Leveraging Systems to Rise Above Your Fears With Ernesto Mandowsky -

As entrepreneurs or business leaders, we constantly experience chaos and there’s a lot of fear that revolves around that. The first step is to accept the inevitability of chaos. The second step is to have systems in place to mitigate that chaos.

In today’s conversation, Adam and Ernesto Mandowsky talk all about systems. Ernesto is the CEO of CPD Advisors, a company that helps entrepreneurs turn chaos into cash flow. Ernesto helps early-stage founders transform their operations by designing systems and utilizing his proprietary 6P system.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Definition of a system
Experiencing fear through a lack of system
Mastering the delivery of the service
The importance of delegation
The analogy of the bees and honey
Putting people in place to run the systems
The importance of constant feedback
The 6P system

Episode Highlights:

[03:59] What is a System

A system is a combination of three things: tools, people, and playbooks. They come together to create results or intended results. A lack of a system can cause fear because people are going to be in a constant reactive mode. It doesn’t give you time to sit in silence or in flow, and just let the experience sink in. You’re playing catch-up all day, every day. And that creates even more chaos in your head. There will always be chaos, so the first step is accepting it.

[15:51] Mastering the Delivery of Your Service

Mastering the delivery of your service is the first system everyone should master. Once you do that, you’re turning your customers into your salespersons. You don’t have to invest in additional sales and advertising because you’ve mastered the delivery of that service.

[29:44] Putting People in Place to Run the Systems

It’s not the best use of time for visionaries to build systems because, by definition, the visionary is the one doing the vision. Hence, one of the biggest leadership qualities visionaries should have is the ability to let go and find someone to serve in that role.

[42:23] The 6P System

Priorities – goal-setting and how you measure your progress
People – the relationships you surround yourself with so you can execute and fulfill your goals
Project management – this includes your daily checklist
Promotion – marketing your content creation
Playbooks – the step-by-step how-to for your business
Planning – it includes your daily, weekly, monthly quarterly planning. It’s a routine to make sure you’re continuously realigning.

Resources Mentioned:

