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:
LinkedIn: @ernestomandowsky
NewBee by Ernesto Mandowsky
-
well when there’s a lack of systems I think people are just in constant reaction modeand it doesn’t ever give you time to sit in silence sit and flow justactually let the experience sink in so fear like you’re kind of playing thiscatch up all day every day and that like creates even more chaos inyour head so I think the you know one of the things leaders could do is justaccept it hello everyone and welcome to the flowover fear podcast where it is our mission to help you to rise above fear and realize your ultimate potential inleadership and life I’m your host Adam Hill and it is my goal to share with youthe human side of high performance my guests share their experience with fearanxiety struggle Challenge and most importantly despite all of it how theyRose above it to achieve incredible results so if you’re ready to rise uplet’s get started welcome to flow over fear everyone I’m glad you’re here uh today we’re going totalk about a great way to rise above fear my guess is going to help us through that because when we talk aboutthings like fear or anxiety whether it be personally whether we personally experience it or we experience it in ourorganizations or businesses or companies or the things we’re starting a lot of that fear revolves around chaos I meanand that chaos that that we experience as as startups or entrepreneurs orthings like that naturally comes from the uncertainty or the the things thathit us randomly or just the I’m not lack of planning and those kinds of things sohow do we minimize the chaos that we can control well the one of the answers is bettersystems and that is where I introduce my guest todayErnesto mendowski is the CEO of CPD advisors a company that helpsentrepreneurs to transform chaos into cash flow get it cash flow with a degreein systems engineerings and over a decade of developing Technology Solutions at companies like DeloitteConsulting Myers USA and the Palm Ernesto is an expert in designingsystems to help leaders rise above anxiety and chaos to scale theirorganizations and rise to new heights Ernesto helps early stage Founderstransform their operations by designing systems Business Systems utilizing hisproprietary 6p Playbook outside of his work with Founders Ernesto is passionateabout building and building a sustainable entrepreneurship Communitywelcome to the show Ernest so I’m glad to have you here thank you Adamthank 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 diveinto this systems thing and I want to get into your story but before we do I think when I when when we say the wordsystems 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 gettechnical you know can you help us at least can we can we Define this here because I thinkit’s important that to to to set a framework here of how systems areimportant to how we live our lives and and and we rise above our fears so can you give us like a quick one to twosentence definition of what you know what we’re talking about when we’re talking about systems here yeah uh so I Define systemsas a combination of three thingsyou you mentioned uh technology you know people like oh my God QuickBooks overwhelmeduh sorry to say it but two tools is one of the steps so you have toolsyou have people and you have playbooksso when you have your company you probably have maybe it’s a solo founderor a group of people a team they are doing certain tasks thatthey’re following certain checklists those are your playbooks or your standard operating procedures or yourprocesses and they’re using tools or software and the three pieces come together tocreate a result or an intentional intended result that’s that’s try to keep it as basic aspossible 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 thingin 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 Playbookthat’s helpful I mean I’ve run a business for a while now and you knowtrying to operate systems sometimes these systems themselves can be a source of chaos and a source of frustration andanxiety uh how how can we how can how can you help leaders or how do how do weturn these systems into something that help us to rise to get over our anxieties or our fears as leaders andyeah and how do we even I guess before that how do we how do we experience fear with a lack of systemswell when there’s a lack of systems I think people are just in constant reaction mode uhon one end you know when I worked in I worked in I used to work in restaurants and a restaurant is justchaos 24 7. I mean you have the kitchen you have servers everyone’s reactingconstantly reacting to a guest complaint here another guest is running late the server is an hour late everyone’s justin a concert state of reaction and it doesn’t ever give you time tosit in silence sit and flow just actually let the experience sink inso fear like you’re kind of playing this catch up all day every day and that like creates even more chaos inyour head so I think the you know one of the things leaders could do is justaccept it to start you know umI don’t know if you ever studied thermodynamics did you ever take any courses or oh