This is episode number two with Greg Hickman of Systemly. All right, everybody. Welcome to the Cult of Startup podcast. My guest today is Greg Hickman, the founder of Systemly.
How's it going, Greg? Very good. Thanks for having me, man. Great.
Thank you for coming on our show today. I am super excited to get into this interview and to learn more about your zero to scale podcast. In addition to what are you currently doing with your company that relates to zero to scale or anything else? Tell me about yourself.
Yeah. So live in Denver, Colorado. I started working for myself full time 2014, but I'd been kind of building a business on the side and the audience on the side for two years. I got started blogging and podcasting in 2012, really just after a stint of working at large agencies and large brands doing marketing advertising, most specifically with a mobile marketing focus.
Awesome. Awesome. I want to hear a little bit more about building your audience on the side while working. Yeah.
So I mean, originally I started from the podcast. So I started a podcast in and around the mobile marketing space called Mobile Mixed and I would write blog posts and interview mobile marketing experts and would share those on iTunes and online on YouTube and started building an email list. So that's kind of what I mean by audience. People were following the blog, building a newsletter, sharing that content, et cetera.
And then really in 2013 is when I started speaking and I spoke to a handful of conferences, online summits and more people started following my journey. I'd say more so from just the fact that I was growing an online business versus they cared about mobile, which I feel a lot of people still follow me in that regard. They've kind of watched the journey and the transition of the pivots and that's been helpful to them. So I'm all about helping entrepreneurs navigate to find something that they can stick with because that's kind of what I've been working on.
That's awesome. Okay. I want to maybe get into the nitty gritty of pulling out of work. Did you have a boss that permitted you to leave or were you working part-time?
At what point were you like that day where you said, well, peace work. I've got nothing going on here about that. Yeah. For the record, no boss will like prevent you from leaving.
But no, actually, my path, I think is a little unlike others. I was very open and transparent. So the company I worked for was Cabela's large brand. And prior to that, I was working for a media company here in Denver and I was kind of leading up their mobile strategy and mobile product development.
I was there for three and a half years. And so this whole blog and podcast started while I was there. And my boss who I was very close with was very on board with the blog and the podcast. And, you know, he'd be cool if I came in a little bit late because I had an interview or left early because I had an interview because he saw that as me being passionate about an area that I was helping his business with.
You know, so I was getting better. I was learning. So he liked that I was passionate about it. And he actually shared that with clients or we had clients listening to the show.
So they were very well aware of it. And it just got to the point where, you know, he was he was an entrepreneur at one point he has launched multiple companies and, you know, he just knew that I wanted to do something on my own and actually got to the point where he allowed me to work part time so I could focus on trying to figure out what the business was going to be, which was, you know, super kind, especially because I got to keep my salary versus taking versus getting a raise. So either stay with the company, get a bit, get a big raise or keep my exact salary and work half the time and so I thought that was a pretty good deal. So I didn't give you a pay cut.
You worked half the time and got the same pay. Yeah. Cause he was about to give me a raise. Oh, okay.
Cause he was going to give me a raise and try to keep me. But like he realized that I wanted to leave. So, um, we kind of came up with that negotiation, but then it was funny as I was like kind of feeling like I was going to take the leap, so to speak. Um, Cabela's came through multiple connections that I had, some of which actually came from the podcast.
Uh, they were looking for someone in the Denver area to kind of lead it and head up their mobile strategy and build out their mobile department. And, uh, the opportunity just seemed like something that I had kind of always wished for. And I thought that if I had this big brand name underneath my belt, even if it was for a year, um, it would be super helpful. So I took that opportunity, um, right as I was about to, uh, to, I guess thinking that I was going to leave and, but I gave myself a deadline.
And I was like, I'm not going to be at Cabela's for longer than like a year and five months. And there was a reason for that timing because my wife was finishing medical school and, um, if you're familiar with that whole process, they get matched. So she could have been anywhere in the country. And, uh, I agree with me doing that right now.
Yeah. So I found, you know, in my interview process, I kind of told them about that. I was like, Hey, you know, I'm going to be open transparent, like, Hey, I'm building this business on the side. And in a year and five months, my wife might be across the country or this time was with my girlfriend and I'm like, I'm going to be going wherever she goes.
