In this episode of Conversations That Grow, Sadaf Beynon sits down with Anastasia Ristovska, co-founder of Next Generation and Books At Ease, to explore the deeper conversations that helped her shift from control to trust—and from doing everything herself to building high-performing, empowered teams.

Anastasia shares two pivotal conversations: one that forced her to stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like a business owner, and another with a team member who challenged her to trust more and let go. These moments reshaped her leadership, led her to create a 90-day training system, and helped her grow two companies without burning out.

If you’ve ever struggled with delegation, micromanaging, or trusting your team, this episode will speak directly to you.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Why micromanaging is rooted in fear, not ego
• The conversation that shifted Anastasia’s identity from doer to leader
• How trusting your team creates long-term growth
• What it takes to train your team to work independently
• How to lead without knowing all the answers
• Why leadership isn’t a destination—but a daily practice
• The mindset shift that stops you from being the bottleneck

Connect With Anastasia

• booksease.com
• nextgeneration.eu
• linkedin.com/in/anastasia-ristovska

About Conversations That Grow

This is the podcast where we explore the conversations that shape who we become as leaders and people. Because growth starts with the conversations we’re willing to have—especially the ones we have with ourselves.Companies mentioned in this episode:

My husband, he told me, can you please stop thinking about yourself as the greatest finance director in the world, but start thinking as the business owner?

And it was really, how to say, it was really slap in my, in my face.

Welcome to Conversations that Grow, where we explore the moments that shape who we become as leaders and people.

I'm your host, Sadaf Banon, and today I'm joined by Anastasia Rostovska, co founder of two businesses, Next Generation and Books At Ease.

What really caught my attention with Anastasia is the inner journey behind those businesses.

Anastasia once feared letting go of control, but she turned that fear into a leadership approach that empowers people and creates space for growth.

Welcome to the show, Anastasia.

It's great to have you.

Thank you, Sarah.

It's a pleasure being with you today.

I'm happy to be here and share my story with you.

Thank you so much.

So let's start at the top.

What's a conversation you had that changed the way you think about leadership or business?

Oh, there were a lot of conversations, to be honest, since I started my business.

But I can pick up two conversations which were very important for me and helped me to shape how I look at the business at the moment and how I have transformed myself from someone who was working in the corporate world into someone who is now successfully leading two companies.

So the first conversation was with back when we were, when we opened our businesses with my husband, because we are both founders of the both companies and we often had conversation about what we can do, where we are at.

And one day he spoke to me, he told me, can you please stop thinking about yourself as the greatest finance director in the world, but start thinking as the business owner.

And it was really, how to say, it was really slap in my face because I thought, yeah, maybe he's right.

What I was doing until that point of time, I was trying to please everybody I was working with.

I was trying to provide the best possible service from finance standpoint of view, which I'm still doing.

But I was not thinking that now I'm in a position when I am the business owner and I need to take care first about my business, to be strong, healthy, to work well, and then to focus on giving the best performance to my clients so they can grow as well.

And the second conversation was when I, it was also early in the stages when I opened my business conversation with one of my team members and he, he was sitting with me, we were chatting something and he told me, you know what, you need to trust me more.

You need to give me More work.

So I can show you that I'm capable of, of doing this and I'm capable of doing this with, with the quality that you're expecting.

And that was also something that was really strong because not, because I was not believing him at that point, but I was that control freak at that point that wanted to have control over everything.

And I thought that nobody else in this world can do the, the job better than me.

Which is not egocentric just to make it clear, but it's some sort of fear that if you let things to be done by different people, then maybe you will lose the quality, then maybe you will lose the control.

Maybe something will happen on the road without thinking basically that whatever happens on that road is basically a lesson that you need to learn and to improve yourself and, and adjust yourself.

Because business is like a child.

It's one year old, then five years old, goes to school and then maybe graduate and so on.

So you need to go through that process and learn together with your business if you want to be successful.

So yeah, that, that were, that were some sort of conversation that changed me and the way how I, how I talk about doing things and approaching.

Thank you so much.

I love it.

So let's dig into the first one that you shared about your husband.

I'm curious to know what was your mindset before he said those words to you and what needed to change in you in order for you to start thinking as a business owner.

Yeah, so having my background that I was previously working in the corporate world for many years before I started my business, my only focus was providing quality work, focusing on what the people need from me, delivering things within the deadlines, making organizational structure and so on.

So I was more focused on building systems, thinking like in some frame that I need to work with.

But when you are a business owner, you need to, let's say, step up and see your business.

