Be Good At Systems, Not Tools.

I used to think I was bad at systems.

I never loved dealing with automations, particularly. I used to bounce around from app to app trying to find the solution for things. Every time I saw a system that’s my brand, it immediately gave me this weird feeling of that looks like it would break and cause me anxiety and I don’t want anything to do with it.

So I’d tell myself this story that I’m not a person who is good at systems.

And then fast forward a couple of years and more than one person has described me as a ‘systems thinker.’

Which I initially resisted as a label because I’d think ‘I’m not good at systems’. But then I understood that I was good at systems thinking I wasn’t good with tools at that time.

And I think we often confuse systems and tools. A system is the logic underpinning the use of the tools. What happens when, why, what triggers what, what do we want this customer to do at this moment. A system is a decision that you’ve made so you don’t have to make it every single time.

‘I post three times a week, I DM everyone who engages, I make two offers a month’ - that’s a system. You could run it from a Notes app.

I have a Zapier account and an onboarding sequence using it. That’s a tool and if the logic behind it is wrong, it’s not a particularly useful system.

With AI, there’s no shortage of tools for coaches - you can have tools that do everything, AI can do all sorts of stuff in your business (and it definitely does in mine)

But if you have no thought to the systems behind them, the reasons for doing it and they don’t solve a problem for you? They’re expensive procrastination, both financially and in terms of time investment.

Meanwhile, a coach running everything from an app on their phone will be outselling everyone else - because they have a system, not just tools.

I love tools, I love AI, I love automation - but I love it when it solves problems and does things, not when it’s there for the sake of being there.