www.ernestomandowsky.com

LinkedIn: @ernestomandowsky

NewBee by Ernesto Mandowsky

Brand Builders Group

Transcript

well when there’s a lack of systems I think people are just in constant reaction mode
and it doesn’t ever give you time to sit in silence sit and flow just
actually let the experience sink in so fear like you’re kind of playing this
catch up all day every day and that like creates even more chaos in
your head so I think the you know one of the things leaders could do is just
accept it hello everyone and welcome to the flow
over fear podcast where it is our mission to help you to rise above fear and realize your ultimate potential in
leadership and life I’m your host Adam Hill and it is my goal to share with you
the human side of high performance my guests share their experience with fear
anxiety struggle Challenge and most importantly despite all of it how they
Rose above it to achieve incredible results so if you’re ready to rise up
let’s get started welcome to flow over fear everyone I’m glad you’re here uh today we’re going to
talk about a great way to rise above fear my guess is going to help us through that because when we talk about
things like fear or anxiety whether it be personally whether we personally experience it or we experience it in our
organizations or businesses or companies or the things we’re starting a lot of that fear revolves around chaos I mean
and that chaos that that we experience as as startups or entrepreneurs or
things like that naturally comes from the uncertainty or the the things that
hit us randomly or just the I’m not lack of planning and those kinds of things so
how do we minimize the chaos that we can control well the one of the answers is better
systems and that is where I introduce my guest today
Ernesto mendowski is the CEO of CPD advisors a company that helps
entrepreneurs to transform chaos into cash flow get it cash flow with a degree
in systems engineerings and over a decade of developing Technology Solutions at companies like Deloitte
Consulting Myers USA and the Palm Ernesto is an expert in designing
systems to help leaders rise above anxiety and chaos to scale their
organizations and rise to new heights Ernesto helps early stage Founders
transform their operations by designing systems Business Systems utilizing his
proprietary 6p Playbook outside of his work with Founders Ernesto is passionate
about building and building a sustainable entrepreneurship Community
welcome to the show Ernest so I’m glad to have you here thank you Adam
thank you so much it’s awesome to be yeah my pleasure I’m I’m uh I’m really glad you’re here because I want to dive
into this systems thing and I want to get into your story but before we do I think when I when when we say the word
systems when we say that maybe a lot of people they get their eyes rolled back in their head a little bit and they say oh man technology we’re gonna get
technical you know can you help us at least can we can we Define this here because I think
it’s important that to to to set a framework here of how systems are
important to how we live our lives and and and we rise above our fears so can you give us like a quick one to two
sentence definition of what you know what we’re talking about when we’re talking about systems here yeah uh so I Define systems
as a combination of three things
you you mentioned uh technology you know people like oh my God QuickBooks overwhelmed
uh sorry to say it but two tools is one of the steps so you have tools
you have people and you have playbooks
so when you have your company you probably have maybe it’s a solo founder
or a group of people a team they are doing certain tasks that
they’re following certain checklists those are your playbooks or your standard operating procedures or your
processes and they’re using tools or software and the three pieces come together to
create a result or an intentional intended result that’s that’s try to keep it as basic as
possible well it’s a big word yeah so I kind of put you on the spot there with asking you like hey Define this great big thing
in one or two sentences but that no that was really good and I think that’s helpful because you know putting a perspective of tools people Playbook
that’s helpful I mean I’ve run a business for a while now and you know
trying to operate systems sometimes these systems themselves can be a source of chaos and a source of frustration and
anxiety uh how how can we how can how can you help leaders or how do how do we
turn these systems into something that help us to rise to get over our anxieties or our fears as leaders and
yeah and how do we even I guess before that how do we how do we experience fear with a lack of systems
well when there’s a lack of systems I think people are just in constant reaction mode uh
on one end you know when I worked in I worked in I used to work in restaurants and a restaurant is just
chaos 24 7. I mean you have the kitchen you have servers everyone’s reacting
constantly reacting to a guest complaint here another guest is running late the server is an hour late everyone’s just
in a concert state of reaction and it doesn’t ever give you time to
sit in silence sit and flow just actually let the experience sink in
so fear like you’re kind of playing this catch up all day every day and that like creates even more chaos in
your head so I think the you know one of the things leaders could do is just
accept it to start you know um
I don’t know if you ever studied thermodynamics did you ever take any courses or oh yeah just
this morning I read that no yeah yeah the um the third law of thermodynamics is
that entropy is always increasing for those who don’t know what entropy is entropy is energy in the universe it is
always expanding and increasing so just naturally it is a law of the universe
that there will always be an expansion in energy and there will always be chaos
so accepting it is kind of the first step wow
that’s a great Insight that that and using physics to help that and I know I was joking kind of saying not studying
it before but that is an important distinction because the laws of physics exist in our mind and so you’re talking
about these you know this this simple philosophy or the simple idea that that you know that entropy or energy always