yeah justthis morning I read that no yeah yeah the um the third law of thermodynamics isthat entropy is always increasing for those who don’t know what entropy is entropy is energy in the universe it isalways expanding and increasing so just naturally it is a law of the universethat there will always be an expansion in energy and there will always be chaosso accepting it is kind of the first step wowthat’s a great Insight that that and using physics to help that and I know I was joking kind of saying not studyingit before but that is an important distinction because the laws of physics exist in our mind and so you’re talkingabout these you know this this simple philosophy or the simple idea that that you know that entropy or energy alwaysis that that chaos is always going to exist it’s always going to exist in our mind and if we could first accept it Imean that’s the nature of every successful you know program out there yeah accept it and then let’s figure outa way to try to resolve some of that and I’m interested in this restaurant yeahmake it flow so I’m I and then make it cash flow that’s the important part tooso they I um I’m interested in this this starting out at restaurants things that’s an interesting place to actuallylearn 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 sowell it was machine well oily you probably learned a lot I I definitelylearned a lot um definitely uh definitely experienced a lot of chaos and anxietyum and if if that’s the idea of a well-oiled machine in restaurants man I hate to see what a non-well-oiledmachine looks like no offense chilies you’re great but uh so so what what wasthat so kind of getting go going through that experience in the hospitality industry tell us your story about howyou came to realize systems were the solution so to speak Jam yeahum well I my family’s from around the world uh family in France and Brazil ColombiaArgentina lots of different places and a few times we got together was in Miamivery small amount of things you could do with a group of 20 people aside from like eatand have lots of really good memories and I was like wow like food is really cool and when I was 18 I met a restroomtour and he owned six restaurants and I said wow I want to be I want to be this guyone day and then when I was in college a mentor of mine said uh you should studyengineering it’s a really good idea and you know you learn business along the wayI said okay cool I’m going to study systems engineering and then I ask myself how can I combine systemsengineering and restaurants and um it’s not an easy question I wentto my parents and said hey I want to do restaurants and they said you’re a crazy 90 fail you know the fear starts kickingin and then I actually my first job at a restaurant I was a busboy and in betweenbreaks I went to the general manager and I said hey um how do you implement these inventorysystems and you know the asking him like the systems kind of things and he’s like hey man like Table Sixneeds clearing like get back get back to Table Six I’m like Jesus who’s gonna help me out hereuh more fear um but one day I was reading a bookabout the Ritz Carlton and for those who don’t know theRitz-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 detailthe pool boy knows exactly how you like your towels the bartender knows your favorite drink the concierge you knowsince your anniversary and the book gave me this profound insightand that is yes there’s amazing training but there’samazing playbooks but they also have amazing tools and software that keeps track ofevery 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 theanniversary or your kid is allergic to this they’ll go to the CRM and they’ll enter in the information and the nextyear when you’re in in the Maldives on your vacation you pull up to the Ritz like everyone knows your informationI said wow like that’s amazing service that is enabled through technology Isaid this is this is it this is how I’m gonna I’m gonna get in and um I took a job at Deloitte workingin Tech Consulting I was doing government project management work large 150 person plusteams and I was not happy but on the weekends I went to culinaryschool to take a culinary business class because I was learning how to bake breadand turn my bread into a digital Hollow Bakery and that was also an opportunity to tellevery 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 finishedI didn’t get the funding from the program or the validation of a job but ayear later one of them came back to me and said hey uh we need an engineer we’re starting 10different restaurant Concepts at the same time and we have no systems we have no processand that was kind of like here’s your ticket welcome welcome to the crazy world of hospitalityright right oh that’s incredible yeah and and you don’t think you don’t always think about that too when it comes torestaurants the idea of systems in place but I mean but if we if we break it down into the systems just being tools peoplein a Playbook well of course then everything has a system whether we it seems like and maybe my theory is wronghere 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 andif or like you are