So like, is that a problem? And I bought the person I was hiring at Cabela's was like, you know what? We'll cross average when we get there. Cause it's so far away, you know, for all we know, she could get matched in Denver.
So, yeah, so my intention was like, I have to be out before she matches. Like my goal was to like be able to self-sane before that, because I knew that if she wasn't matched here, that I would have to leave anyway. So I wanted to have something going. So I kind of created a deadline for myself.
I knew I was going to be there long. And yeah, that was pretty much the kind of, I went into that and started at Cabela's January of 2013 and left December of 2013. So just shy of a full year. It sounds like it was pretty much the full year.
But maybe go back a couple of days. Yeah, to include your holiday break. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome.
And I love how you were able to talk to your boss and that he was very supportive of what you were doing. And I've heard from a number of entrepreneurs actually that I interviewed with last week that that's a common thing. So anybody who's listening, I would definitely say, if you want to start something, talk to your boss and see if they're on board. Yeah, I will say that, you know, not to go into deep on it, because if you listen to the leading corporate podcast that I talked about, I had kind of, as I was going through the stint, I started this podcast because I was like, how do people navigate this transition?
And after 70 plus interviews, the reason that the show stopped was for this very reason, but I think it'll help the listeners. There's only so many ways that people left their job. And very rarely do they quote unquote, take the leap. They build a bridge and they create some sort of transition.
And if you listen to however many interviews I did on leaving corporate, you'll find that most people, they landed a consulting gig. They got a client to pay for 12 months, you know, sign an agreement. They had a certain amount of revenue in place all before they decided to leave and they slowly transitioned out. They asked to work part-time.
They asked to work from home. And I think my opinion is if you build that bridge and you're open and transparent with your current employer, it's going to go way smoother than doing the opposite. So the great thing about that is like when I told the companies that I was leaving, they were like, Hey, you know, if this doesn't work, like, you know, there's always a spot back here for you, which is like a huge comfort, you know, like to know, like, Oh, okay, like if this does fail, like I could probably, and although they probably wouldn't have been realistic, but the fact that like they even offered that was super nice. And if you're just like, Hey guys, peace out, you know, or burn bridges in some way, because you slacked off for the last three, three months, you know, you're less likely to have that, you know, that luxury.
Yeah, I know my experience, at least in my personal case, say, but my father is an attorney and he actually did something very similar. He worked for a law firm for a number of years, didn't like it and eventually left and became a mediator and arbitrator. So still a lawyer, but he got that runway contractor, that runway of X, you know, six to 12 months of work. They said, well, I can still support my family for six to 12 months and then figure it out while I'm doing that.
Very interesting that that occurs in that over time, you actually realize it's almost the same for a lot of people. All right. So I want to get down and dirty about your startup as well as your podcast. And I think we need to talk about both of them or coincide or conversation about both of them because it kind of overlapped quite a bit.
So let's talk about your podcast that you currently have zero to scale and your mission that you're actually doing with that podcast and how it relates to your business. Yeah. So zero scale is basically myself and my co-host, Justin McGill, who owns a separate company called LeadFuse and we're both chronicling kind of our journey from what our businesses started out, which was zero. And the goal originally was to get to 20 K a month in monthly recurring revenue.
And we've both since passed that. So we've raised the goal to 100 K a month. And so that's pretty much our journey. There's two episodes a week, one weekly updates.
So you kind of hear our fails, our plans for the week and our results. So you kind of see the growth over time. So you're a listener that has been listening from start to finish. You'll kind of get the full scope of things.
But we also bring in guests that we interview their very specific guests based on a time and place that we're in, which most of this is pretty much real time. If you've been following along and we're asking them questions, we just had someone on that discussed customer success because Justin is hiring a customer success manager and now I'm trying to figure out if that's an appropriate role for me, we had Tucker Max come on and talk about his book in a box business, which is very productized, which is both essentially how our businesses are structured and started. So yeah, it's all about that. And really the reason we're doing it is two fold.