From there is one quote saying, say your business from a bird perspective and take off your emotions out of that because maybe you are now decided to open your business, but that doesn't mean that you're prepared to do that.

So it was some sort of changing my mindset that I need to stop working in the business, but I need to start working for the business.

And that working for the business meant a lot of education, a lot of self reflection, a lot of things like controlling of your emotions and making balance between what is good, what is right, what is proper for your business and maybe what's not.

And all of us, we are all human beings and we are not perfect no matter in what position in this world we are.

And that was really changing for me because until that point I was someone who is delivering things.

Now I need to stop and think about more creating things, making environment for the business to grow, talking to people, learning what is missing.

And not only talking with clients, but talking with your team members as well.

Because that is the way how you adjust yourself, how you make sure that you're doing better and more effective or whatever context you're taking.

So it was really, really hard for me.

Even though I have business for long years, I'm still struggling to be honest with that part.

Because when I'm working on something with my clients, I'm really focused on that.

And I need to stop and let saying myself, okay, now, now get out of this role now step in, into another role business owner.

Someone who needs to create more business.

Someone who need to evolve in order to his business to evolve in this case.

So yeah, thank you for sharing.

That's really interesting.

And actually listening to you speak and thinking about the second conversation that you had with a team member actually does go quite hand in hand.

And it's almost like the second conversation is an outworking of the lessons you were learning and the journey you were walking through after the first conversation.

Would you say that's right or have I made things up?

Yeah, that is also one thing that, and as I said, I mean the process of developing yourself needs time.

Especially when you're changing the environment when, where you were working or worked before.

And previously when I was working in the corporate world, I think that the results were depending on me, on my performance, how good I will be, what I will deliver and so on.

And even though I had a team of people that I was working in that corporation, we were following a structure, a system, it was a say, a hierarchy that we need to follow before we make decisions and so on.

So even though you're performing, what you're well or, or bad, whatever, it, not everything depends on you.

But now when I started my business, and that was in the early period for sure, I was laying down my business based on my performance, the quality of work I'm delivering.

So when I started to grow and when I needed to hire someone else to help me, I was really afraid deep inside of me that when the time comes to deliver, to delegate, pardon the work to someone else, then what will happen?

Maybe the quality won't be the same, maybe the communication won't be the same.

And I was always in that mode that person was doing the job, but I was constantly monitoring, flying over her, over his head to make sure that everything is done properly.

So I was some sort of micromanaging him to make sure that the service is delivered as it should be.

But that day when he told me, you need to trust me more, then I thought, okay, stop.

And this makes sense because people cannot work for you.

People need to work with you.

So you need to find a way to show them that, okay, this is the space that you can work.

This is the space where you can make mistakes and no problem, mistakes are lessons that basically takes you from point A to point B.

But you need to start trusting that nothing bad will happen in this world.

And no client in this world will say, okay, I'm not satisfied if he see that you are not the one who is doing the job.

But contrary, the client will be more happy because he will see, okay, I'm working with a business who is developing.

I'm.

I'm working with an owner who is not stuck in the work only with me, but trying to find some more effective way, more creative way for, for making the things happen.

So yeah, that was, that was really conversation that, that hit me and it really changed the way how I'm doing at the moment.

Things.

That's cool.

So you talked about your business being like a child.

Do you find that there's still instances when helicopter parenting your business child or do you feel like that's something you've worked through and you're, you're better at delegating?

Yeah, yeah, so I'm definitely better at delegating and.

But because I've changed the perspective of how I'm doing that.

Yeah.

And I've realized that, yes, you can delegate the thing, but you need to be here to support.

So delegate the things, but be here to support your people because that way they will feel comfortable and that way they will provide better results.

Second thing is that I've learned that if you want to grow your business and to grow your child, you need to invest in that child and invest not only financially, but with knowledge and know how.

So I've realized that if I want my business to grow, I need to invest in my people.

So if they grow as a professionals, as a person, they will deliver better output and then my business will be more successful.

And also what I've learned through that parenting, let's say, is that you need to listen your, your children, the people who are working with, because when you listen them, when you, when you listen how they feel, how they what their ideas, their approach to work, then you find another perspective, then you're adapting to someone, to something that is much more better than it was before.

So yeah, I'm definitely better in that, but still learning because I don't find the leadership as a final destination.

That's everyday learning.

It's every day something new happens on the road and as you grow, as your child is growing, has different challenges, different problems that you need to face with.

So yeah, I'm happy of what I've done so far, but I'm open to the new journeys and to the new lessons that I need to learn in this life called business.