you are doing a Playbookit’s just not a structured or you know for those listening for those people forthose entrepreneurs and Founders that are listening that are maybe just starting out or maybe overreaching tothat next level of client and uh they get that client and the client starts toask 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 andthey’re putting it all over the place which is impacting their delivery because nowthey’re customizing six different engagements and that’s creating more anxiety and youknow that’s like taking away from the flow right um so yeah everyone’s running some sortof a Playbook if you’re running a bad Playbook then you’re just creating more anxiety ormore fear is what I’m hearing yeah I mean no good or bad yeah I like toremove that but if they’re running playbooks that are out of the expectationum then yeah it’s just it’s just it’s just a source of potential moreeven more chaos that’s an example of entropy like more chaos being createdout of fear sure yeah and that’s that kind of gets to another question I would I would haveabout that in particular about you mentioned no good or bad systemsum and I’d like to weigh on it so so instead of good and bad systems we areare you suggesting we say something more along the lines of not unaligned with what our values are what our goals areyeah yeah I think I think aligned and unaligned are are um useful terms got it okay yeah sogood or bad right but useful right well I I yeah historically I’venot been very great at creating aligned systems and and I think that the theexample of that is in in my experience especially kind of running a prettycomplex company I run a chemical company that you know we uh we saw a variety ofchemical products and a variety of units of measure all these kind of different things probably not not too uh not notnot too undifferent from like a restaurant because where you have a lot of different ingredients a lot ofdifferent things like manual items yeah yeah so in terms of um how what kind of advice like if youwere to give like three pieces of advice uh to people in terms of creating systems for these very complex thingsum what would you advise that they first look atI think the most you know sometimes we think of like whatis the transformation that a business or you know provides for another person andthat’s another word for the results from a core product right so I think fulfillmentlike the Fulfillment the delivery of that service is the most importantsystem to nail down because if if you’re a guest in my restaurant and Iserve a meal that’s killer that’s unbelievable you know that guess is going to turnaround and tell 15 of their friends to come to the restaurant that’s like a 15to 1 or I don’t know 150 percent to want like return onexperience I don’t know I’m just making up a metric here like you’re turning that customer into your sales person youdon’t have to invest in additional sales and additional advertising but like really the delivery of that serviceis so important and the reallytricky part to this like when you’re just starting out for example or when you’re kind of launchinga new product and you’re still collecting a lot of feedback your fear is really having you changethat fulfillment process every single time and so you don’t have consistency yeahso like really it’s that fulfillment of the service is I think the first system to like really Master gotcha okay andthat 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 knowfulfillment of you know the delivery of it of of our product to the to the customer so that the customer gets whatthey expect but exactly fulfillment has another connotation here which is like you know actual personal fulfillmentwhich you bring a great Point yeah actually yeah I mean and if and I meanif we can deliver our own fulfillment personally from the standpoint of of thetools the People The Playbook that we put into place the systems um you know that that’s that seems likean important uh part of this too as I get back to you know the the idea thatum you know what when when we’re experiencing fear or anxiety where and and I’m internalizing this a lot becausewhen I my experience for your anxiety it just seems like a lot of chaos it seems like there’s no Solutions it seems likethere’s no way to find that fulfillment or fulfill on this kind of thing butis it fair to say that the systems that we put in place and and the discipline that we have around the Fulfillment thatwe’re putting into place well it it is a discipline that it takes discipline and it takes not varying from that systemhow would you how would that resonate with youum what you’re describing something I’m experiencing do you have a team I do yeah okay are you the operator ofyour team exactly perfect perfect so so peoplelike you and I and every other solo leader listening experiences this allthe time because we have the amazing responsibility of leading the visionforward and growing but at the same time creating the structure on the systemthat like kind of manages that process and so there’s almost like this inherent conflict betweenuh and I don’t know if like you have like spiritual listeners between like the