👉 Grab Celi's Chaos to Clarity: Stages of Growth freebie: https://go.celiarias.com/the-GAB-Stages-of-Growth

In this episode of Built for This: Stories of a Maverick, host Jenna Bayuk chats with Celi Arias, founder of Grown Ass Business, business strategist, and mindset coach, who’s on a mission to make scaling feel simple, soulful, and sustainable.

Celi shares how her entrepreneurial journey began at age 11 and eventually evolved into creating a business growth framework that works across industries. She opens up about rejecting the toxic hustle narrative, combining operations with mindset work, and why true transformation starts by solving the actual problem, not just what you think it is.

From bootstrapping ballet lessons as a kid to building a software platform that demystifies business health for founders, Celi brings honesty, humor, and a deeply refreshing perspective on what it really means to be “built for this.”

Key Takeaways:

• Fix the fire before the mindset: Strategy calms your system, so you can do the inner work next.
• You don’t need more products, you need a better strategy: Most entrepreneurs are solving the wrong problems.
• Teach to set free: True coaching isn’t about creating dependence; it’s about empowering autonomy.
• Strengths can become ceilings: The thing you’re best at might be the thing holding you back.
• You get to choose: Every day, you get to decide who you want to be, and how you want to build.

• “Your mindset’s not going to fix a broken pricing strategy.” – Celi Arias
• “You don’t need a coach forever. You just need to understand how business works.” – Celi Arias
• “Business is business is business. The foundations are the same.” – Celi Arias
• “The hard stuff’s not the metrics. The hard stuff’s you.” – Celi Arias
• “Ease and flow come after years of hard work. Don’t let Instagram fool you.” – Celi Arias

00:00 – Intro: Celi’s approach to scaling with simplicity

02:55 – First Hustle: Babysitting club, door-to-door selling, and ballet dreams

05:50 – From Clothing Line to Coaching: How Celi built her real-world MBA

14:13 – Building a Better Coaching Model: Four days, no excuses, real results

25:10 – Why Mindset Comes After Strategy: Putting out the fire first

30:12 – Wellbeing and Self-Trust: Creating businesses that don’t break people

31:51 – Real Client Wins: From shame to scale, one fix at a time

42:36 – What’s Next: Turning the methodology into scalable software

49:02 – Rapid Fire: Simplicity habits, worst advice, and choosing your role

52:40 – What ‘Built for this’ means to Celi Arias

FOLLOW OUR GUEST CELI ARIAS ON:

• Celi Arias: https://www.linkedin.com/in/celiarias/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/celigrowsbusiness/
• Website: https://grownassbusiness.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennabayuk/
• Website: https://kinshipkollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenna_bayuk/
• Email: [email protected]

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