is that that chaos is always going to exist it’s always going to exist in our mind and if we could first accept it I
mean that’s the nature of every successful you know program out there yeah accept it and then let’s figure out
a way to try to resolve some of that and I’m interested in this restaurant yeah
make it flow so I’m I and then make it cash flow that’s the important part too
so they I um I’m interested in this this starting out at restaurants things that’s an interesting place to actually
learn about the idea of chaos because I not to brag but I worked at Chili’s for a long time when I was younger okay so
well it was machine well oily you probably learned a lot I I definitely
learned a lot um definitely uh definitely experienced a lot of chaos and anxiety
um and if if that’s the idea of a well-oiled machine in restaurants man I hate to see what a non-well-oiled
machine looks like no offense chilies you’re great but uh so so what what was
that so kind of getting go going through that experience in the hospitality industry tell us your story about how
you came to realize systems were the solution so to speak Jam yeah
um well I my family’s from around the world uh family in France and Brazil Colombia
Argentina lots of different places and a few times we got together was in Miami
very small amount of things you could do with a group of 20 people aside from like eat
and have lots of really good memories and I was like wow like food is really cool and when I was 18 I met a restroom
tour and he owned six restaurants and I said wow I want to be I want to be this guy
one day and then when I was in college a mentor of mine said uh you should study
engineering it’s a really good idea and you know you learn business along the way
I said okay cool I’m going to study systems engineering and then I ask myself how can I combine systems
engineering and restaurants and um it’s not an easy question I went
to my parents and said hey I want to do restaurants and they said you’re a crazy 90 fail you know the fear starts kicking
in and then I actually my first job at a restaurant I was a busboy and in between
breaks I went to the general manager and I said hey um how do you implement these inventory
systems and you know the asking him like the systems kind of things and he’s like hey man like Table Six
needs clearing like get back get back to Table Six I’m like Jesus who’s gonna help me out here
uh more fear um but one day I was reading a book
about the Ritz Carlton and for those who don’t know the
Ritz-Carlton is like one of the top hotel chains in the world and they’re known for their Seven Star service everyone’s like very attentive to detail
the pool boy knows exactly how you like your towels the bartender knows your favorite drink the concierge you know
since your anniversary and the book gave me this profound insight
and that is yes there’s amazing training but there’s
amazing playbooks but they also have amazing tools and software that keeps track of
every single data point of your guest so if you’re the pool boy and you’re laying on the towel and they hear that it’s the
anniversary or your kid is allergic to this they’ll go to the CRM and they’ll enter in the information and the next
year when you’re in in the Maldives on your vacation you pull up to the Ritz like everyone knows your information
I said wow like that’s amazing service that is enabled through technology I
said this is this is it this is how I’m gonna I’m gonna get in and um I took a job at Deloitte working
in Tech Consulting I was doing government project management work large 150 person plus
teams and I was not happy but on the weekends I went to culinary
school to take a culinary business class because I was learning how to bake bread
and turn my bread into a digital Hollow Bakery and that was also an opportunity to tell
every instructor that I knew hey I’m assistant engineer I really want to get into the industry we want to go to the industry the course finished
I didn’t get the funding from the program or the validation of a job but a
year later one of them came back to me and said hey uh we need an engineer we’re starting 10
different restaurant Concepts at the same time and we have no systems we have no process
and that was kind of like here’s your ticket welcome welcome to the crazy world of hospitality
right right oh that’s incredible yeah and and you don’t think you don’t always think about that too when it comes to
restaurants the idea of systems in place but I mean but if we if we break it down into the systems just being tools people
in a Playbook well of course then everything has a system whether we it seems like and maybe my theory is wrong
here but whether we like it or not if we’re not implementing the system these systems being implemented for us they’re just being implemented for us yeah and
if or like you are you are doing a Playbook
it’s just not a structured or you know for those listening for those people for
those entrepreneurs and Founders that are listening that are maybe just starting out or maybe overreaching to
that next level of client and uh they get that client and the client starts to
ask like hey can you do it this way and can you do it this way can you do it this way and they start to customize it like they’re taking that Playbook and
they’re putting it all over the place which is impacting their delivery because now
they’re customizing six different engagements and that’s creating more anxiety and you
know that’s like taking away from the flow right um so yeah everyone’s running some sort
of a Playbook if you’re running a bad Playbook then you’re just creating more anxiety or
more fear is what I’m hearing yeah I mean no good or bad yeah I like to
remove that but if they’re running playbooks that are out of the expectation
um then yeah it’s just it’s just it’s just a source of potential more
even more chaos that’s an example of entropy like more chaos being created
out of fear sure yeah and that’s that kind of gets to another question I would I would have
about that in particular about you mentioned no good or bad systems
um and I’d like to weigh on it so so instead of good and bad systems we are
are you suggesting we say something more along the lines of not unaligned with what our values are what our goals are
