#456 How To Go From Communism To Capitalism: The Inspiring Story Of A Shy Polish Entrepreneur, Michal Stawicki
Sweat Equity Podcast® #456: Michał Stawicki 🇵🇱 aka "Mr. Consistency", is bestselling author of 19 books and solopreneur whisperer deftly balances business growth strategies with full-throttle enjoyment of life.
🚨 SWEATERS GET HIS E-BOOK FOR FREE! 🚨
📲 DM him on social media "business24"
X/Twitter: https://x.com/StawickiMichal
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stawicki-michal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michal.sta.9
The eBook is a combo about habits and a self-paced coaching mini-course: to set a goal, identify obstacles, create an action plan and execute it.
Sweat Equity Podcast® ep #456 jump points
Entrepreneurship, personal development, and the speaker's journey from Poland to the US. (5:21)
The impact of communism and capitalism in Poland and the Soviet Union. (15:38)
Personal growth and career transition in Eastern Europe after the Soviet Union collapsed. (21:04)
Overcoming self-doubt and taking action towards personal growth. (28:36)
Overcoming shyness through small steps and self-coaching. (34:36)
Long bio:
Michał Stawicki is known as "Mr. Consistency" in the personal development world. A bestselling author of 19 books with over 85,000 copies sold, Michał transformed from a database administrator to a sought-after business coach who's helping business owners all over the world scale their businesses to new heights. His unique approach helps solopreneurs build successful businesses while maintaining work-life balance. Specializing in habit development and mindset shift, Michał is dedicated to helping solopreneurs double their business within a year. Through his books and one-on-one coaching, Michal has impacted 100,000+ business owners. Michal does NOT believe you have to "sacrifice" everything in life to grow your business. He believes that with the right strategy, you can grow your business while still loving & enjoying life.
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Sweat Equity 🔗s
Hosts’ Eric Readinger & Law Smith 🔗s
how to overcome shyness small steps self coaching entrepreneur story poland communism capitalism transition soviet union economic hardship pursuit success personal development fulfillment fall ussr action self doubt failure tips advice younger self incremental change personal transformation life story inspiring journey author books
#Entrepreneurship #PersonalDevelopment #Communism #Capitalism #Poland #SovietUnion #OvercomingShyness #SelfHelp #PersonalGrowth #CareerAdvice #SmallBusiness #BusinessCoaching #LifeStories #InspiringStories #EconomicTransition
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 0:01
Trump 2024, baby. Yeah, I'm gonna come Hey. I like RFK Jr, even he's got a worm in his head.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 0:09
I did that and I forgot about YouTube.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 0:12
Oh yeah. Pull
Unknown Speaker 0:13
it. Pull it.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 0:20
Yeah, nice. This is why I wrote the number one comedy business podcast in the world. Eric, yeah, iTunes, Apple podcast, Spotify, anywhere you can find podcast we on that be this episode sponsored by zuppiac, Z, u p, y, a, k.com, that's up Yak, Z, u, p, what? A k.com, it's the first search optimized AI writer, and it's on the market where search data is integrated into the AI writer workflow. No knowledge needed about SEO to create content. You sure about that it'll have a better search Impact in seconds, not hours, if you go to zepyat, Z, u, p, y, a, k.com, promo code, sweat, get the hook up. Holler, if you hear me, holler, if you hear me. I've told you you don't
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 1:07
get the point at the thing. And make me put I'm
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 1:10
gonna make another sound. I'm better not. I'm gonna do it, dude. Let that wire with no if you are other sponsors, if you get the links in the episode, description, Squarespace. Call rail, LinkedIn, premium and bloom, invoicing. You get other hookups. Holler if you hear those. No
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 1:29
break that things good visual
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 1:31
for the audio. Let's get this party. Star started. We're going to Communist Poland. You Sure about that hotty, Dotty, whatever you
you are listening to the sweat equity podcast. We're recording, yeah, we're firing. We're good to go. All right, um, we like to ask everybody that comes on the show some lightning round questions, so just real quick, you don't have to get into it. And then we'll end on a bigger question of the lightning round first one is, Did you listen to the podcast before coming on the show?
