family, where's my family, and the truth of the matter is we kind of are, but especially if you're in an office space together, you're with those people, sometimes more than you're with your family during waking hours. And so it's imperative that we get along with each other and that we're working in the same direction. You can take a company with one bad client and one bad employee.
Crista Grasso 43:36
Yeah, yeah, I agree fully.
Michele 43:38
So you also said that you have some scaling secrets from those that are running businesses that are multi billionaires. All right dish, tell us what those are and how we can fit those into our non multi billionaire. I'm sorry, I do not have a multi billion business. But I would love to hear the secrets of the of the multimillion dollar owners the what do they do?
Crista Grasso 44:02
Absolutely. And so this story always kind of surprises people. But I do a lot of consulting with these really big global multibillion dollar brands. And there's one company that has 30,000 employees. So really pretty big company. They're global. A lot of their location is in the US, but they are a global company. And they have the majority of their company, invest two weeks, every single quarter in innovation. Think about the amount of two weeks every quarter, every quarter, they invest two weeks in innovation. And so part of that is it's part innovation, and it's part planning for the next quarter ahead. But just think about how much it costs to that company. For across. I mean, it's not all 30,000 employees based on somebody's role, but it's a good percentage of those people that are investing in innovation and experimentation and trying new things, as well as in planning for the coming quarter. And so if a company of that size and scale is Investing that much in it. As a small business, we'd better be thinking about innovation and planning. Right. And so I think it's absolutely critical.
Michele 45:08
I am stunned.
Crista Grasso 45:10
I helped them do this and put it in place.
Michele 45:13
Yeah. Okay. So I always encourage everybody to set aside time to do their planning. And we do. I'm a fan of the 12 week, year, you know, one big thing, one big thing a quarter, not trying to overdo all of this. Wow, but two weeks a quarter. I mean, if you think about it, there was only like, what 12 and a quarter on average. So that means you've got to really schedule out. But my goodness, I try to plan at least a week, I probably plan two weeks a quarter if now that I'm thinking about it, as much as I possibly can, I will say the COVID gear did throw a little bit into crazy. However, I usually do try to plan I don't plan them back to back. But I try to plan like at the beginning of the quarter and sometime mid quarter for the next quarter or to create something that is moving the business forward.
Crista Grasso 46:02
And I think that's the key is they're trying to move the business forward. So they're smart enough to know that during those other 10 or 11 weeks that their heads down working, they're working really efficiently. They're very lean, and what they do, they're making sure that the things they're doing are customer centric, very high quality, so that they're getting that return on the investment of their people like heads down working really hard. But they're also smart enough to know that they need to create space for innovation and thinking about what's next. So they constantly stay a market leader, they aren't just so caught up in the weeds of all the things that they need to do that they're falling behind. They're always thinking ahead and very strategically thinking about what can we do next, like part of those things they do in innovation, is they look at ways to reduce the time that they're spending on the things that they're doing. They try to gain efficiencies, right. They imagine new products that they could bring to the market or different ways to deliver the products that they currently have I stop right there.
Michele 46:58
Yeah, they imagine new or different ways. I think sometimes and the reason I'm stopping you there, I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean, I let's dig into that before we go further. Because my brain is like zooming. I think so often, when we look at or we think of making our business lean, we're thinking of it with regards of just be more efficient, be more, in other words, keep the same process you have, but just make it more efficient, versus standing back and reimagining That is amazing to just step back. That's the creativity that we're all, like, chomping at the bit to put back in not just creative for our clients, I always say we want it to be fair and reasonable for the clients. But it's got to be fair and reasonable for the company, we can't just sustain for the client, we got to sustain for the company. So we're here for the client when they come back or for the next client. That imagining that it's almost given yourself and your employees and your team permission to dream.
Crista Grasso 48:02
Absolutely.
Michele 48:03
And not just doing it at the end of the year, and hoping that that dream carries you for a whole year, because let's be honest, March, the 13th. Last year was my last day out and about in a normal world as it was for most people. And I remember that was Friday the 13th. Then on that Monday, I'm in the state of Georgia, it got shut down. If I had held the same dream in January and not done some reimagining all year, that could have looked to be a very different year for me than it turned out to be and for everybody else. So even in a non pandemic year. It's important. I mean, they weren't doing this during a pandemic. Certainly they probably didn't even more constantly re-imagining what it could be and what it could look like. I read something the other day, I think it was Lexus Krista, but it was back in the day where there was getting ready to be some terrible recession. And luxury cars are going to take the hit. And Lexus stood back and said, well, we're not going to take the hit and think it was Lexus I'm giving them credit even if it went and we're going to pretend that it was. And their thing was they went to where the people were that used to buy their products. So they went to these golf games, they went to these events, and they took the new cars and asked if they could take people for a spin. So instead of waiting on the customer to come to them, and they went to where the customer was they changed that they innovated they looked for another way to reach their market. And I think if we're not always doing that, it actually was the saying, if you're not moving forward, you're moving behind, you're moving backwards. Do you have any tips for how to start that imagining like how to start freeing up your brain to actually do that?