I really like what you've said that leadership is not, it's not a destination as you write, because we're always learning, we're always growing if we allow ourselves to, because there's always so much to be understanding about the people we're with and growing alongside.

You said that you take time to listen to your team.

What other ways do you invest in them?

Yes, we are, we have a lot of programs that my team follows.

So first of all, they are constantly educating themselves on the finance things, the things that is our primary service for sure.

We are investing in communication because I believe that and conflict resolution because I believe that communication is a crucial part when you're doing a business.

We are all human beings.

We are all behind our laptops, computers, sending emails, messages and so on.

But we need to find a proper way how to communicate with others.

We need to learn that we need to support each other.

And we have weekly meetings when we are sharing how the week passed, what kind of problems we faced with, do we have any, let's say other way, how we can solve the thing, what was the good that we did last week and what we could do to do it better next week.

So all those things help us not only to, to grow as a professionals, but to connect between ourselves.

Because at the end of the day I think that no matter how technology will be evolving, we're still needing human touch, we're still needing human connection, talking with real people because that way we can live.

And yeah, those are the ways that basically we are following to grow and to invest in our business.

That's really good.

I mean, people on teams, people can be so varied, can't they?

And they have different communication styles and the way they learn is different.

And I guess you're having to take all of that into account when you are passing on knowledge and know how.

Yeah, exactly.

And most the one important thing is creating A safe environment for the people to know that if they make a mistake, it's okay.

I mean they will learn from that.

But most importantly, what I want to talk to them is being honest, being just be honest that I did this, I didn't know how to do this because that way I will know what I need to focus on to help you so you can pass that boundary.

Because normally if you're building, let's say organization when you're putting yourself only as a manager, someone who is here to find mistakes or delivering only the work without talking to people, without creating a safe environment where they can grow and freely talk to you for whatever problems they might be facing in the work, then it's not working, then, then on the long run you will have a problems for sure.

Anastasia, listening to you speak, I think you're very teachable and I think you, from, from the conversations that you've shared, it sounds like, you know, you're very humble in taking on the feedback that you get and remaining true to being teachable in those moments and bettering yourself, your company, your team.

I'm really curious, where did you learn this?

Oh, I think that it's my personality to be honest.

Even though I was learning that during my professional journey.

But when I was raised as a young girl, let's say by my parents, I was also taught that no matter what happens, there is always a solution.

But you need to be honest first of all to say to yourself that okay, I did that mistake.

And second, to be honest with the other people who are involved in your world at that point, that there is a problem.

And when we open the channel of communication, of being honest, talking about the things honestly, then for sure there is a solution.

Because sometimes when we are stuck in our head, we are panicking, we are stressed, we are not realizing that if we open up, if we show what we are thinking, what we are feeling, what we are afraid of, then the person which is next door or maybe our partner or maybe our parent will be here to give at least an opinion.

And that opinion may change your perception, the way of how you're thinking.

Because I think that honest conversation can bring you a lot more than years of experience working in no matter industry or no matter business, you are.

But if you're willing to listen, if you're willing to accept.

And that was my, my, my sort of raising and personality.

But later on when I was developing as a professional, I really saw the difference when, and it was really practical difference.

When I'm not listening, I'm not open to receive feedback, vice versa, when I'm open to do that.

So it was really clear, like day and night what will happen in scenario one and scenario two.

And I think that that's the way how I've built this, this threat for me.

Well, thank you for sharing.

I think it's admirable.

Thank you.

We talked about your fear of letting go, and it wasn't because of an ego.

It was out of the fear of quality not, not being the same or as it should be.

I want to talk about out of, out of that shift.

You didn't just delegate to your team members.

You didn't just give them more work that they, you could trust them with.

You went on to build a training program.

I'd love to know a little bit more about that.

Yes.

So when I was, when I started to grow my business, what I actually realized is that the bottleneck is not only the systems in place, but the realization that my team is not trained well.

So I sat down and said, okay, now let's, let's try to put everything that I have in my head on paper so we can start building a training program that will help people to adjust quickly.

And to be honest, it was taking a time.

It was not like one try and then success.

I was building this training program for many months and then I find the proper way of how to do that.

So I realized that when I build a solid training program which involves first of all putting everything on paper, all your processes or your SOPs you need to have on paper, you need to have videos for every single specific situation that need to be taken care of.

Because during that training process there were, there were a lot of back and forth with my people how to do this.

And I realized that it was always the same questions.

So I said, okay, now let's record some group of videos that I'm going to share with them up front and then we can sit together one on one and, and talk about that.

What is not clear, what I can help more.