Michał Stawicki 2:35
Yes, today.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 2:38
Oh, interesting. Wow.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 2:39
We got about a 30% hit rate on that. You got climbing
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 2:42
actually, um, has anybody ever called you sticky? Sticky?
Michał Stawicki 2:49
No, no, not, really. Okay,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 2:52
that was it. Does God exist? Come up with a lightning round question. All right, I'm honest. Okay,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 2:57
does Does God
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 2:59
exist? Quite the swing,
Michał Stawicki 3:03
yes, okay,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:04
nice. Uh, what's your go to karaoke song?
Michał Stawicki 3:12
I never sang karaoke, so I'm drawing blank here. It's okay,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:19
okay. Doesn't like karaoke. It's all right. Not a fan of that. Um, you know, I think most people aren't What's your spirit animal?
Michał Stawicki 3:32
I don't know why wolves just popped into my mind. I have no clue why. That's what it is. Check that that's
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 3:38
what it is you popped into your head. Yes, sir. You
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:43
don't want to do in kindergarten.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 3:43
I have to get my turn in. I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:45
don't know. Just go back and forth a
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 3:47
little hallway. I can't read. It is
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:49
a hot dog, a sandwich. I
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 3:51
hate that one. No, see, you were gonna make me ask that.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:53
The Internet is a flame with this question. So
Michał Stawicki 3:58
no, it's resounding no.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 4:02
I agree. I don't even understand why that's question. Because it is a sandwich. There's a hamburger, a sandwich? Yes,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:08
it's got two buns, baby.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 4:10
It's like its own thing. Knows that. Mary,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:14
kill tacos, pizza, cheeseburger.
Unknown Speaker 4:19
Gross dude.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:22
Which one you never played that game?
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 4:25
Skip it. I think we should skip that one. Okay, okay. This is growth.
Michał Stawicki 4:28
There is some American culture. I don't have background thing that's not American
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 4:33
culture. That's just law being weird about having with food,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:37
whatever. I loved. American Pie came out in 1998 and set in me and pi wasn't even on the list. I would never do that to pi. What first time you French kissed a girl? Does that translate?
Michał Stawicki 4:53
Translate to what I mean
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:54
is that, when's the first time you kissed a girl or a guy or anybody?
Michał Stawicki 5:03
Okay, long time ago. Okay,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 5:06
why don't you tell everybody who you are, where to find you, all that kind of stuff. Because I could do it, but I can't read out loud very well, so we let the guests do it their own plug. Why don't you tell our audience all that stuff.
Michał Stawicki 5:21
Okay, now I'm surprised once again, but I will do that, yeah. Well, I'm outer so I have 19 books on Amazon and everywhere. So just type Mihas davitsky and books, and you will find my books. I have my own personal development blog expander, self.com and I'm also a business owner. I have my own book advertising agency, resurrecting books.com
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 5:55
Wow, alright, you're busy. Guy, 85,000 copies of over 19 books sold. Is that? That's a stat I remember. Is that correct?
Michał Stawicki 6:04
Yeah, that's a correct stat. Now it's over 90,000 Okay,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 6:08
all right. Well, we have an esteemed author. We've toyed around with taking this podcast and making it into a book, just so we can tell everybody we're an author. Yeah, we gotta do that. But the one question we do really want to ask, not a lightning round question you can take your time with. This is, what advice would you give your 13 year old self?
Michał Stawicki 6:33
15 year old, I was so clueless, like a true kiddo, and what it's really advice. When you give advice to yourself, yeah, it's like Alex hormozi likes to talk about it's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 6:51
that guy stole her question.