I wanted, we were both actually blogging simultaneously about this. So on our own personal blogs, I was started to write blog posts around this journey. And so was he, he coincidentally had a similar goal of 25k. And then, you know, I always wanted to co-host for a podcast.
I, you know, as you know, I've already done a couple podcasts and he was looking to get into podcasting. So we both wanted to share this journey. We both wanted to help entrepreneurs. We didn't want to share fluff.
We kind of wanted to bring people behind the scenes and more so kind of create a whole other level of accountability for ourselves in growing this business and kind of bring that transparency to the forefront. So that's kind of what it is. You know, everyone here is our business. Everyone here is the details, you know, things we're struggling with.
And, um, each and every week, you know, we figured new stuff out and then we're sharing that a long way. Yeah, it's like long form content for startup stories. Yeah. Like the ultimate long form, form content.
Yeah. It's your day to day lives. And you're guys are set up. I really like how you go through sort of your pros and cons for the week.
What could have you done better? What did you do good? What maybe was your setback that week? So why, why do you think having that accountability is extremely important to your success?
Yeah. So the whole show kind of started out with this notion that we wanted it to feel like a mastermind and, you know, Justin and I are actually in a mastermind group together, which is how we met in the first place. So that's kind of how this all came together. And, you know, in the format of our mastermind at the time was very similar to, to the show, you know, like when you're on a hot seat, you know, you share, um, you know, what you're focused on for the week, you know, things that didn't go well.
Um, and then, you know, the other person is there to kind of help you. And so, you know, you'll hear a banter back and forth on us making suggestions on certain things to each other. Um, but really it's to, to say, Hey, like, here's what I said, I was going to do last week and here's what I did. And I didn't do and here's why I think I didn't get to it and, you know, just knowing that you have to show up every week and say these things, uh, is, is really, really powerful from the accountability standpoint, because there's only so many times that you want to come back to your, your partner and say, Hey, you know, this is on my fail list again.
And, you know, before, you know, you just kind of feel guilty. So, uh, that, that in and of itself kind of moves us and kind of a lot of what we're focused on forward, I think it's easy for somebody to sort of dodge a question or dodge an obligation where yours is completely public. Have you ever had a listener call you out possibly? Um, yeah.
I mean, we've had some emails, we definitely had some emails and comments in Facebook and I've definitely, I've received snapshots from people. Um, and we have our, we have our paid insiders group too. Um, and we definitely hear it in there as well. So yeah, it's, we get, we get put on blast too.
So the furnace is always on for you guys, but hey, I think you guys, you probably grow the most with having that. I'll be sure for sure. Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's uncomfortable.
I mean, for those like five, six weeks in a row that I probably longer that I didn't get a blog post written that I just wanted so badly to, but I didn't, but I wasn't able to get that, get that done. But if you didn't have the support group, you might have not kind of done in five weeks, I might have done, right? Exactly. Yeah.
Awesome. So we talked about the podcast. Now let's talk about the business you've grown through doing this podcast. Yeah.
So, um, systemally, we're essentially a marketing automation team and we're kind of in an interesting phase right now. We're also evolving, um, but primarily we're a done for use service. We support a handful of online entrepreneurs, um, that are influencers and, uh, you know, have achieved mastery in their area of expertise and we help them build out sales funnels and support them in their infusion soft needs. So we're infusion soft experts and, uh, uh, we basically, all of our clients, using fusion soft and so on a month to month basis, we're helping them build out campaigns to streamline their operations, to, you know, make them more money with less work and just take a lot of, of the heavy lifting off their shoulders.
That's awesome. And great pitch, by the way, sounds like you've said it before. Uh, times, I guess, maybe a hundred odd episodes that you have. Yeah.
Um, so just to clarify, it's entirely automated or is it part consulting and then the rest is all automated? The business? Oh, it's very much done for you. I mean, it's a service business.
Um, it's productized as much as it can be at the moment. We're introducing more elements of that, which is, you know, essentially, there's a lot of systems and procedures on the back end that allow us to streamline our operations and be efficient, um, versus like a true agency model where it's, you know, Hey, you know, you're going to pay us $6 a month and, you know, we don't know exactly what we're going to be doing yet. Um, you know, we kind of have things in place to help our clients move forward and make recommendations and all that stuff. So yeah, we're essentially, you know, working with clients on every single month.
