By Sam DeLong
Entrepreneur and motivational speaker Dana Grant reveals the limitations that hold us back from reaching our ultimate goals—and it’s ourselves. Readers may remember her as co-founder of Cauli’flour Foods, a local business venture that launched Chico into the cauliflower pizza crust craze.
Pizza crust was just a means to an end. She started the concept with Amy Lacey in 2016 at the Chico Thursday Night Market. Grant had previously been a mentor at Chico State. She and Lacey had crossed paths in business before, having both worked in the area as independent wellness coaches. Grant was already running her coaching business, Dana Grant Coaching, that would eventually grow into Dana Grant International—a motivational enterprise that provides next steps and future-forward plans to clients via Zoom and in person nationwide.
Preparing for an upcoming book signing at Barnes & Noble in Redding, her book, The Truth Within the Lie, lays out her principles for “creating the life you want” and reveals the biggest barrier to change is often ourselves, and something she calls “the terror barrier.”
“We have to give ourselves permission to change,” Grant says of taking that leap to pursue a different job and in most cases, a different life. “[People] will say ‘what if it doesn’t work?’ Well, what if it does? Ninety-five percent of what we do is [tell our own] stories… and in our stories are vines… vines of fear and doubt that can tangle us up. We get caught up in perfection paralysis and procrastination.”
Grant continues to say that the worst thing we can do is wait. According to her principles, there is no right time and safety is never guaranteed, not even at your current job. Her travels take her everywhere in the world, speaking to thousands of people. Grant has helped everyone from executives to trauma survivors; from disillusioned grad students to an 80-year-old woman starting her own business. She has amassed a client roster of over 3,000 people across nine countries, as well as a thriving social media brand with over 100,000 followers. Dana Grant is a big enterprise, and Grant gives appreciation to a “large and dedicated support team.”
The sessions include online coaching, teaching in-person classes, as well as seminars and keynote speaking. “I always say sometimes you have to be in the room. That personal connection is very important… I have had people who came up to me… I met you in a restaurant five years ago… then I read your book and it changed my life.”
She also hosts a weekly podcast, The Dana Grant Show. Episodes include a variety of guests and offer Grant’s same heart-centered message on worth, focusing on mental health and navigating self-esteem challenges.
And it all began when she moved to Chico 30 years ago, during a period that she calls a “season of transition.” Grant spent some early years in the Red Bluff the Calistoga areas. She re-located to Butte County to be closer to family.
Early risk-taking shaped a path to personal growth
“When it came to Cauli’flour Foods… people were already doing the crust with rice, and I thought we could do it with cauliflower. But it was never my intention to run a pizza crust business forever.”
Cauli’flour Foods was one of the first ready-made pizza crusts on the market, but the model was far from perfect. “There was a lot of waste, and it was very expensive… not the ideal way [to run the business].”
Lacey bought out Grant’s co-ownership of the vegetable-based crust venture just eight months after they started. Grant maintains that it was “the best for everyone” and continues a friendship with Lacey to this day. The change allowed her to focus on her coaching business. Closing out that chapter in her life, the inspirational leader notes that starting that business allowed her to face her own fears about taking the leap into what she really wanted to do. “I faced my greatest fears and now I teach. In a strange way, I will always be reminded of those days in the Farmers Market. Pulling out large tubs and making things happen.”
A big focus of her coaching involves people who believe that they are stuck in lower-paying jobs, and Grant explains that part of The Truth Within the Lie reveals self-doubt and uncertainty create a reality for that people think they cannot get out of.
“You are limited by the information that you have… the stories that we have created, the limited beliefs we have created. It might not even be your story. It might be your mother’s story, your father’s story.” Grant says cliches like “money doesn’t grow on trees” and “you must work hard” are just excuses. “It’s not the things that we are not capable of that we are afraid of… it’s the unimaginable things that we are capable of.”
Dana Grant has won many awards for her work over the years including recognition from Chico Chamber of Commerce in 2017 and 2018 for her entrepreneurship. Her book, The Truth Within the Lie, is available online and at Barnes & Noble. A national best seller, it’s landed a number one spot in Amazon’s self-help and spirituality category. Grant goes on to say that if she could impart wisdom on any potential readers or clients it is to get out of their own way, and that she can help them make “heart-centered actions” in their life. She cautions against the concept of a “bucket list” because of the idea of it being someday.
Someday is now.
Dana Grant has already been a guest author at the Chico Barnes & Noble and will be signing copies of The Truth Within the Lie at the Redding location (1260 Churn Creek Rd.) on Saturday, May 30.
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