yeah yeah I think I think aligned and unaligned are are um useful terms got it okay yeah so
good or bad right but useful right well I I yeah historically I’ve
not been very great at creating aligned systems and and I think that the the
example of that is in in my experience especially kind of running a pretty
complex company I run a chemical company that you know we uh we saw a variety of
chemical products and a variety of units of measure all these kind of different things probably not not too uh not not
not too undifferent from like a restaurant because where you have a lot of different ingredients a lot of
different things like manual items yeah yeah so in terms of um how what kind of advice like if you
were to give like three pieces of advice uh to people in terms of creating systems for these very complex things
um what would you advise that they first look at
I think the most you know sometimes we think of like what
is the transformation that a business or you know provides for another person and
that’s another word for the results from a core product right so I think fulfillment
like the Fulfillment the delivery of that service is the most important
system to nail down because if if you’re a guest in my restaurant and I
serve a meal that’s killer that’s unbelievable you know that guess is going to turn
around and tell 15 of their friends to come to the restaurant that’s like a 15
to 1 or I don’t know 150 percent to want like return on
experience I don’t know I’m just making up a metric here like you’re turning that customer into your sales person you
don’t have to invest in additional sales and additional advertising but like really the delivery of that service
is so important and the really
tricky part to this like when you’re just starting out for example or when you’re kind of launching
a new product and you’re still collecting a lot of feedback your fear is really having you change
that fulfillment process every single time and so you don’t have consistency yeah
so like really it’s that fulfillment of the service is I think the first system to like really Master gotcha okay and
that that makes a lot of sense and I like how you say fulfillment because I know in this context we’re talking about the Fulfillment of an order you know
fulfillment of you know the delivery of it of of our product to the to the customer so that the customer gets what
they expect but exactly fulfillment has another connotation here which is like you know actual personal fulfillment
which you bring a great Point yeah actually yeah I mean and if and I mean
if we can deliver our own fulfillment personally from the standpoint of of the
tools the People The Playbook that we put into place the systems um you know that that’s that seems like
an important uh part of this too as I get back to you know the the idea that
um you know what when when we’re experiencing fear or anxiety where and and I’m internalizing this a lot because
when I my experience for your anxiety it just seems like a lot of chaos it seems like there’s no Solutions it seems like
there’s no way to find that fulfillment or fulfill on this kind of thing but
is it fair to say that the systems that we put in place and and the discipline that we have around the Fulfillment that
we’re putting into place well it it is a discipline that it takes discipline and it takes not varying from that system
how would you how would that resonate with you
um what you’re describing something I’m experiencing do you have a team I do yeah okay are you the operator of
your team exactly perfect perfect so so people
like you and I and every other solo leader listening experiences this all
the time because we have the amazing responsibility of leading the vision
forward and growing but at the same time creating the structure on the system
that like kind of manages that process and so there’s almost like this inherent conflict between
uh and I don’t know if like you have like spiritual listeners between like the feminine side like the growth and
the creative force and energy and then the masculine side which is the uh this
structure the Integrity um and it’s like this tug of war that’s happening in your head uh and then you
throw in the ego that’s just like whatever you’re doing sucks you know it doesn’t make it easy right so uh yeah I
think for for us who struggle with that you know eventually if we do find the
right person who can like Elevate into that operator role who serves as that
partner who can coach you and help you stay grounded and like feel supported
that this person is going to support you while you’re out there doing the thing you know you don’t have time to like
feel anxiety about your system because like you know John’s got it or Jessica’s got it like they’re taking care of that
stuff like I’m out there in the flow finding new sources of nectar and like growing the business so
you don’t really have time for that stuff yeah yeah no absolutely and that’s something I think we all strive for
maybe it’s something that that is uh relevant to what you were talking about earlier with that law of thermodynamics
though the fact that chaos is always existing too is that as you know as entrepreneurs or Business
Leaders or people in that seat that are experiencing that chaos there’s a natural tendency for us to kind of
gravitate into the business and be the operators yeah um and it takes a certain
level of discipline to pull ourselves out make sure that that’s being outsourced that in and of itself sounds
like it’s a system we need to put in place yeah I mean it’s our own uh every
month I have a cycle I call it uh feeling pleased at the end of the month please there’s an acronym uh the last
letter D is delegate and it’s always a question I ask myself at the end of each month like what do I want to start
delegating next month just to even put it into awareness right um because you
know we are just so busy in the hustle we don’t take time to do our journaling practice or our Reflections or whatever
you know we never even think about delegating yeah yeah yeah it’s it it it
really is a challenge and and I think it Roots itself I mean it feels like it Roots itself in in fear that you know we