feminine side like the growth andthe creative force and energy and then the masculine side which is the uh thisstructure the Integrity um and it’s like this tug of war that’s happening in your head uh and then youthrow in the ego that’s just like whatever you’re doing sucks you know it doesn’t make it easy right so uh yeah Ithink for for us who struggle with that you know eventually if we do find theright person who can like Elevate into that operator role who serves as thatpartner who can coach you and help you stay grounded and like feel supportedthat this person is going to support you while you’re out there doing the thing you know you don’t have time to likefeel anxiety about your system because like you know John’s got it or Jessica’s got it like they’re taking care of thatstuff like I’m out there in the flow finding new sources of nectar and like growing the business soyou don’t really have time for that stuff yeah yeah no absolutely and that’s something I think we all strive formaybe it’s something that that is uh relevant to what you were talking about earlier with that law of thermodynamicsthough the fact that chaos is always existing too is that as you know as entrepreneurs or BusinessLeaders or people in that seat that are experiencing that chaos there’s a natural tendency for us to kind ofgravitate into the business and be the operators yeah um and it takes a certainlevel of discipline to pull ourselves out make sure that that’s being outsourced that in and of itself soundslike it’s a system we need to put in place yeah I mean it’s our own uh everymonth I have a cycle I call it uh feeling pleased at the end of the month please there’s an acronym uh the lastletter D is delegate and it’s always a question I ask myself at the end of each month like what do I want to startdelegating next month just to even put it into awareness right um because youknow we are just so busy in the hustle we don’t take time to do our journaling practice or our Reflections or whateveryou know we never even think about delegating yeah yeah yeah it’s it it itreally is a challenge and and I think it Roots itself I mean it feels like it Roots itself in in fear that you know wejust 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 dothis that’s certainly a nature of my fear and why I continue to be an operator in a lot of different waystotally so I know I know how that is um and uh yeah so and I and I know youmentioned you kind of talked about nectar finding that nectar and I know you’ve got a concept that’s called honeyright that’s similar to that um and it’s relevant to the book that you wrote uh yeah can you talk a littlebit about that and and what what honey is what yeah yeah so when I was in that RestaurantGroup when I took that you know my first ticket it was a really difficult time to uhstart 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 alljust didn’t have answers for me said I was crazy the CEO and the CFO of thisRestaurant Group I said how do you do those like I don’t know go figure it out and it’s like oh my God greatso I had to pour over blogs and help centers anddocumentations and support tickets and just like collect and ask questions and ask it was painful you know I had pressureand 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’mgoing to give this guide to the next restaurant analyst that wouldn’t have to go through thispain that I went through uh basically like uh The Ultimate Guide to restaurantAnalytics and as I was writing and I was writingone day I went to the forest and I had a little experience with my friends and Irealized that my story was so much bigger than just restaurants andanalytics and my story is is one of of humans of what we’re doing andit’s inspired by bees and how bees make honey so when bees are out making honey theyare going to different flowers They’re extracting nectar they’re transferring pollen the flowers are making fruit theanimals are eating the fruit and we’re eating the fruit the whole ecosystem is growing it’s kind of like the reversechaos like there’s this like beautiful chaos like everything is growing it’s all there’s lots of expansion happeningand the bees then go back to the hive with this nectar and create this honeythat they ultimately survive off of we are doing the same we are going todifferent jobs courses conferences uh people we’re extracting these insightswe’re transferring them we’re helpful we’re supporting each other accountability whatever raising eachother up and then we’re going back to this Hive of our mind of who knows themetaphysical plane and we’re creating this honey which is that unique intersection of everything of our skillsof our insights that we give back to the world I was doing it in restaurants and Techand Analysis and I was offering it back in the form of a job you were doing it you know with yourfamily business with your the chemical industry with your experiences thetriathlete with your anxiety like you’re taking all that stuff together and you know now you’re offering it through flowover fear and the one-on-one coaching and the speaking that you’re doing and the story is that we’re all beescross-pollinating extracting nectar