Um, you know, we have a team where we have account managers and they're, you know, the day to day contact with clients. So it is very much a service company. Okay. So it's all, um, the term I like to use is eat what you kill.
So whatever you show, yeah, you get, yeah, I mean, we have, like I say, we have a lot of systems and procedures in our business and we leverage automation too from a new client onboarding and stuff like that that really streamlines operations. Unlike, I'm sure a lot of other services that are, you know, eat what you kill. Um, but yeah, I mean, we're, we're a service service business. Great.
So how do you guys market your product? Cause I know you have a podcast and that's definitely a medium in which you can get in contact with people and find clients. How else are you finding clients? The honest answer is one.
The podcast does almost nothing because it's a completely different audience. Okay. Um, our podcast is very much beginners. Um, you know, just starting and, you know, the clients that we work with that systemally are doing, you know, at least a quarter million dollars a year in revenue.
Um, so most of those people don't qualify there. So, um, we are introducing some new things that will kind of help beginners and stuff like that. Um, but yeah, so the podcast doesn't really help much. To be honest, um, it's all been essentially referral or, um, cold outbound and or content.
Okay. Have you hired people to do that? Or is that been all in house or all on you essentially? All in house slash on me.
So are you pulling from your personal network? I would imagine just over a hundred, you know, most of the clients, I'd say half the clients we have now were referred from people in my network, some were some were clients, some were just people that knew me. Some people have just heard of us already somehow, um, from other people. So, you know, I've always, I've always focused really heavily on, uh, networking.
Um, I just, I have a knack for, uh, trading really solid relationships with just amazing people and, you know, that has definitely helped kind of propel this business, uh, you know, really get off the ground first and foremost and then kind of be at the level that it's at right now. Awesome. So let's hear what level are you at right now? Uh, so I have a team not including myself.
We have six other people, um, four of which are part time, two of which are, or sorry, four of which are full time, two of which are part time. And we're, we just signed two clients today. So that'll put us at, um, about, I think, 26 K a month and month of recurring revenue. Awesome.
Awesome. All right. I know you mentioned earlier, we talked about this before, you had a big pivot that occurred in your business model a couple of months into doing this podcast. Yeah.
Let's hear about that. Well, yeah, so the podcast is funny. If you listen to episode zero or episode one, I made, I made this comment, you know, the fact that we're doing the show and the show is that, you know, uh, you're coming along for the ride, who knows where we might be in a hundred episodes. Like we might not even have the same business and we like chuckled about it.
And lo and behold, you know, that is exactly what happened to me. Um, so, you know, I started the podcast with mobile marketing engine. Um, it was essentially a productized service for mobile marketing services, specifically text message marketing, we targeted retail companies. Um, we got the highest we got was probably like 7,500 a month in revenue.
And, you know, just kind of plateaued and it was really hard to get new, new clients cause it's way harder to get in touch with, you know, small retail companies than it is online entrepreneurs that spend most of their time online. Uh, you know, secondarily, they didn't understand the, that they had a marketing problem and they didn't understand mobile. So I had to connect those two and introduce a lot of new things to them, which made for a very, very long scale cycle. You'd educate them essentially.
Yeah. So I, I mean, I just got to the point where, you know, I had been using infusion soft in my own business, uh, to streamline things and, uh, it was really enjoying it and I went to get certified in it because I wanted to learn how to use it better and came out of that certification and just say, you know, if I'm going to validate something else, like it's going to be around marketing automation, cause it would allow me to target people that I'd want to work with, like online entrepreneurs. And that's exactly what I did. So on episode, I don't know, late 40s, early 50s, uh, essentially, you know, Justin and I agreed on the show that I would kind of challenge myself to validate this idea of, you know, this done for you in fusion soft business.
And I went out and the goal was to get two to three customers in 30 days. And if I did so, I would give it more attention. And in seven days, I had six customers and I was like, Oh my God, like this was way easier to get clients than selling the mobile stuff. So I'm definitely giving this way more attention.
