IAM886- Founder Helps Businesses Make Data-driven Decisions

Janette Gallardo is the founder of Vitta Solutions. She helps businesses and startups with the purpose map their financial future through financial analytics, so they can make data-driven decisions. Janette has worked in corporate finance for 20 years with some of the largest companies and helped identify over $100 Million in savings in the process. Today, she helps businesses with strategy, financial analytics, forecasting, and financial models to help them grow their business.

• CEO Hack: Delegating and outsourcing
• CEO Nugget: Focus on the one thing that stands between you and your goals
• CEO Defined: Knowing it takes a team to be successful, relationships and partnerships to be a leader and not a boss

Website: http://vittasolutions.com/

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00:02 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:30 – Gresham Harkless:

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I had a very special guest on the show today. I have Janette Gallardo of Vita Solutions. Janette, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:56 – Janette Gallardo:

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Gresh. I'm so excited to be here on the podcast.

01:00 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited as well to hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Janette so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Janette is the founder of Vita Solutions. She helps businesses and startups with the purpose of mapping their financial future through financial analytics so they can make data-driven decisions. She worked in corporate finance for 20 years with some of the largest companies and helped identify over 100 million in savings in the process. Today she helps businesses with strategy, financial analytics, forecasting, and financial models to help them grow their business. Janette, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:42 – Janette Gallardo:

Yes, let's do it. I'm so excited.

01:44 – Gresham Harkless:

I'm excited too. So let's do it. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story and we'll let you get started with your business?

01:56 – Janette Gallardo:

Yes, of course. So Vita Solutions was born out of a desire to share my financial knowledge with mission-focused businesses. Before I started working with entrepreneurs, I, as you mentioned, worked in corporate finance for over 20 years doing financial analytics and working side by side with the executive team and providing all of the analytics on how we were gonna meet our targets, what our budget forecasting was gonna be.

So I got to work on a lot of special projects, which was key for my career now because due to those special projects, I got to do a lot of pricing analysis, cost optimization, and identifying how much stuff we're gonna need for any particular project. And yeah, so now I focus on that like all of the knowledge that I gained through corporate, I'm applying it now and I work with entrepreneurs who are great at their craft, but they need a finance expert on their side. So I provide them with financial guidance on how to operate a successful business.

03:13 – Gresham Harkless:

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I think when we first connected, we talked a little bit about kind of how the finance part allows you to be able to tell those stories. And as I read in your bio, make those decisions. And really hearing that mission-driven entrepreneurs, those entrepreneurs that have something that they want to do to impact the world and are driven towards that. It's so important to make sure those finances and that information is to make sure that that happen because I think so many times we get caught up in the mission we forget about those foundational and vital principles.

03:45 – Janette Gallardo:

Yes, exactly. And it's so also, I mean, people like you, you start your business because you're really good at your craft, right? And sometimes, I mean, we cannot do everything. And it's either you don't want to do the finances, or you're not good at it, or whatever the situation may be. But the finance aspect of business is the base. So that's where everything happens. And finance is connected to everything in a business. So it is crucial to provide that knowledge and those tools for business owners to understand like what to look at, and how the decisions that they're making impact their bottom line, and their profit.

So I do like a holistic approach to walking them, first of all, understanding their business, why they started, and then understanding their challenges and what keeps them up at night. I do an assessment to understand the financial health of the business and find gaps and opportunities to help them drive a successful business. So it is a lot of, everything is measurable. So in finance, the type of work that I do is all through analytics. So means we measure everything. And from understanding how many clients, Why are you charging those clients? How many clients do you need in your pipeline to keep the flow going all the way to, where you want to scale your business?

So what is going to take as you start growing to reach that point? And also like outsourcing and finding ways to optimize your costs and also when to hire as you're growing your business. So all of those areas are super important as you start planning and hitting your goals.

05:52 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, absolutely. And I love how you talked about that analytics piece because I think that's one of the gifts that we have in this day and age and this time is really to be able to make those decisions and increase the likelihood of success by having that analytics that we can make those decisions off of. And I think so many times, sometimes we can just feel like we should hire somebody because we're overworked or we're busy, but having an understanding that also this is the number of clients or you've already reached that point because of the analytics. So you should be able to hire somebody or you should be able to maybe open up another branch or do whatever those decisions might be in alignment with your vision to make that happen.

06:35 – Janette Gallardo:

Yes, exactly. 100%. It's all, to me, it's all data-driven decisions. It's understanding where you are. So how to get to your final destination or your goal, what your goal is, and how to get there?

06:51 – Gresham Harkless:

Absolutely, yeah. So important as I think in the 7 have as highly effective people that began with the end of mind. So once you understand where you want to go, how do you execute that? So I love that you help business owners to do that. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself, for your business, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

07:15 – Janette Gallardo:

So I would say my secret sauce is that I empower my clients. So I give them the tools and walk them through the process so they can feel confident about reading financials and making data decisions. So I love to give them the tools so that they can be independent and they can gain that confidence in what they need to look at. Like, how do I need to approach this? And that they can build their own success. Like they don't have to have me 24/7 at some point. Like I have given them all the tools and knowledge that they need. So they can feel confident about running the business on their own.