extracting insight and then creating this honey that we can give back to theworld when I realized that I said holy moly this is the book like this is the book that I gotta get out into the worldand share my story and blah blah blah and it became less of like a motivational book and just like a mystory book which is fun to now like bring out and tell and shareum the funnest thing is now connecting that to kind of what I do nowum because entrepreneurs are all like bees um except the bees are like they’rethere they’re present they’re focused they’re like you know each flower at a time and they’re they’re very diligententrepreneurs are in the World of Tomorrow I mean they’re they’re literally in the world of the vision they’re not present by definitionbecause they’re they’re building a new world because they’re so focused on tomorrowthey cannot think of like the structure and the playbooks and the systems of today that will help build the companythat will create the World of Tomorrow so that’s kind of how I find thisintersection of it all yeah well that’s it and that’s where you come in I mean that’s where your roleand where your Honey comes in right is is that idea of you know the entrepreneur who has their head in thevision and where it should be somebody who’s telling me to create those systems or help them with thosesystems right totally yeah and that that’s why I guess I felt that I’ve I suck at systems is because you know Iguess 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 theway you put that there’s beautiful chaos out there and it’s this chaos thatexists that is in Harmony in this world that is is random but harmonious I lovethat yeah exactly and I mean it’s like in our vvg group right like right we’re all inthere 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 theexpansion that like we all want that’s the expansion that like really contributes to the growth of of theuniverse absolutely and by BPG uh you mean the brand builders Group which we both met in yeah yeah it’s a great greatyeah it’s a great group of people um just all working in the same direction on different things but sovaluable to have those communities I mean and such a great metaphor to the bees because it is a community justbuilding this Hive and creating this uh you know sustainability for all of usum and what’s the book called by the way it’s called newbie newbie oh man n-e-w-b-e-eit originally was newbie foodie like hey you’re a new person in the food world but then like chopped off the foodiere-spelled the Newbie part and added a bunch of hexagonsthat’s great and if you’re if you’re listening and you’re not watching the YouTube he has a aum 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 soit’s it’s awesome and um um and yeah and and by the way greattitle because any kind of pun based title or anything like that speaks to my part is my listeners know I love punsand 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 sorrythere we go you’ve never heard that before I know it no well this is that’s that’s great I meanand so um so so you have the Visionary you have the the person building thesystems is that a suggestion that you would have for people who are in that Visionary role or entrepreneurs or orpeople in that leadership that are struggling and frustrated with this idea that systems aren’t in place or thingsaren’t aligned in the way that they should be or their systems aren’t aligned do you suggest that they putsomebody in place to run those systems or is there is there some kind of way tosimplify system creation that somebody who’s a Visionary can canimplement I don’t think a visionary I almost use the should thereum I don’t think best suit of best use of time for Visionaries to build systemsbecause by definition the Visionary is is doing the visionhe is he or she or they are they’re in the World of Tomorrow getting all the clients and partners andcollaborators to to create that world for them and so I thinkyou know one of the biggest leadership qualities I think we have to learn is what we get to learn is is Letting Goand trust and elevating and recruiting and supporting and trainingand it’s really finding someone to serve in that role and sometimessometimes Visionaries don’t have time to do all that they don’t have time tofind train hire trust all that stuff so I mean I like to think of myself in thefuture I see myself being kind of like this liaison umI applied for a grant last year for what I call the 6p Academywhich I basically want to take 30 20 something year olds like a cohortof 30 20 something year olds give them my Frameworks teach them how I do and then basically drop them into allof my clients businesses so that they can do their thing right umand you know eventually that could be a way to like meet Visionaries like you like othersolopreneurs and say hey like have a person who can just drop in they’re already trained they know exactly how tobuild what they need to build go do like let them do their thinguh you know maybe it’s idealist of me but that’s how I’m tackling the problemsounds like you’re a Visionary on that front right I am I’m totally I’m totallya Visionary and I get in my own way because