And once I got to 10 customers, which was basically like a week and a half, I then decide, okay, I'm going to phase out everything mobile related by the end of the year. And that's exactly what I did. So I hit 2016, uh, fresh with full on systemly. And, you know, I think 20s, early January, 2016, you know, we were in around like the 15 K mark, I'd say, and, you know, now we're at, we'll be just about 26k with these two new clients.
Awesome. New year, new resolutions for systemly, right? 100% man. Okay, I want to talk a little bit about you going out and getting these prospective clients, where these intent to buy contracts that you're able to do or just, Hey, I'm interested in this and they were nodding that out by this.
What was the, um, talk, tell me a little bit more about that interaction that went on there. Yeah. So this is where the network came in. This is leveraging people that I knew, first handful of customers were people that I knew, and I basically went to them and said, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this thing.
I know you use infusion soft. Um, here's what I'm thinking. Like, and I explained kind of what would be the offer, what would they, what they'd get? And I said, would you be willing to do this for a three month trial at X price?
And at the end of three months, we can revisit and reestablish like one, if I'm even enjoying doing this to, you know, how can you can tell me how I can make it better, et cetera. And then we'd reestablish a relationship if we wanted to do so. And that's exactly what I did. And I went to person after person and I said, had the exact same story.
And I said, cool to commit for three months and got people to commit and send them over a payment form and they paid and we got going. Wow, that's incredible. And I, I'm into you. That's ballsy to do.
I don't think entrepreneurs are, are willing to, and I think this is is almost the core of entrepreneurship that people ignore a lot is going out and getting the sale. Yeah. So did you have mockups when you were doing this? Or were you just, no, there's no product.
I mean, it was, it was just a list. It was a Google doc with some bullet points as to outline how I was going to deliver the service and, and kind of what they could expect. Okay. And that was pretty much it.
Okay. And also, I think it sounds like you're one hell of a salesman too. Yes. I think it's more so that just people need help with this.
Yeah. Oh, well, it sounds like you had experienced the problem previously and recognized there was some, there was a market for this and you went out and validated that by going, Hey, would you buy this? Yeah. Awesome.
So you were doing the podcast and then you have this sort of 180 pivot. What do you do next after you secure those clients? Did you change your team dynamic? Did you find what you had?
What was next? Well, so the thing, the team before was just me and one virtual assistant. Okay. It was very lean.
That virtual assistant stayed with us and actually today was her last day. She's worked with me since 2012. So she's doing me for a very long time. Oh, wow.
Yeah. So she's on to bigger and better things. So what should we call it? Let's see.
So yeah. So I mean, I just basically started doing the fulfillment myself. And then once I think I got around 10 customers, I hired my first kind of other infusion soft person to take on some of the work, the actual, you know, actual servicing so that I can keep selling and I brought her on. Is that your specialty?
Is the selling part? Um, I mean, no, um, I'm more of a strategist, but I mean, I'm an entrepreneur. So yeah, everyone has to be good at selling. So I can, for the most part, so what we, what we offer and identify if you're the right fit for us, and that's the thing.
It's like, I don't feel like I'm selling because I'm actually more so trying to figure out if you're the right fit for us than if we're the right fit for you, um, especially at this point, because we're like, we're really picky with who we even bring on as clients at this point. So, uh, we've, as we've raised our rates and kind of evolved our business. I mean, we've gotten rid of some of the early clients that, you know, we originally brought on. So that's all part of the term, the fat of those clients that weren't paying maybe the higher price or something like that.
Yeah. But just, I mean, yeah, but also that they added in really, I don't think they really need this anymore or they were, they wanted too much. And we, they wouldn't, you know, adopt a new rate. So we had to part ways and it's all part of doing business.
You know, we, we learned. Um, and that's how we grew. Yeah. They're hard, uh, I'd say two things.
One, set expectations over and over and over and over again, do it on your sales calls, do it in your agreements, which means you should have agreements and have them sign them, uh, do it in your kickoff call when they ask for something that was outside of the agreement, raised the fact that it was outside of the agreement. Um, all of those things can ruin you if you don't do it. And I'd say secondly is if you're a consultant, um, I would highly recommend productizing your service to the best of your capabilities, because unless you want to be like a freelancer and just do one on one consultation and only have like two or three clients, um, you know, the, the opportunity to scale is almost zero, um, because you're just scaling you and that's not scalable. So you need to bring on people on your team and you need to have systems and procedures in place that allow people to facilitate the work and end up with the exact same result as if you were to do it.
