Kathy Rast
Thought Partner (business)
Specialist Generalist (business)
I work with business owners to build and work their way into a business as usual that (actually) works with them.
The purpose of this website is to build on what you already know in working with me, Kathy Rast. You can learn about where I fit in when working with a business owner as a specialist generalist and thought partner. And you can add to what you already know about the way I work with your words to support clearer thinking and even clearer doing in the day-to-day of business (aka your business as usual, aka your BAU). Enjoy.
P U R P O S E
W H A T I' M C A L L E D
Specialist Generalist (business)
A specialist generalist is someone whose profession is the perpetual pursuit of knowing and growing a lot about a little across a specific area for a specific purpose (e.g., business > owning a business > owning and operating as a solo business).
Think of that person who the skills, knowledge and experience to both support the thinking and the doing with you.
Being a specialist generalist in the area of business typically means being across the main business areas of executive functions, operations, finance, IT, sales and marketing, and customer service — essentially all the areas a business owner should needs to must is expected to know and have the skills to run your own business.
W H E N T O C A L L M E
Working as a specialist generalist in business means acquiring and maintaining a high level of knowledge, skills, and experience (aka a specialisation) in the area of business (aka a generalisation), specifically owning and operating a business.
Further, in my case, I have a specific set of skills, knowledge, and experience in working with solo business owners (including working with freelance and independent or contract revenue channels).
A business owner usually calls me when they’ve tried to do something they ‘should’ know how to do in their own business that hasn’t worked (or isn't working) or when something may (or may not) be working and doesn't make sense or feel right yet for the business owner.
I get a call when a business owner wants to talk with someone who ‘gets it’ and already knows how to get it done or has a mad skills suite to support another business owner (actually) find a way to done.
E X A M P L E S
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Problem:
A business owner (actually a couple have found me out of frustration for both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace) could not:
create a custom email and aliases (e.g., name@business.com.au and hello@business.com.au)
receive emails to the custom email address, and
send from the custom email addresses.
Solution:
In less than 30 to 90 minutes, we got it working by jumping into the respective admin centre and their domain host to tweak the software settings and connect the right DNS settings and bing bang bosh, it worked!
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Problem:
Feeling the pressure of keeping good enough financial records for finance compliance, while leaving it until the last minute to pull all together for the accountant.
Solution:
This one’s a work in progress to find a flow in the right timing. To start with, we documented a process (a mixture of what they’re doing now and what they will do) > created online storage locations for digital records > set up the scanning app for physical papers > agreed on the initial time the task would be completed (e.g., Money on Monday or Month beginning with Money…yes, alliteration is kind AF to the mind for keeping track of reoccurring tasks) > popped it as a reoccurring task in the calendar, and work is underway to test for the right timing.
This is best as a regular returning business owner, as we keep it on the radar and tweak it as required.
Update: The business owner is both keeping up to date and is growing in confidence in the business financial position each month (inclduing revenue, expenses, and budget forecasting).
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Problem:
The website was written by a copywriter, AI or a while ago, and the business owner felt embarrassed to point people towards it, and it feels like it’s sending the wrong message about me and my business.
Solution:
This is one of those pealer of a problems that can get really complex really quickly. So I share a couple of directions this has gone:
The business was working very differently from when the website was created.
As a thought partner, I facilitated the initial business operating model build in a 2-hour session so that the business owner could have a sense of knowing how the business was operating in both the back and front of the business so that the messaging on the website could be calibrated or created anew.
The website was done by someone else, and the business owner didn’t really know what was there.
Together we walked through the website structure and key messaging. Once clear, we continued to work together weekly over about a month to harmonise each webpage and made note of where copy could be reused across the business (e.g., emails, social media).
The business owner paid a lot of money to someone to build their website, and they didn’t want to change it (even though they didn’t want to update it).
For one business owner, in a single 2-hour session I clarified their website tech setup (e.g., host, domain, etc.) and learned their level of skill to maintain and update the website. Here are three ways this went:
Through some upskilling, the business owner felt confident to make some changes, starting with small tweaks.
Through further conversation the business owner decided to take no further action and leave the website as is.