all of like I was telling youbefore the call I I got married and I was like so focused on building and like tinkering and doing systems but I wasn’tgetting money in the door there was no Revenue coming in because I was so like oh I’m gonna just do this but that leadsto the demise of a business mm-hmm so it have to be one that’s in itagain there’s an interesting question in of itself too because I imagine there’s a lot of conflict there when you’retrying to run a company that is based on systems but you’re trying to remove yourselves from creating systems andbecome the Visionary how does how does how does that how does that how does the fear play a role in that and how doeslike that how does that resonate what what kind of systems do you have in place to keep yourself out of that operator roleum well I’ve deaf fear looks weird because it’s not fear like anxiety likeI’m scared fear uh fear is more like okay well I’m justgoing 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 itbut I don’t even have this like pressure to grow so like I’m not feeling the fearthat maybe other people fear like people who maybe have investors um or advisors who are like breedingdown their necks saying like WTF yeah more recently this week my wife and Isat down and she’s like all right we’re going to kill it this year like every month like we gotta have a review andit’s like oh wow okay maybe now is some fear or anxiety like maybe now I’mfeeling 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 thataccountability yeah yeah so these yeah the accountability can lead to a lot of fearcertainly 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 doneit’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 visioninto some sort of reality there’s there’s a fear threshold we have to break through there and totally yeah sothat there’s a lot to that but um hi and and for for your company soyou focus primarily on um on the smaller like the solopreneurthose and smaller company startups those kinds of things I have some you know I know the benefit of I’ve Been Workingwithin our company of working with a uh uh you know with the EOS system and andall of that kind of stuff which uh which is great for bigger businesses and things like that but how how would youdistinguish or or differentiate the larger business systems that youknow are in place like for 100 million billion dollar businesses that that you know are sure you know manage to togetting to that one solo operator person that you know you are or or I am andtrying to build these these separate businesses I think umso I used to work at Deloitte and we obviously had used our own systems andwhen when you’re one of the worker bees in one of these massive Fortune 500 companies you’re probably looking at0.3 of of like what the actual thing is like what the actual internal system isum you know there’s so much controls and automation that’s happening in the back that you don’t even know about becauseyou’re just one of 12 000 people right but when you areone of five or one of 20 or one of 50 or one of a hundred like you stillyou are seeing like you are still responsible for the700 kpis or you know all the different moving pieces of of the different elements of the businessso it’s it’s almost like the responsibility or the awarenessyou 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 actionentrepreneurs when they see like oh my God I have project management and a CRM and this and a sales cycle like thatlike creates so much chaos for them yeah yeah you know fight or flight you knowthey’re freezing they’re they’re totally freezing under the weight of all of those all ofthat just all of it yeah yeah yeah um and sometimes it’s easier to dress upyour fear and I don’t have time for systems and they just like don’t even face the problem which is the same asyou 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 facetheir obstacles uh entrepreneurs are kind of different right so it’s againjust 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 yeahyeah that makes a lot of sense so how does that how does that relate to kind of the smaller business the solopreneurwhat they might fear and how systems might help them umwell they feel it more uh but the the beauty of it isyou’re a small business like you don’t need to do it all you don’t need to systematize everythingyeah uh earlier I said like you know systematize fulfillment like get one product and sell it athousand times and just learn how to do that process a thousand times very effectively beforeyou start thinking about a VA and and this and I see like just get reallygood at this one thing and when you’re when you when things start to break down becauseyou’re so in demand that’s when you can start building systems yeahand would you would would you say that waiting until things break down well is there is there a point in time where youcan 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 upto the point where at what point is it like does it become is that self-awareness ofof I need to start building new systems here I need to start start bringing people or tools or anything like thatand I think a good um indicator of that is when you’rethe