just don’t want to let those things go because nobody else knows how to do it yeah nobody else knows how to do it I can’t explain it well enough I can’t do
this that’s certainly a nature of my fear and why I continue to be an operator in a lot of different ways
totally so I know I know how that is um and uh yeah so and I and I know you
mentioned you kind of talked about nectar finding that nectar and I know you’ve got a concept that’s called honey
right that’s similar to that um and it’s relevant to the book that you wrote uh yeah can you talk a little
bit about that and and what what honey is what yeah yeah so when I was in that Restaurant
Group when I took that you know my first ticket it was a really difficult time to uh
start because you know just like when I went to my parents and the GM like Hey how do I do that they’re both they all
just didn’t have answers for me said I was crazy the CEO and the CFO of this
Restaurant Group I said how do you do those like I don’t know go figure it out and it’s like oh my God great
so I had to pour over blogs and help centers and
documentations and support tickets and just like collect and ask questions and ask it was painful you know I had pressure
and maybe pressure for myself and you know I was building this thing out so I said I’m going to write a book and I’m
going to give this guide to the next restaurant analyst that wouldn’t have to go through this
pain that I went through uh basically like uh The Ultimate Guide to restaurant
Analytics and as I was writing and I was writing
one day I went to the forest and I had a little experience with my friends and I
realized that my story was so much bigger than just restaurants and
analytics and my story is is one of of humans of what we’re doing and
it’s inspired by bees and how bees make honey so when bees are out making honey they
are going to different flowers They’re extracting nectar they’re transferring pollen the flowers are making fruit the
animals are eating the fruit and we’re eating the fruit the whole ecosystem is growing it’s kind of like the reverse
chaos like there’s this like beautiful chaos like everything is growing it’s all there’s lots of expansion happening
and the bees then go back to the hive with this nectar and create this honey
that they ultimately survive off of we are doing the same we are going to
different jobs courses conferences uh people we’re extracting these insights
we’re transferring them we’re helpful we’re supporting each other accountability whatever raising each
other up and then we’re going back to this Hive of our mind of who knows the
metaphysical plane and we’re creating this honey which is that unique intersection of everything of our skills
of our insights that we give back to the world I was doing it in restaurants and Tech
and Analysis and I was offering it back in the form of a job you were doing it you know with your
family business with your the chemical industry with your experiences the
triathlete with your anxiety like you’re taking all that stuff together and you know now you’re offering it through flow
over fear and the one-on-one coaching and the speaking that you’re doing and the story is that we’re all bees
cross-pollinating extracting nectar extracting insight and then creating this honey that we can give back to the
world when I realized that I said holy moly this is the book like this is the book that I gotta get out into the world
and share my story and blah blah blah and it became less of like a motivational book and just like a my
story book which is fun to now like bring out and tell and share
um the funnest thing is now connecting that to kind of what I do now
um because entrepreneurs are all like bees um except the bees are like they’re
there they’re present they’re focused they’re like you know each flower at a time and they’re they’re very diligent
entrepreneurs are in the World of Tomorrow I mean they’re they’re literally in the world of the vision they’re not present by definition
because they’re they’re building a new world because they’re so focused on tomorrow
they cannot think of like the structure and the playbooks and the systems of today that will help build the company
that will create the World of Tomorrow so that’s kind of how I find this
intersection of it all yeah well that’s it and that’s where you come in I mean that’s where your role
and where your Honey comes in right is is that idea of you know the entrepreneur who has their head in the
vision and where it should be somebody who’s telling me to create those systems or help them with those
systems right totally yeah and that that’s why I guess I felt that I’ve I suck at systems is because you know I
guess if I have my head in the cloud somewhere but but yeah no it makes a that makes a lot of sense and I love the
way you put that there’s beautiful chaos out there and it’s this chaos that
exists that is in Harmony in this world that is is random but harmonious I love
that yeah exactly and I mean it’s like in our vvg group right like right we’re all in
there in the chats like Oh Let’s help each other out boom and it’s like chaos but it’s like beautiful it’s like beautiful chaos like that’s the
expansion that like we all want that’s the expansion that like really contributes to the growth of of the
universe absolutely and by BPG uh you mean the brand builders Group which we both met in yeah yeah it’s a great great
yeah it’s a great group of people um just all working in the same direction on different things but so
valuable to have those communities I mean and such a great metaphor to the bees because it is a community just
building this Hive and creating this uh you know sustainability for all of us
um and what’s the book called by the way it’s called newbie newbie oh man n-e-w-b-e-e
it originally was newbie foodie like hey you’re a new person in the food world but then like chopped off the foodie
re-spelled the Newbie part and added a bunch of hexagons
that’s great and if you’re if you’re listening and you’re not watching the YouTube he has a a
um a a graphic on the back of his wall with uh with hexagons which looks like the of course the hive uh is its form so
it’s it’s awesome and um um and yeah and and by the way great