And, um, yeah, productizer, productizer, yeah. And that's a big thing that I see within the spaces that productizing your services, where you want to go. If you want to make more money, you can't just do it yourself. It's not going to work.
Yeah. All right. What, I got some sort of rapid fire questions here toward the end of our interview. Uh, what characteristics do you believe?
Derails a startup or an entrepreneur. Characteristics. Um, I mean, chasing shiny objects, you know, trying to do too much. I mean, I did, I'm very guilty of this.
So I can, you know, speak to it. Uh, but I mean, I talked to so many people that are like, when I'm like, oh, what do you do? I just had a meeting last week with someone that came and met up with me that, you know, I was like, Oh, like I don't even know how to answer that question. Cause I do this, I do this, I do this, I do this.
And I'm like, okay, well, those are all very different. Um, you know, how do you focus your time? And they don't cause they do too many stuff, too many things. So I would say like as fast as you can find the one thing that you want to work on and like go all in on it.
Because the more you're trying to multitask and do all this other stuff, the less likely you are to grow anything. Yeah. So like maybe a inch, wild, inch wide, mild, deep sort of approach. Yeah.
Yeah. All right. On that. And then I would say, you know, the, I guess the mindset of like higher as fast as possible.
Okay. Why, why would you recommend hiring as fast as possible? Because you can't do it alone. Nobody does it alone.
Um, and you have to have people help deliver the service in order for you to grow the company. And if it's, you're doing everything, it's going to be really hard to scale. All right. So here's, I think that I've come across a handful of times is that you'll get these people who are founding companies that aren't really making much traction right away.
At what point does that person logically say that I need to turn around or do something different? How would you advise them? Like on, if they should pivot, if they should pivot or just do something completely different. It's kind of the same thing.
It's, but yeah, I mean, I think you just, it's kind of up to, you know, what are you trying to accomplish? And if you're still running into the wall and you're not getting where you want to be, I think you need to reevaluate what you're doing. And if it's actually, if there's actually a market for it, um, but you know, the thing that I did was, you know, you can do that simultaneously. Like while you're trying to figure that out, like challenge yourself to try to quickly validate something else that you think might be an option.
You know, that's what I did. You know, I gave myself 30 days to see if I can get two or three customers. If I did that, then I was granted permission to like think about this more. And that's all I had to think about was, can I get two or three customers in 30 days for this thing go?
And I did, which granted me permission to think about it more, which then made me had to have to think about, well, what happens to this other thing? Right. What happens to the other business? So, um, you had clients, I'd imagine that we're paying money each month.
So 100%. Yeah. So that's, uh, those are all things that, you know, came into play as you, as the validation was successful. So, you know, I would say challenge yourself to quickly validate, give yourself some sort of 30 day challenge, ideally, and go from there.
I like that setting the parameters beforehand and committing to, if you get this, you're leaving what you're doing now. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome.
What words of advice would you give to somebody who wants to start a mastermind group? Um, you're, you're heavily involved in a handful of mastermind groups, especially one, I believe. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm in two and I've been in two for a very long time. I've been in one of them since 2012. Um, so I would say, you know, you need to find, ideally you find people that are slightly ahead of you. Um, and you're the quote unquote dumbest person in the group.
No, that's strategy. Yeah, that's ideal. But I mean, ultimately you want to be in a group of people that are trying to achieve similar goals and in and around the same place. And again, hopefully you're the one that's, you know, at the bottom, right?
So everyone's kind of ahead of you. So you can learn from them. But, you know, it also sometimes helps to have someone that's, you know, a little bit earlier than you too, because as you, as you get to teach them things, you realize just how much you learned. Um, but yeah, I think it's like minded people that have a similar goal and, um, that can meet on a consistent basis.
And that will stick to the format. Those are all things that are super important. Yeah. I can easily see a mastermind group getting slightly derailed over time by just small talk.