So my training program, I can proudly say that I build a program that help people in only two months from a newcomer to become someone who will be able to do his work 70% independently without any monitoring on my end.

So it was a journey, it was a process.

But I think that with work, with a lot of feedback, communication with the people, seeing what is working, what is not working, we can, we come to that stage when we have a really solid program program.

And that program which I've built internally for my team, now evolved into a different source of income for my company, because now I'm training international accountants who want to enter the US Market with all these principal systems they need to know to be able to work.

So it's really good.

So we have now an academy, and I can proudly say that I've trained more than 100 people until today to work well, to communicate well for.

For the US Market.

Wow.

Fantastic.

Well done.

Thank you.

You said that the bottleneck was that your own team wasn't trained well, and so you created this program to help them be better at what the job was at that point.

Was it about efficiency?

Yeah.

Yes.

First problem was efficiency, for sure, because I've realized that I cannot grow at the pace I want to grow because my people are not to take more clients first.

Second thing is that I realized that if I make that program, to be specific, then they will not lose or waste time on things that are unnecessary at this certain point of time, but they will focus on what is important and then slowly evolving and adding more on their knowledge and so on, because I.

And that also helped me to not only train them, but to make a good system of onboarding for newcomers.

So when the new person is coming into my company, I already have a material of work that they can read on, learn on.

They have a peer who is here to help if something is needed and the process goes more smoothly, instead of me being the one who will be only sharing the knowledge, only checking the quality of work.

So I felt that I'm the bottleneck, and if I'm the bottleneck, then my business cannot grow at the pace I want to grow if I don't do this.

So, yes, efficiency, onboarding, people, onboarding new clients.

That was the main reason why I have started doing this.

What was it like for you in those early months when you were first starting to train?

Was there ever this thought of, oh, I. I should just do it myself, It'll be.

It'll be easier and better.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, that was always the thing.

To be honest, at the very beginning, because personally, I'm a patient person and I really want to teach.

I really want to share my knowledge.

But of course, when you are in the business and when you have a lot other things popping up each and every day, you're.

You're losing your.

Your patience.

And there were a lot of scenarios situation when I thought, okay, it will take me less time to do it on my own instead of spending so many hours teaching, talking to people to understand something.

But then I switched that to something that is short term and long term results.

Because short term, yes, it will be more efficient if I do it and everything will be done as I want to be done and everybody is happy.

But on the long run it causes a problem because I'm not able to take days off, I'm not able to focus on other things instead of doing operations only.

And at the end of the day, if you want to grow your business, you need to grow your team.

And if you want to grow your team, you need to share the knowledge basically to replicate my knowledge, my structure of thinking to more people and that way we will be more successful.

And when I'm saying my way of thinking, I'm not saying they need to copy me on everything that they are doing.

No, I'm just sharing my best experience.

I'm sharing the knowledge the best I can.

I'm talking to them, to the way that I don't want you to do this just to do it.

I want to understand why it matters.

Because that way when you understand why it matters, you will connect to that.

And once you connect to that, you feel responsible.

And once you feel responsible for something, obviously you can do your best to perform, to perform the best you can.

So that's a psychology behind human thinking.

If you give a people to just deliver, they will slowly transform their themselves into a robots, machines that okay, I'm delivering the work, results are perfect and that's it.

But no, I want people to understand why it matters and to feel responsible when they're doing something.

Because this is, this business is not only for myself.

This business feeds their families.

If we grow together, they will have a better life, I will have a better life.

So it's some sort of family relationship when it comes to the business.

That's very good.

I like that.

Anastasia, when we first talked, you said that leaders aren't born, they're built.

What's one trait you thought made you strong but later realized was holding you back as a leader?

Yes.

So I still believe in that, that leaders are not born, they're built.

I thought that leaders should know everything.

So leader is the one who is setting up the the track and everybody else is following.

But nowadays I think that that's wrong because as a leader you shouldn't have all the answers in this world, you cannot have them.

But you should be able to ask the right questions and to adapt yourself very quickly if you want to move forward.

And that was a lot of pressure on me, to be honest, because I thought that my responsibility as a leader is to show them the path to show them all the solutions that are possible and they only need to follow.

No, they need to participate.

Because if they follow you only then you don't have a critical thinking.

You have only a followers who are following you.

For whatever reason they're following you.

But you're not growing as a person, as a business.

So yes, it's no problem at all if you don't have the all answers in this world.

Just ask the right questions and you will find the answer you're looking for.

I agree.

I think it's not just about laying track, it's also about getting engagement and ownership from everyone on the team.