Michał Stawicki 6:54
First of all, it's you know, you know the guy you are talking to. Yeah, intimately.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 7:00
The scenario is, scenario is you time travel. It doesn't it only affects you. You are time traveling. And a Bill and Ted, Excellent Adventure. He gets it. Okay, I thought you were asking. He
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 7:15
was explaining. Sorry. I'm sorry if he thought about it. Was thing. And then you go, let me explain the question you already understand. Let me just do that. Sorry. Please continue.
Michał Stawicki 7:28
I will. It's hilarious with guys. So having this intimate knowledge about myself and my filthy old self, I would just tell the guy, don't sweat it, come on. It's all going to be fine. We are measuring up yourself to like the whole world. Stop doing that. You just need to be the best version of yourself. That's it. Nothing else. Where
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 8:01
you know, were you an anxious, nervous kind of guy growing up?
Michał Stawicki 8:08
Yes, yes, sir. Till 233, till I started my own transformation, I was terribly shy, like actually, one of my first project was to just overcoming the shyness so I can talk to people like you now in the international podcast, but I couldn't approach a stranger and utter award like I had rats in my stomach. Just couldn't do it.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 8:38
Yeah, that's an underrated skill, especially like public speaking. You know, that's something that, I mean, they say it's the biggest fear for people.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 8:47
Yeah, Seinfeld used to have a joke about it,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 8:52
right? You'd rather be in the coffin than given eulogy. Yep,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 8:55
you got to do it in his voice. Though, you'd rather be in the coffin than doing the eulogy. Pop Tarts. So where'd you where? Where did you grow up? What were your parents entrepreneurial?
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 9:09
I'll ask it. What is your accent? It's driving me crazy. I can't quite now. I mean, it's something Eastern European,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 9:14
wherever Joe kicks from.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 9:16
I Yeah, Eastern Europe somewhere, maybe further he's, I'm not sure, so please share that
Michał Stawicki 9:23
polish. Okay, there you go. Nailed it kind of
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 9:28
your last name is still wiki. So you know any
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 9:31
good Polish jokes? Those used to be around a lot more. Yeah,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 9:36
yeah.
Michał Stawicki 9:38
They got away from it, not from me. We have a Polish Russian, German jokes when, of course, polish comes as the superior. Yeah, right, that's, it's because of the neighborhood, yeah, coming back to your question, I was raised in communist Poland, yeah, till I was 10 years old. I live in the communist regime, and then we had overnight change of everything. So my parents weren't especially entrepreneur, but kind of the whole nation needed to be to just survive this shift. So my father, he had a solopreneur business of installing electricity in new buildings, fixing his electrical engineer, very highly skilled, like his day job was in the factory as a main engineer, yeah, for all electricity. And he was doing this side gig after eight hours of working in a factory, yeah,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 10:52
communist factory too. Oh, they don't mess around. There's no benefits.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 10:56
Factories. No ping pong table in a communist factory.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 11:00
Yeah, no break room, no snow. You don't get a break What are you talking about? Break room,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 11:04
no K cups, Keurigs. So
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 11:07
wait, how is that transition? I want to hear about that. What did your parents do before the fall of the wall or whatever? Yeah. So, so
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 11:16
we're talking like 89 right? Was the fall? 89
Michał Stawicki 11:19
exactly. I have five sisters, so my mother was housewife, and my father, he worked in that factory as an engineer, electrician, engineer, and that was the reality before 19. Sorry, 89 sorry, and then everything, like, we have crazy inflation in like 50% something like that, like the money was worthless the next month. Uh, move.