title because any kind of pun based title or anything like that speaks to my part is my listeners know I love puns
and I and I annoy the hell out of them with them so I think you’re going to generate a lot of Buzz around that sorry
there we go you’ve never heard that before I know it no well this is that’s that’s great I mean
and so um so so you have the Visionary you have the the person building the
systems is that a suggestion that you would have for people who are in that Visionary role or entrepreneurs or or
people in that leadership that are struggling and frustrated with this idea that systems aren’t in place or things
aren’t aligned in the way that they should be or their systems aren’t aligned do you suggest that they put
somebody in place to run those systems or is there is there some kind of way to
simplify system creation that somebody who’s a Visionary can can
implement I don’t think a visionary I almost use the should there
um I don’t think best suit of best use of time for Visionaries to build systems
because by definition the Visionary is is doing the vision
he is he or she or they are they’re in the World of Tomorrow getting all the clients and partners and
collaborators to to create that world for them and so I think
you know one of the biggest leadership qualities I think we have to learn is what we get to learn is is Letting Go
and trust and elevating and recruiting and supporting and training
and it’s really finding someone to serve in that role and sometimes
sometimes Visionaries don’t have time to do all that they don’t have time to
find train hire trust all that stuff so I mean I like to think of myself in the
future I see myself being kind of like this liaison um
I applied for a grant last year for what I call the 6p Academy
which I basically want to take 30 20 something year olds like a cohort
of 30 20 something year olds give them my Frameworks teach them how I do and then basically drop them into all
of my clients businesses so that they can do their thing right um
and you know eventually that could be a way to like meet Visionaries like you like other
solopreneurs and say hey like have a person who can just drop in they’re already trained they know exactly how to
build what they need to build go do like let them do their thing
uh you know maybe it’s idealist of me but that’s how I’m tackling the problem
sounds like you’re a Visionary on that front right I am I’m totally I’m totally
a Visionary and I get in my own way because all of like I was telling you
before the call I I got married and I was like so focused on building and like tinkering and doing systems but I wasn’t
getting money in the door there was no Revenue coming in because I was so like oh I’m gonna just do this but that leads
to the demise of a business mm-hmm so it have to be one that’s in it
again there’s an interesting question in of itself too because I imagine there’s a lot of conflict there when you’re
trying to run a company that is based on systems but you’re trying to remove yourselves from creating systems and
become the Visionary how does how does how does that how does that how does the fear play a role in that and how does
like that how does that resonate what what kind of systems do you have in place to keep yourself out of that operator role
um well I’ve deaf fear looks weird because it’s not fear like anxiety like
I’m scared fear uh fear is more like okay well I’m just
going to keep building the the CRM because the flows have to be perfect and now you know and it’s fine and I’m gonna just keep keep building it
but I don’t even have this like pressure to grow so like I’m not feeling the fear
that maybe other people fear like people who maybe have investors um or advisors who are like breeding
down their necks saying like WTF yeah more recently this week my wife and I
sat down and she’s like all right we’re going to kill it this year like every month like we gotta have a review and
it’s like oh wow okay maybe now is some fear or anxiety like maybe now I’m
feeling some emotion now it’s like all right it’s time to it’s time to move yeah so yeah it’s like you know that
accountability yeah yeah so these yeah the accountability can lead to a lot of fear
certainly because then it’s like you know the the the you know now it’s on the line now now we got to get this done
it’s no longer just a vision in my head it’s being done so maybe so it sounds like that the idea of turning a vision
into some sort of reality there’s there’s a fear threshold we have to break through there and totally yeah so
that there’s a lot to that but um hi and and for for your company so
you focus primarily on um on the smaller like the solopreneur
those and smaller company startups those kinds of things I have some you know I know the benefit of I’ve Been Working
within our company of working with a uh uh you know with the EOS system and and
all of that kind of stuff which uh which is great for bigger businesses and things like that but how how would you
distinguish or or differentiate the larger business systems that you
know are in place like for 100 million billion dollar businesses that that you know are sure you know manage to to
getting to that one solo operator person that you know you are or or I am and
trying to build these these separate businesses I think um
so I used to work at Deloitte and we obviously had used our own systems and
when when you’re one of the worker bees in one of these massive Fortune 500 companies you’re probably looking at
0.3 of of like what the actual thing is like what the actual internal system is
um you know there’s so much controls and automation that’s happening in the back that you don’t even know about because
you’re just one of 12 000 people right but when you are
one of five or one of 20 or one of 50 or one of a hundred like you still
you are seeing like you are still responsible for the
700 kpis or you know all the different moving pieces of of the different elements of the business
so it’s it’s almost like the responsibility or the awareness
you know sometimes people like have like this oh my God I became so aware and so clear in my life and I knew I had to take action
entrepreneurs when they see like oh my God I have project management and a CRM and this and a sales cycle like that