Oh yeah. And ours has, you got to kind of, someone has to jump back into like a, you know, we got to rein this back in. We got to talk about the real stuff. You guys are friends, right?
I mean, I have a positive relationship there. Um, maybe a nice balance of both needs to exist. What books would you recommend to an entrepreneur to read? The one thing, um, then how many do you want?
I can give it a lot. Are you looking at a bookshelf right now? It sounds like, yeah, I mean, if I had to pick two, I'd say the one thing and essentialism, why would you choose those two? Because they're both about focusing on one thing and only working on and dedicate your time around, you know, achieving your biggest goal.
Awesome. I like that. I have not read those books. I'll go through this out.
You should definitely read them. Yeah. Uh, my world will be changed after this podcast. It would have to read this book.
It will have when leaves that book on the one thing on his desk, like just looking at him because the cover just says the one thing and like one of his ways to, um, you know, just think of the like focus on, okay, like, am I not doing the one thing right now? Yes. I know, um, talking about memory and I still use it now. When I first initially met you through Snapchat, you posted something about your scheduling each week and that every day you have three specific goals.
And I said, Hey, can you send me that? Um, do you still use that today? The little template? Yeah, it's a little Google dot template, but it makes you go, okay, well, what are the three things that you get done today?
Yeah. Um, yes and no, I haven't been using that template. Um, I've been kind of re jigging my daily and weekly routine. So I'm actually not using anything currently because I'm working with my new assistant to kind of create a new, a new routine for myself.
So, uh, I will probably get back to that because I do still try to focus on three things. Um, it's just not using that template right now. So this, the notion is still around the three though. Awesome.
Awesome. What is your current morning routine? Right now it's wake up, walk my wife to work, come back, make breakfast, foam roll, read for 30 minutes, and then shower and start work. Awesome.
What's the current book you're reading then? I'm reading the checklist manifesto. Great title with that about it is basically about how do you leverage checklists in your business, which is very much what we do with our systems and procedures. Oh, that makes complete sense then.
So yeah, well, you're everything's designed to work in a certain operation. So making your checklist as efficient as possible is to your benefit. Yeah. All right.
And I know we're running out of time here, but my last question to you is, what is your favorite documentary? Ooh, um, I can't even think of the last documentary that I watched. Um, actually I can, but it's really pathetic. Um, because it was on a plane to Japan.
Um, I watched, well, let me want to mention that one because it wasn't good. Oh, I know it's all right. I just not, that wouldn't be the one I want to mention, but I don't really have any others. So I guess I have to.
So judge me, if you will, but I was actually, I watched on my flight to Japan, which I just came back from a couple of weeks ago, a documentary on Ronaldo, the soccer player, Christian Ronaldo. Uh, I do follow, um, soccer and, um, he's, you know, obviously a huge personality. And it was very interesting to see like you went behind the scenes on his lifestyle. And he's, he's everything that, uh, the opposite of everything I thought he was.
And it was in a good way. Uh, so I was, uh, impressed by that. And it just kind of made me realize like, Hey, you know, what you see on the exterior. It doesn't necessarily, you know, it's not necessarily how people show up in this world, but how they show up in the world is not how they actually are in the world.
Sometimes he's an athlete and I'm sure he has a personality on stage and office stage. Yeah, that is indeed true. Excellent. Well, Greg, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to chat with me for the call to start podcast.
Thanks for having me. And where can people contact you? I would say if you're interested in learning about marketing automation and sales funnels, visit system.ly. Otherwise, if you want the behind the scenes, hear about the zero scale podcast, things I'm doing in my business, see stuff with my dog and just kind of go behind the scenes, follow me on Snapchat.
I'm having tons of fun there and I'm at Greg Hickman, H I C K and the end. Excellent. I follow Greg on Snapchat. I love his stories.
He's a great storyteller. As always, audience, thank you for tuning in and you live. There you have it, folks. I hope you enjoyed getting to know Greg with systemally.
He is an epic serial entrepreneur and total hustler. I definitely think you guys should give him a shout out on the socials. As always, let me know what you thought on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat, all at the tech line of cold of startup. Thanks for tuning in.
Love you all and take care.