Kathy Rast
Thought Partner (business)
Specialist Generalist (business)
I work with business owners to rebuild their businesses to (actually) work with them.
Hello and welcome. The purpose of this website is here to build on what you need and want to know about working with me, Kathy Rast.
The gist of it is that over 20 years I’ve collected a mad swag of skills, knowledge and experience that have come at a cost of a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of energy in the pursuit of being a ‘proper professional’.
Now while I do have a couple of pieces of paper collecting dust, they only play a small part here. The truth is, about six years ago something happened where I could no longer work the ‘normal’ way anymore. So, naturally, I started my first business (not in my trained profession) 😅
From day one I’ve done what I was told was needed, what works for others, and what every business should have. From about day nine hundred and something, I really started to stray from the path to find little ways in the days to do enough to meet all the needs needed while not making it so complex.
Peeling back business to be simple (enough) was made possible by having made so many mistakes, spending way too much money on things that no longer matter, and really looking at ways business can (actually) work.
The funny thing is, while I loved working with wool in my first business, my past professional parts – well, I missed them 🤭
I missed analysing data, clarifying and communicating thinking, and trouble-shooting technology for others 😝
So, my second business was born (Little Language Matters*) after answering an ask from my fellow business owners who wanted to borrow parts of my business skills, knowledge, and experience as needed.
They made it clear that they were tired of the ‘what-works-for-others-copy-and-paste’ approach and instead wanted someone ‘who gets it’ to act as a navigator so that they could focus on the journey. Enjoy.
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 (e.g., business).
Think of that person who lives in the detail as it connects to being a part of something bigger.
In the context of business, this means one has the knowledge, skills, and experience to apply a high level of attention to the detail in both the thinking and actions.
Being a specialist generalist in the area of business means being across the main business areas of executive functions, operations, finance, sales and marketing, and customer service.
Where I sit in working with other business owners, especially solo business owners, is as a fellow business owner. Moreover, I sit and fit with the attention to detail (typically) in the delivery backed by the business big picture.
This means that while business owners start working with me to harmonise a webpage, set up a system, or map out a workflow, I’m capturing the details of how the business operates into a business operation model.
The point and purpose is to build a structure that contains the detail necessary to support you as a business owner in owning your business ways and days.
The whole business model part is something that’s built by doing the delivery.
By documenting and designing a business workflow, by simplifying a specific sequence of systems, by being clear on what you do and don’t do in your business, your business model grows with you so that soon enough you can stand back and see where you’re going from where you are now.
Businesses are not built in a day, week, or even a month. Businesses are built in the efforts efforted little by little over a long time.
While money and energy are important priorities in building a solid enough build that only needs future tweaking, the main priority here is time.
Time’s something that only happens once. This is not intended to be philosophical or poetic — it’s about being practical.
The funny thing is, often time is easily gained by knowing where to start, knowing what something is called, or even just sitting in a shared space with someone who gets it (done).
This is where I work with business owners.
Typically, I love myself silly helping out with one or more of the following:
Comms (including troubleshooting customer relationships and copy harmonisation)
Documentation (including process design, procedures, or doc formatting)
Organisation (including digital or physical storage)
Tech (including setup and troubleshooting)
Depending on the task/output, we either do it together, I do part of it for you, or I work out a way it can be done and show you how to do it. And, if it’s outside my scope of service, then it’s clear soon enough who to go to and what to ask for.
Thought Partner (business)
A thought partner is someone who has trained and practised thinking in parallel with others in a specific area.
Think of that person who’s about and for the process of processing while simultaneously processing the content of the agreed shared focus in focus.
Think of it almost like temporarily having extra capacity to be fully present in your processing while having access to areas of competency you may not have (nor need more than to do something specific).
My role as a thought partner isn’t a service one typically specifically asks for in the beginning.
My way of thought partnering in business is one that’s a sort of processing system is always on in the background while building or breaking down parts of a business while working with me as a specialist generalist.
Often, the whole 'let's thought partner this part,’ comes out organically when there’s thinking that comes across as being incomplete or not yet started. It’s usually something rushed at the start of business that has yet to be updated or iterated.
Often we’ll sidestep into thought partner territory to:
capture a single focus (aka vision and/or tagline)
create a filter for decisions (aka values or business model)
clear up what difference you want your business to be in the world, or
peel back some of the complexity that’s come with time in the business (a kind of business thinking declutter thang).
Approach
It sounds weird, but I’m a natural narrator. This means that across my whole life I’ve had the day-to-day experience of being both walking within the world we share while sitting on the outside seeing in.
Many recognise my narrating in my way with words and love of linguistics, especially our language-in-use, as it connects to one’s thinking and doing.
Not wanting to reinvent wheels that already work, it was once said best by one of my regularly returning business owners, ‘You’re so well researched. There’s always a footnote you can connect your thinking to.’
My approach is one of structure, safety, and a sense of wonder.
To put my mad swag of skill, knowledge, and experience as a business owner to best use in supporting other business owners, it’s probably best summed up with the clarity of two questions.
For those who seek to ask, ‘Can it be done?’, you're on the cusp or outside my scope of service.
For those who seek to answer, ‘How can it be done?’, well, you’re my kind of business people and are wholeheartedly welcome in my working wheelhouse on any given business day.
When you’re curious or have a question, please call or email below to see if and how we can get it to work for you. Enjoy.