fancy term is NPS when you’re a net promoter score when your feedback scoreswhen they used to be tens and five star reviews when they start hitting this theeights and the sevens and the four and a half stars and the four stars when your customer experience starts to go down Ithink that’s the biggest indicator like okay it’s time to uh get that back up yeah okay and thenso once you get so systems will bring putting the right systems in place when that happens willget your focus realigned and you’ll start to improve those scores again so exactly Clarity on the scores soundslike it’s a very important aspect of all of this yeah where constant collection of feedback is super critical andsometimes clients don’t even know that you want to get receive the feedback they don’t know that you’re open to thefeedback they don’t know how to give feedback uh so you almost have to communicatewith confidence like hey one of our values is continuousImprovement yeah and another one of our values istransfer like transparent communication authentic communication of our feelingsso between continuous Improvement and Contin and authentic communication wewill you know so you set the expectation we will ask you at the end of onboarding at the middle of our package whateverthat is and at the end of the package we will ask you feedback and we want to really deliver an amazing trans you knowyou really have to enroll them into why it would be beneficial to provide the feedbackand after you Jazz them up you know they’re gonna probably provide the feedback right because it’s in thereit’s in their interest to do that yeah like make it their their you knowit’s all in service to them but again this is a lot of uhit’s like such deep awareness that sometimes you’re like so in the tomorrow or so in the oh my God I gotta do amillion things you’re not thinking of such a deep customer Journey yeah yeah I’d say yeah so we and we’ve we’ve gonekind of over so why why entrepreneurs why why leaders are afraid of systemsobviously because you mentioned that it’s you know similar to anything we’reafraid 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 eatingthe vegetables that we need to eat right right so what what um How would howwould people get started with this once they’re ready to like Brave the you know take the courage courageous challengeyeah how would they do that [Music] umthe first step is you know I always ask clients like what are your goalsbecause what you focus on like what you fo like you become whatyou focus on like you whatever you focus on amplifies like what gets measured gets done likewhatever you’re paying attention to is the thing that probably needs means Improvementso after you figure out your goals it’s like okay how are you measuring progressto those goals and that already will indicate like the Playbook like how you complete that thatprocess to that outcome and then the tool that you’re using okay and and yeah regarding the Playbookpart so that that all is that makes a lot of sense so if you if you’re starting out Clarity on your goals knowwhat 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 aprocess called the the six P’s right yeah um and I don’t want to like giveaway the the secret sauce so to speak but could you kind of like just kind ofshare a little bit with what that is what that process is and how it works yeah yeah sothere’s no sauce I’m giving it away I mean there’s so many books out there so many blog articles I mean you youoperate on EOS like there’s traction out there you could read it um the 6ps so they stand for uh prioritieswhich is your goal setting how you set goals how you measure progress uh how you set leading indicators to measureyour progress um there is people who are the people the relationships that you’re going tosurround yourself with to help you execute and fulfill on those goals um and that’s clients that advisorsinvestors Partners vendors Community you know all the people around youthere’s projects which is your project management it’s your daily checklist it is your uh your scoping process when youstart a new project it’s your Lessons Learned at the end of the pro project it’s the feedback analysis of yourprojects um then there’s promotion which is all your marketing your content creation uhreally whatever is creating more awareness of who you are and what you do uh the fifth one is playbooks which isyour Sops the step-by-step how-to to your business and six is planning which is your dailyweekly monthly quarterly planning and those are just the routine strategicexercises that you go through to make sure you’re continuously realigning making sure that you’re on trackguys I love that yeah so that’s how my how core sixthat’s great um how how often do you suggest people keeping keep an eye on this I mean Iknow that some of these like uh you know when you’re looking at your daily checklist obviously daily but how howfrequently should be people be looking at this and and revising you knowmodifying doing all that you know going back to what you saidabout the small business and like you know the awareness of everything kind of becomes overwhelming to peopleI mean this is your everyday when you’re