like creates so much chaos for them yeah yeah you know fight or flight you know
they’re freezing they’re they’re totally freezing under the weight of all of those all of
that just all of it yeah yeah yeah um and sometimes it’s easier to dress up
your fear and I don’t have time for systems and they just like don’t even face the problem which is the same as
you know overweight people who are like you know don’t want to face their weight or maybe you know everyone’s just wanting to like not face
their obstacles uh entrepreneurs are kind of different right so it’s again
just not wanting to face the fear so just saying I don’t want to deal with it I don’t want to deal with it yeah put it away yeah freezing I love that yeah yeah
yeah that makes a lot of sense so how does that how does that relate to kind of the smaller business the solopreneur
what they might fear and how systems might help them um
well they feel it more uh but the the beauty of it is
you’re a small business like you don’t need to do it all you don’t need to systematize everything
yeah uh earlier I said like you know systematize fulfillment like get one product and sell it a
thousand times and just learn how to do that process a thousand times very effectively before
you start thinking about a VA and and this and I see like just get really
good at this one thing and when you’re when you when things start to break down because
you’re so in demand that’s when you can start building systems yeah
and would you would would you say that waiting until things break down well is there is there a point in time where you
can kind of realize wow I’m getting I’m expanding on this the one thing that I’m doing really well is starting to blow up
to the point where at what point is it like does it become is that self-awareness of
of I need to start building new systems here I need to start start bringing people or tools or anything like that
and I think a good um indicator of that is when you’re
the fancy term is NPS when you’re a net promoter score when your feedback scores
when they used to be tens and five star reviews when they start hitting this the
eights and the sevens and the four and a half stars and the four stars when your customer experience starts to go down I
think that’s the biggest indicator like okay it’s time to uh get that back up yeah okay and then
so once you get so systems will bring putting the right systems in place when that happens will
get your focus realigned and you’ll start to improve those scores again so exactly Clarity on the scores sounds
like it’s a very important aspect of all of this yeah where constant collection of feedback is super critical and
sometimes clients don’t even know that you want to get receive the feedback they don’t know that you’re open to the
feedback they don’t know how to give feedback uh so you almost have to communicate
with confidence like hey one of our values is continuous
Improvement yeah and another one of our values is
transfer like transparent communication authentic communication of our feelings
so between continuous Improvement and Contin and authentic communication we
will you know so you set the expectation we will ask you at the end of onboarding at the middle of our package whatever
that is and at the end of the package we will ask you feedback and we want to really deliver an amazing trans you know
you really have to enroll them into why it would be beneficial to provide the feedback
and after you Jazz them up you know they’re gonna probably provide the feedback right because it’s in there
it’s in their interest to do that yeah like make it their their you know
it’s all in service to them but again this is a lot of uh
it’s like such deep awareness that sometimes you’re like so in the tomorrow or so in the oh my God I gotta do a
million things you’re not thinking of such a deep customer Journey yeah yeah I’d say yeah so we and we’ve we’ve gone
kind of over so why why entrepreneurs why why leaders are afraid of systems
obviously because you mentioned that it’s you know similar to anything we’re
afraid of we just want to kind of push it away or it’s like like that that uh that fear of of doing the thing eating
the vegetables that we need to eat right right so what what um How would how
would people get started with this once they’re ready to like Brave the you know take the courage courageous challenge
yeah how would they do that [Music] um
the first step is you know I always ask clients like what are your goals
because what you focus on like what you fo like you become what
you focus on like you whatever you focus on amplifies like what gets measured gets done like
whatever you’re paying attention to is the thing that probably needs means Improvement
so after you figure out your goals it’s like okay how are you measuring progress
to those goals and that already will indicate like the Playbook like how you complete that that
process to that outcome and then the tool that you’re using okay and and yeah regarding the Playbook
part so that that all is that makes a lot of sense so if you if you’re starting out Clarity on your goals know
what you’re measuring know what your measurements are and then you kind of mentioned the Playbook that kind of establishes the Playbook so you have a
process called the the six P’s right yeah um and I don’t want to like give
away the the secret sauce so to speak but could you kind of like just kind of
share a little bit with what that is what that process is and how it works yeah yeah so
there’s no sauce I’m giving it away I mean there’s so many books out there so many blog articles I mean you you
operate on EOS like there’s traction out there you could read it um the 6ps so they stand for uh priorities
which is your goal setting how you set goals how you measure progress uh how you set leading indicators to measure
your progress um there is people who are the people the relationships that you’re going to
surround yourself with to help you execute and fulfill on those goals um and that’s clients that advisors
investors Partners vendors Community you know all the people around you
there’s projects which is your project management it’s your daily checklist it is your uh your scoping process when you
start a new project it’s your Lessons Learned at the end of the pro project it’s the feedback analysis of your