Through some bigger thinking, we explored some more user-friendly website builders and hosting options.
As you can see, a website is a great way to start exploring the surface and the much deeper topics in your business. The best part is, through earned experience, I’m very aware of how to make this type of conversation unbiased and simple enough at each exploration step to both keep moving forward and return to a previous decision point. I hold the complexity so that you can clear.
W H A T M A K E S T H E D I F F E R E N C E
Thought Partner (business)
A thought partner is someone who has trained and well whose practiced in the thinking process, supporting the thinking experience, and who may or may not be a contributor to the actual thinking outcome.
Think of it much like a person who can both metaphorically (or actually) sit beside you as you look at the same problem (or possibility) while they’re able to be present at the back of the room monitoring and managing the thinking experience to an intended outcome.
With the right-fit thought partner, it can feel like having extra 🧠 capacity by both freeing up resourcing to just focus on the problem (possibility) as well as (actually) having another 🧠 who already gets it.
W H Y W E A L W A Y S S T A R T W I T H S O M E T H I N G S P E C I F I C
To the surprise of many, I rarely start out as a business owner's thought partner.
From earned experience, the best way to be productive in partnered thinking is while working on something specific in the business — especially something that’s connected to a revenue or cost channel in the business's delivery.
Think of designing, refining, or re-finding a customer experience, tidying up the business tech, or harmonising a webpage's words.
By focusing on a specific part of the business, it’s practical to step out of the task from time to time find and build your (actual) business operating model, your (actual) business values or vision, or your (really real) business complexity that’s causing blocks and blockades to your potential revenue or cost relief in your BAU.
E X A M P L E
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Problem:
A business owner is so tired, feeling so lost, is (or is not) financially doing well and has no idea how they can keep it going.
Solution:
There’s a little crying. There’s a little laughing. There’s a lot of detail captured through conversation.
At first I listen to the business owner say everything that’s on their mind. As they talk, I build a business operating model, capture the current client group, core messaging, and direction of resource drain and gain, all the while feeling for the personal and business values being walked on.
Then, it is my part of the conversation, I summarise, synthesise, and put into words the complexity contained in simple thinking.
Now, a few business owners have gone on to simplify their business (by build or direction), some have decided to close part of, or their whole, business, and some just needed to start with this type of conversation and to know where to come back to when they’re ready.
H O W I C A N W O R K W I T H Y O U
Approach
My approach is one of structure, safety, and a sense of professional wonder.
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My working background is in professional government and private organisational roles where I acquired skills in advanced analysis, human behaviour, communications, and strategic thinking.
Working with me feels like someone who’s been around long enough to know:
when to move with pace
how not to suffer fools, and
how to see many small parts to completion and add up to something bigger.
In essence, I truly believe running a business can add a quality to our living lives that’s more than money.
Business to me is a place and space where we can truly have a sense of agency and autonomy in our ways and days while supporting others to enjoy the same.
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One of my professional pieces of paper is in the psychology field. No, I’m not a psychologist, but I do regularly refer to models, frameworks, and research directly and indirectly connected to building and navigating the business-owning experience.
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Each specialist has a bias. Usually it’s an area of knowledge, mine is an applied specific skill — language-in-use.
Simply said, you talk, I listen.
Then, working with what we have, we follow the same structure for agreeing a target outcome and get to work.
So often I work with highly capable business owners who only need that someone who can both look through the complexity while also making the co-create the connections — language-in-use simplifies this process.
The way I apply language-in-use principles here is less about copy, comms, and core messaging (if this is what you’re looking for, then you’re likely thinking of how I apply rhetoric, which is always part of any front-facing words we harmonise together).
My approach with language-in-use is subtle and usually noticable when we catch and get caught on a word to lean in, lean on and leverage something to be cleared up or cleared out to continue the BAU build to completion.
H O W I D O W O R K W I T H Y O U
Contact
I work with both regularly returning business owners and one-offs (aka oners). Billing is billed by task output. Each output is agreed upon in a quick phone chat call and/or email. Enjoy.
✉️ kathy@littlelanguagematters.com.au