Crista Grasso 49:43
I mean, I think the reality is, you're never going to be able to do it really effectively unless you create the space in your schedule to do it. Yeah, and I think most people overwork themselves so much and just have so much going on that even if they have the time to do it. They don't have the mental space to do it. so exhausted. Exactly. It's like it when you're really overworked and really overwhelmed, you're just simply not as clear headed. And you're not as effective and efficient as you would be if you had that space in your schedule. So I think it's really important to have the space in the schedule, in the way I tell people to do that is if you want to work 40 hours a week, plan for 30. Because things always take longer than you expect unexpected things come up. If you plan for 40, or worse, don't even consider your capacity, when you're planning things, you're always going to end up having too much. So a, I think the first thing you need to do is kind of just address your schedule, so that you do have that space, both mentally, and you know, actually in your schedule, and then you need to create and schedule it right, those two weeks were on their schedule, the entire company did those two weeks at the same time.
Michele 50:49
So then it also kept them from this part of the company's working asking for something from another so they got it. Okay, does that make sense.
Crista Grasso 50:58
So in your own schedule, what I tell people to do is they should do an innovation hour, at a minimum, as a small business, you should have an innovation hour, it could be more than an hour. But usually an hour feels like a really safe place to start once per week, and now should be across your whole team. However many people you have everybody throw out ideas, I tell people to create a backlog of ideas for innovation hour, and then kind of pick the one that feels like the best one for that particular week to work on. And so you as the business owner don't always have to be the only person coming up with things. Sometimes your team has really great insights. And so I think that's a good way to get started is a create that space, so that you can actually do it. And then beyond that, make sure that you carve out protected space for it and have a backlog of different ideas that you can pull from so you're not in that hour trying to think of something on the fly.
Michele 51:52
That's the same way I like to do just my kind of my day to day, week to week when I'm looking at having just office time to work to move the business forward, dedicated time, I keep a task list of just here all the things that I could be thinking about. And then I try to prioritize them. So that when I have that time, that office time to work on those things, I'm not having to stop and think about it. Because at that point, I'm like, Well, I can't think of anything, I think I'll go do something else. Or, you know, or we tend to over plan and move on down the next thing. I also want to just put a big exclamation for the listeners when you said carve out protected time. That means don't plan it and then let your clients book on top of it or you book them on top. If we're going to do it, and we're really committed to it, we have to hold the barriers around it.
Crista Grasso 52:39
Absolutely. That's really and that's not easy. No, it's not, it's very easy to say it makes tons of logical sense, it's really hard to do in practice
Michele 52:47
Very hard to do. Crista, I could sit here and talk to you for 14 more hours like I am loving this, I get to tell you, I am going to while I do a fair amount of what you're talking about and have implemented a large portion. I love the idea of an innovation hour every week, and of creating a minimum a week. If not, I might not be able to start with two. But I could at least start with one. And I think that's important as well, for our listeners, maybe you can't start with two weeks. But we can start with something we can start with a few days dedicated to turning everything off deleting all the apps from our phone that are going to pull us away and sit down and really take taking an area or two of our company and trying to innovate. That's exciting to me, like I'm not I'm now looking forward to going to my calendar and trying to block that time out. And that time needs to be blocked out early on, because it will get sucked up in the day to day.
Crista Grasso 53:45
Absolutely.
Michele 53:46
Oh my gosh. I'm also excited to use what you were talking about hold changing key. And really just starting to look through that. And my company and thinking about the difference between specializing and personalization, specialization and personalization. So you've given us a lot of great things to think about. You've got some exciting news, you have a podcast that is new now for everybody. Um, tell us a little bit about your podcast and what you're going to be covering on it.
Crista Grasso 54:18
Yeah, absolutely. So my podcast, big surprise is about cleaning out your business. But I really want to help share the strategies with people in ways that they can take action on. So I'm hoping today, your listeners got some things that they can immediately go out and implement, whether it's chalker innovation hour or one of those things. But I want to share a lot more of these tips with people. So it's going to be some episodes with just me sharing some of those lean practices that people can put in their business right away. And then interviews with others who are sharing their expertise in a ways that can ultimately My goal is to help people level up their business while they're leaning out their business. And so I'm really excited for the podcast.
Michele 54:57
Now. I'm excited to start listening So thank you so much for sharing it with us. And we can find that at tell us your website for that so everybody can go follow you.
Crista Grasso 55:06
Absolutely. You can find me at www.leanoutmethod.com and the podcast is at www.leanoutmethod.com/podcast.
Michele 55:13
Excellent. Well, I now will make sure that I have that in the show notes as well. And Christy, this has been a blast. It's been fun. And I thank you so much for your expertise, and for sharing it with our listeners today.
Crista Grasso 55:23
And thanks so much for having me on.
Michele 55:24
It's my pleasure. Thank you, Crista for joining us today on the podcast. I am excited about scheduling some innovation time and holding it dear on my calendar so that I can work with my team to move my business to the next level, and hope everybody listening is excited about doing the same. Working with a professional that helps you see your business differently and often more clearly can be a huge asset and a game changer to your business growth. I love helping my clients move forward with ease and to be more profitable by reclaiming some of their time. If you want this to fill out a discovery call and let's chat. You can find information on my website at ScarletThreadConsulting.com. Make a decision to have a successful business because sustainable success and profit doesn't happen by accident.