It was a struggle. And like everybody in our town sounds like that, because it was like plenty of Polish towns back then, around a few factories, which now were struggling to survive to this change, yeah, will they even found a month or whatever they offer, and it was like the whole country. So it was the time of feeling unsecure and out of that, really a lot of hustle culture, and like my father, who worked his full shift, and then he went back home, like he worked from 6am to 2pm then he went back home eat lunch, get a shorten up, and he was off to his side gig, working till 8pm maybe i is my, my remembering the jack of days father was absent because he was at work all the time. When I was like 13, he actually started taking me to side jobs, and I was helping him, like slave labor.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 13:31
Well, I mean, work he had free the work ethic is That is incredible. I mean it, all it does is remind me how good we have it, you know, kind of where we're born, that you can't, it's random, you know. And then I try to think of those things like, I'll probably think of this story anytime I'm about having to do a lot of work,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 13:53
right? Yeah, you know, get a wheelbarrow to buy, you know, a bottle of water for, you know, filled with cash, yeah? Where it's really a trillion percent increase, and
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 14:02
then no one talks about the transition. That's night and
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 14:05
day, because, yeah, so many questions.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 14:08
You think you would ease into that, right? That would make sense? No way. And I guarantee there was probably a lot of people taken
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 14:15
it's good. But like so in communist countries, they own hard drives. Who how? Yeah, but, like, how did it work with, like, the factory your dad worked in, you know, who owned that afterward? Like, how did they decide who got what? Because, I mean, was it just like, first guy did the boss's chair wins it? How did that work?
Michał Stawicki 14:39
Yeah, it was, like, fire sale, which now in the from the perspective of time, we think that was stupid of us. Polish government, we just sold everything left and right for pennies and like, really pennies now. So just the sites are worth more than the prices 30 years ago, yeah, like, in the center of a big city, one thing,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 15:15
yeah, how do you and how do you assign everybody to go, like, now you own this, right? Well, it's
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 15:21
just crazy, because, like, you didn't have until, like, yeah, it feels like a stupid decision. But did you have a choice? Like, you had to bring in, like, outside money to make it happen. But, like, man, that's crazy to even think about. So was it like big corporations coming in scoop and stuff? Yes, yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 15:38
because everything's liquidated,
Michał Stawicki 15:39
yeah. It was crazy. It was crazy. They say they had a plan, but nobody had a plan. And what I really think worked and saved us was that there was no regulations. We started from scratch. So there were a lot of shady businesses done and meaning, you know, big corpus doing businesses with former communist people who had contacts and could sell them this factory, that business and so on. But also it allowed us Polish people to do our stuff. Some, you know, fortunes were created in early 90s because people, they were entrepreneurial, like, I don't know,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 16:36
yeah, no, they capitalized, yeah. There was no red tape. There was no Hey, you can't do this because you don't have a license from the government. What government? Damon, I'm doing whatever I want. Bro,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 16:47
they were opportualizing, yeah,
yeah, yeah. It's, um,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 16:51
it's cool.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 16:52
I think about I kind of always visualize a bread line when I hear communism. What happens with that? Did y'all have a stipend of food? You know, I talked to my Cuban friends, and they talk about, you know, I always say they they can do more things with a pig, you know, than anybody, because they had to make all the rations kind of last as long as they could. And that's why Cuban food's maybe the best my one of my favorites, but like, they know how to do so much with so little, and because they were only given an X amount of eggs per week, an X amount of whatever, was that a situation as well, like basic human needs that were provided by The government, and then one one day or week or month, it was just like bye, and you had to kind of figure it out on your own. Was it like that?