They have to have that buy in, don't they?

And I guess a lot of that comes from the leader themselves.

It doesn't just happen.

It's something that has to be passed down by the leadership.

Yes.

That I really personally think it's important is that to lead by example.

Yes.

So whatever you want to be achieved, you need to act yourself that way.

Because I cannot ask for my people to be on time if I'm not on time at work, if I am not disciplined enough to, let's say to do whatever it takes for this to be completed, how I will be able to ask that from the people who are working with me?

So leading by example, showing them what you are not only as a leader but as a person, as a human being, they will easily connect with you and they will genuinely understand your vision, your mission and they will follow you other way.

It's a broken connection and it's not working.

Just thinking about what you're saying there about leading by example.

What do you look for now in your team that tells you that you are leading?

Well, oh, I. Yeah, that's a really good question.

What I'm looking from my team now is people to feel, as I said, comfortable with whatever they're doing and to be transparent in what they're doing.

Because transparency builds honesty and honesty builds ownership of the things.

And when I'm with my people, I want them to feel comfortable in whatever they're doing and be open, open to take the feedback with no personal feelings, open to do whatever is needed if something needs to be done.

Because I really appreciate that and I really, I'm here for them as well.

Because in all the bad situations that we had in the past and we will have, because businesses sometimes is good, sometimes is bad, I want them to feel me as a safe harbor where they will go, talk, share what they have at that point of time and I'm here with them to build a solution, to find a way out.

And yeah, I, I really want that so.

And I personally think that I'm doing that.

But I don't know, maybe we should.

Ask them if they feel the same.

Way as I feel.

Yeah.

At this point.

Yeah, I think, I mean, of course you need to ask them, but I think something maybe that's a sign that is that you're not being.

That you're not setting the right example is when you face frustration and it's maybe that they're not finding, they're not engaging, they don't, they're not taking ownership.

There's something that's getting lost in the communication, in the translation.

I know you're not feeling this.

You don't have this in your team or at all.

Yeah, exactly.

So showing frustration is basically showing a fear because behind any frustration there is a fear.

And that fear can come from a lot of things.

Fear of not being able to do something, fear that the people will perceive me on a different way that I want to be perceived and so on.

So showing frustration is getting you frustration back from whoever you're showing that frustration.

There is no need for that.

And I know that sometimes can be hard because all of us who are especially doing business, there are a lot of hard times that we have.

Maybe I'm not always with the same patience level that I'm normally and sometimes that maybe can be heard in my voice and maybe in my attitude or the way how I'm acting, but I'm how to say, I want to bring that to the conscious level.

And whenever I feel that, that, okay, I'm acting like frustrated, I'm nervous, I'm passing my negative energy to the other people.

I'm stopping reflecting that.

I say, okay, there is no need for this.

Let's clear our heads a little bit and talk about the same topic tomorrow.

So it's not a problem at all because we are not perfect.

And it's much better if you stop the conversation when you see that is going to a negative direction instead of just completing the conversation by whatever end it comes.

Yes.

I love what you said because I think it absolutely reflects your teachable nature.

That's great.

Anastasia, if you had one sentence that you'd want to hand to every new team member, what would it be?

Embrace this journey as much as you can.

Try to learn, try to open yourself for new challenges because every single challenge is a new lesson that transform your personality, your professional profile.

And this is the only way how you can grow and be a better person, be a better professional and don't see my company as a last destination.

Just grow yourself, invest in yourself and as the better you are, the happier I will be.

You are more than welcome, Anastasia.

Thank you so much.

This has been such an honest and powerful picture of how conversations with ourselves, our teams can turn that fear into trust and from being doers into leaders.

Thank you Sadh, for the opportunity, first of all to share my journey with you and your audience.

It was a great conversation and yeah, I hope that we'll stay in touch and see what the future will bring to us.

Thank you.

Before we wrap up though, Anastasia, if someone's listening wants to connect with you or learn more about your work, where can they go to do that?

They can connect with me on my LinkedIn profile, Anastasia Ristovska or they can visit our website booksease.com or Next Generation EU.

So whatever they want to get in touch with me, I'm happy open to talk with everybody.

So yeah, don't be afraid, just make the first step and I'm here to support you.

Fantastic.

And to those listening in, thank you for joining us on Conversations that grow.

The links that Anastasia has just mentioned are in the show notes for you.

So please do feel free to reach out to her and to connect.

And I hope this episode has reminded you that leadership isn't about doing it all yourself.

It's about the conversations that give others room to grow.

Thanks for listening and bye for now.

Sam.