a founder and you don’t have a team like you are wearing eight hatsso you I mean I’m not saying look at your sales pipeline every daybut 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 befulfilling sometimes it’s helpful people say like okay on Mondays and Thursdays I’ll doDiscovery calls so I don’t have to look at you know that information until the day before or I’ll do client workWednesdays through Fridays so they’re not looking at the content the promotion stuff during that time butreally it’s every day this is your business this is your life this is what you’re building and if eyes are not onthe prize every day then you’re gonna the chaos is just gonna take you off path and90 of businesses fail there’s no shame around failure it’s just the numbers so yeah yeah you knowthat’s an interesting that’s a great that’s that’s a great answer though every day because every day if we if wedon’t have those systems in place and you mentioned you know or you know one of the things you talk about is is chaosreally being that obstacle to cash flow and and all of these and and fulfillmentand 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 beour minds are going to be focused on all in all these different directions every day anyway as long as we’re focused onsix specific things and specific elements in there well now we’re nowwe’re organized an organization is is one of the antidotes to anxiety sothat’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’sa 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’vecreated an amazing Niche because for me personally having you know trying to start this newbusiness even when I’m I’m you know running another one that has 150 employees and and trying to put systemsin place there wow it’s so much different I mean there’s just it’s harder I mean it’s just it’s there’sthere’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 anxietyaround all of this and uh and a lot of anxiety about running these kinds ofbusiness and a lot of times what we think we’re afraid of you know hurting people or or or or or or or people’sfeelings or or what people think of us is really just kind of that veil of youknow we’re afraid of putting the right systems in place to make this work properly so I love that you youclarified that we as owners we as operators we as Visionaries are afraidof systems and there’s a way out of it and you’ve created that way soI hope so yeah one way one way yeah but an important way and I’m I’m glad youdid so um where can people find you and what’s what’s next for for for you ernestaum well uh you had a great question how to start with systems I’m actually putting together a little 20-page e-book to helppeople like walk them through the process of actually starting their Journeystarting their systems Journey and that book is coupled with a talk that I’m developing as we spoke aboutaround how people can build their cash flow engine so that’s kind of my focus for the nextfew uh weeks we just launched a three-month Mastermind to get peoplethrough a 30-day accelerator on how to get like you know introductions to the 6ps yeah uh so we have a we have a fewdifferent like programs in the pipe right now getting people to embody some of this stuff and feel the the cash flowthat’s awesome so um no that’s exciting I’m really anxious to read that that uhthat 20 Page book and because yeah then I appreciate itum yeah because it and and if you if you’re listening today and you feel like chaos is part of the problem of ofrising above fear be on the lookout for that for that uh uh you know be able tolook 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 theygo to ernestomandowski.com or you know the link Tree in any of my socials I have just the newsletter signup there okay once I send one out every uh every week awesome and what’s uh what’s yoursocial handle just Ernesto mendowski mendowski okay and that’ll be in the show notes umbecause don’t ask me to spell that right now uh but uh I understand I was I was cursed with aneasy name so but uh no Ernesto I’m so so grateful forthe knowledge drops you had uh with me today this was amazing I’m gonna be able to take a lot selfishly I’m gonna beable 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 doingmy friend I’m really glad to have met you through uh brand builders and yeah thanks for joining me and uh sure foryeah for everybody out there thanks for joining us uh don’t forget to hit subscribe and like this episodeappreciate you we’ll see you next time thanks hey everyone Thanks for tuning into the flow over fear podcast if you’d like to learn more about getting intoflow and learn the foundations of flow I have a free video series on my websiteat www.adamcliffordill.com called the foundations of flow feel free to gothere and download it and start your journey to Rising above fear and achieving greater flow in your life ifyou like this episode and I’m guessing you did if you stuck around for this long then please do me a favor and hitthe Subscribe button and you will receive notifications when I have new interviews new Recaps and new trainingsthat pop up on YouTube thanks again for joining us [Music]English (auto-generated)