07:58 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, that's absolutely huge. And I almost feel like sometimes in different industries, definitely I see it in technology and I imagine so in finance as well, is that the expert or the person that has that experience and that expertise as you have, sometimes holds onto that power, so to speak, but I love how you empower other entrepreneurs and business owners because I think a lot of times you run your business because you want to take more control of your destiny and what you want and how you make an impact in the world. And I think not having that opportunity to be empowered about something so important as your financial layout and your financial future and where your business is, is so important. So I love that you're able to do that.

08:38 – Janette Gallardo:

Yeah, and to me that's key because that's my goal. Like I wanna share this with everybody because I want everybody to grow. I want people to really use the finance tools to help them.

08:51 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, and I almost feel like a lot of times, we sometimes hear those alarming rates of businesses that don't succeed, that don't make it to 5 to 10 years, and so on. And I feel like a lot of that is because not having a strong idea of the finance is not understanding that financial story, so to speak, and being able to be empowered allows you that opportunity to know why you're making certain decisions and of course be able to lean on the expertise of individuals like yourself that are able to provide that roadmap and that future, that picture.

09:23 – Janette Gallardo:

Yeah, no, for sure. Like that's, that's exactly it. Like when you see that businesses have to come to an end because they couldn't make it. And that's exactly it. Like, I feel like it takes a lot for somebody to either understand that what's needed, that that financial piece is really missing from the equation. And maybe also not knowing, right, that it's available to them. Or maybe they think, oh my God, it's so expensive, I cannot afford it and they just dismiss it. And that piece is crucial for the business to keep operating.

10:05 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, a lot of times you'll hear the phrase, you know, I can't afford to do that. But in reality, a lot of times you can't afford to just because if you want your business, you want your goal, you want your gift or the thing that you're passionate about and the impact that you have to reach as many people, you wanna make sure you have, you know, that strong financial footing so you can increase the likelihood that that's going to happen.

10:26 – Janette Gallardo:

Yes, 100%.

10:28 – Gresham Harkless:

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:41 – Janette Gallardo:

So a hack will definitely be delegating and outsourcing where needed. So as I mentioned earlier, like we cannot do everything ourselves. So it is important to identify what tasks or what areas of your business can be outsourced and also understand the cost impact. So minimizing, trying to minimize that, like finding a sweet spot. But, for me, I do that myself because there are so many things that either I don't want to do or I'm not good at and I'm okay with that. I mean, finding the ways to identify for me is key because I don't want to obviously outsource everything but identifying the key areas where I know I could benefit from from that service and definitely outsourcing or delegating for sure.

11:35 – Gresham Harkless:

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget and this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client about financing or it might be something you would tell yourself if you were to hop into a time machine.

11:49 – Janette Gallardo:

Yeah, so this I tell myself all of the time because like anybody else like trying to do everything or multitasking or any of that. So what I do remind myself is to focus on the one thing that stands between me and my goal. So there's this really good book called The One Thing, which walks you through the process of where to focus your attention to see the results you expect and the author is Gary Keller, but it really brings back to, okay, you cannot do everything. So just focus on that one thing that is gonna give you the results that you're trying to achieve.

12:33 – Gresham Harkless:

And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Janette, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:44 -Janette Gallardo:

So what it means to me is knowing that it takes a team to be successful. It takes partnership. It takes building relationships and being a leader and not a boss.

12:59 – Gresham Harkless:

Nice. Yeah, absolutely love that. And I think so many times, right in alignment with everything you said, I think having and putting the people in place and having, I guess, the phrases, the right butts in the right seat, so to speak, and knowing that you can go sometimes far alone, but you can go so much farther when you have the right team and you have the right people in place. And thinking about how you're able to do that in a more creative way allows you to again, be able to make that impact on that one thing and really be your zone of genius so that you can have the impact that you had the vision and goal of doing as a CEO, entrepreneur, or business owner.

13:35 – Janette Gallardo:

Yeah, no, for sure. And I feel like sometimes we forget about that. And it's so important just to do what we're, as you said, what you're good at, your craft, what your genius at, and then let the rest get the right people in the right places.

13:53 – Gresham Harkless:

Absolutely, absolutely. And Janette, truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get an overview and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:09 – Janette Gallardo:

Yes, no, so thank you. So yes, I want to share that I'm working on bringing a workshop to help. I know like a lot of smaller business owners, like service providers, that they cannot hire my services because they're still growing and trying to find the sweet spot to bring me on board. But I truly wanna help and bring this service to everybody. So I'm in the works right now and bringing a workshop for those smaller businesses and services providers where we have like sessions once a month and, and it's a group session, we cover everything, all their questions, everything on finances.

And also we brainstorm as a team on ways to improve, like what are other people doing that is working for them. So that's something coming up. So if anybody's interested, they can find me on my website. It's vidasolutions.com. And so it's vitasolutions.com or on LinkedIn under my name or my company name, my name is Jennifer Gallardo, or Vida Solutions. But thank you, thank you, Grosjean, for having me on the podcast. I'm very grateful.

15:35 – Gresham Harkless:

No, I'm definitely grateful to you for all the work that you do. We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes as well. So you can click through and get a hold and be in contact with Janette and hear about all the awesome things that she's working on. But definitely, we have missions, we have goals, and things that we want to do to impact the world. And I think a lot of times we'll skip over one of the most crucial aspects, which is the finances and understanding exactly where you are and what decisions are best to help you to succeed and what might jeopardize that. So I appreciate you for using your gifts and your talents to be able to help out so many entrepreneurs and business owners. And again, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:22 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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