projects um then there’s promotion which is all your marketing your content creation uh
really whatever is creating more awareness of who you are and what you do uh the fifth one is playbooks which is
your Sops the step-by-step how-to to your business and six is planning which is your daily
weekly monthly quarterly planning and those are just the routine strategic
exercises that you go through to make sure you’re continuously realigning making sure that you’re on track
guys I love that yeah so that’s how my how core six
that’s great um how how often do you suggest people keeping keep an eye on this I mean I
know that some of these like uh you know when you’re looking at your daily checklist obviously daily but how how
frequently should be people be looking at this and and revising you know
modifying doing all that you know going back to what you said
about the small business and like you know the awareness of everything kind of becomes overwhelming to people
I mean this is your everyday when you’re a founder and you don’t have a team like you are wearing eight hats
so you I mean I’m not saying look at your sales pipeline every day
but in theory you should always be building your pipeline you should always be creating content you should always be out there speaking you should always be
fulfilling sometimes it’s helpful people say like okay on Mondays and Thursdays I’ll do
Discovery calls so I don’t have to look at you know that information until the day before or I’ll do client work
Wednesdays through Fridays so they’re not looking at the content the promotion stuff during that time but
really it’s every day this is your business this is your life this is what you’re building and if eyes are not on
the prize every day then you’re gonna the chaos is just gonna take you off path and
90 of businesses fail there’s no shame around failure it’s just the numbers so yeah yeah you know
that’s an interesting that’s a great that’s that’s a great answer though every day because every day if we if we
don’t have those systems in place and you mentioned you know or you know one of the things you talk about is is chaos
really being that obstacle to cash flow and and all of these and and fulfillment
and those kinds of things right so we’re going to if if we’re act if we’re operating in chaos we’re just gonna be
our minds are going to be focused on all in all these different directions every day anyway as long as we’re focused on
six specific things and specific elements in there well now we’re now
we’re organized an organization is is one of the antidotes to anxiety so
that’s uh I think that’s a great rule of thumb is looking at these kinds of things every day and being aware of it and not letting them slip so great it’s
a it’s an amazing framework and and and you’re and I think you have you’ve got amazing things going on here and you’ve
created an amazing Niche because for me personally having you know trying to start this new
business even when I’m I’m you know running another one that has 150 employees and and trying to put systems
in place there wow it’s so much different I mean there’s just it’s harder I mean it’s just it’s there’s
there’s a lot of uh elements I mean it’s yes it’s more rewarding but there’s also just a ton of fear a ton of anxiety
around all of this and uh and a lot of anxiety about running these kinds of
business and a lot of times what we think we’re afraid of you know hurting people or or or or or or or people’s
feelings or or what people think of us is really just kind of that veil of you
know we’re afraid of putting the right systems in place to make this work properly so I love that you you
clarified that we as owners we as operators we as Visionaries are afraid
of systems and there’s a way out of it and you’ve created that way so
I hope so yeah one way one way yeah but an important way and I’m I’m glad you
did so um where can people find you and what’s what’s next for for for you ernesta
um well uh you had a great question how to start with systems I’m actually putting together a little 20-page e-book to help
people like walk them through the process of actually starting their Journey
starting their systems Journey and that book is coupled with a talk that I’m developing as we spoke about
around how people can build their cash flow engine so that’s kind of my focus for the next
few uh weeks we just launched a three-month Mastermind to get people
through a 30-day accelerator on how to get like you know introductions to the 6ps yeah uh so we have a we have a few
different like programs in the pipe right now getting people to embody some of this stuff and feel the the cash flow
that’s awesome so um no that’s exciting I’m really anxious to read that that uh
that 20 Page book and because yeah then I appreciate it
um yeah because it and and if you if you’re listening today and you feel like chaos is part of the problem of of
rising above fear be on the lookout for that for that uh uh you know be able to
look out for that ebook and I know you have a newsletter can people just get the newsletter and and be updated on when that’s coming out yeah yeah if they
go to ernestomandowski.com or you know the link Tree in any of my socials I have just the newsletter sign
up there okay once I send one out every uh every week awesome and what’s uh what’s your
social handle just Ernesto mendowski mendowski okay and that’ll be in the show notes um
because don’t ask me to spell that right now uh but uh I understand I was I was cursed with an
easy name so but uh no Ernesto I’m so so grateful for
the knowledge drops you had uh with me today this was amazing I’m gonna be able to take a lot selfishly I’m gonna be
able to take a lot of this and at wisdom and apply it in my own life and my own business grateful for what you’re doing
my friend I’m really glad to have met you through uh brand builders and yeah thanks for joining me and uh sure for
yeah for everybody out there thanks for joining us uh don’t forget to hit subscribe and like this episode
appreciate you we’ll see you next time thanks hey everyone Thanks for tuning in
to the flow over fear podcast if you’d like to learn more about getting into
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