Michał Stawicki 17:48
No, it wasn't. At least in Poland, never provided by government when we had to stay in lines for like meat. It was because of inefficiencies of the communist system. But we polish were very lucky, because somehow we got away with having a plenty of small farmers, like really, really small and people who went to factory, but they have their own several accuracy, or 20 and and they work on on that land. So when their free market was introduced, they could sell locally. And so it was never shortage of food, sometimes of processed food. Like, I remember lines for sugar, like there was no sugar because it wasn't processed, probably, or distributed. And,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 18:55
yeah, stuff that needs infrastructure. Yeah,
Michał Stawicki 18:59
exactly, but, but, but like, you can always go to local market, buy eggs, vegetables and so on.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 19:09
Yeah, we never, I think we're asking a lot of basic questions because a we've never read a book about that transition. I don't know all the books you've read, but I know you haven't read one about that you're right. And so we're kind of curious on that personal thing. So like, we're gonna get to how this dovetails into what he's doing, total expert
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 19:32
of all of the Soviet Union. But, well, not on his story. I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 19:36
was saying entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial. Entrepreneur. It's a French word, but it feels so American, because we, you, we don't have, if you do want to do something, you can do it for the most part. There's, I mean, we have regulations on things like other countries, but not as tight as other countries. And it's one of those things where, you know, we. Think about capitalism. You know, there's, there's hate on capitalism. I love capitalism, but it's one of those things that we think it's, it's like, when you introduce democracy in places that have a dictator, right? And you're like, This is good for them. They they need this. They don't know they need it, but they need it. And then there's that transition period, and you're like, oh, this was about bring back the old right? We did this too quickly. We needed
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 20:24
to get the trains on so you
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 20:28
never hear about that transition part from the point of view of someone in it, or was in it. And then when you're talking about, you had five sisters, I was, I was thinking about farmland, and how, back in the day, you would have a bunch of kids so they could run the farm. Yeah, labor did they did was there a lot of people that would just own land for centuries or something like and parcel it out to their kids, and then their kids kind of thing? Yes,
Michał Stawicki 20:51
yes.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 20:53
That's interesting. So and So you all were becoming more commercialized in like one instant, almost, it felt like, yeah, that was
Michał Stawicki 21:03
and we're talking about the shock therapy. And seriously, there was a deep shock in in the whole nation. And shock was not just, you know, capitalist, it was also freedom, like from overnight. You can say things about the government before that. It's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 21:25
another big one. Yeah.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 21:31
So like, what was the worst thing you saw come of it? You personally of the transition, yeah, just of this, this happening was, there's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 21:39
got to be a lot of people that hated it, right? Exactly
Michał Stawicki 21:42
because unemployment rate skyrocketed. It was about 50% when I was getting into the job market in 2004 it was 19% it's still high, yeah. And so that generation of my parents, generation and my generation, we, like, were used to scarcity, and in a, you know, the wrong way it's it's so hard for us to imagine abundance, because we were raised that at in this situation. So, yeah, personally, I think that's the worst thing, because it happened across the nation. Yeah, it happened to all of us. Yes, we are hard workers, but also we are overly loyal to employees, for example, because, yeah, job security is so important, which I experienced in 2009 Okay, yeah, you can do what you can do, but if your employer doesn't provide, like, projects,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 22:52
um, and, yeah, where are you living now? How do you we're you know, I want to try to get to how you got to where you are now from, about 2004 Where are you doing this? From
Michał Stawicki 23:08
here, you see my home office. It's in Poland, near capital, just 25 miles away.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 23:17
So you've been here? Have you been living there, though the entire this most your life, or yes,
Michał Stawicki 23:23
I'm, by the way, I'm the only one from my family. Wow, is still in Poland. Well, my five sisters immigrated, my parents immigrated, which was, which was also a part of landscape when it comes. Sorry, that's yours. Since 2004 when the EU we joined European Union and we could and move to other countries and work there, like plenty of people immigrate. Yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 23:53
that's a big that would be a big one, getting in the UN and y'all got on the Euro at some point. I don't, I don't remember when, but, well, that's a big deal,
Michał Stawicki 24:03
huh? Not yet, not yet. Oh, our currency, yeah. But we, when we joined, we said one day we will move to Euro, and we just never said when Exactly, yeah.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 24:17
I mean, it's a very complicated situation to do? Yes, yeah. I mean, which
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 24:24
over everybody's money? Well, yeah, that's, that's, well, you've same time. That can
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 24:27
be a lot of these. That could be a lot of the trouble of trying to work with your neighboring countries as import exports.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 24:35
They're all European Well,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 24:37
there's that, yeah, who? Who do you? Who are your Mexicans? Who do you make fun of what? I didn't say that.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 24:44
I didn't say anything about me. It's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 24:46
not even my question. I borrow that seriously. Everyone has their own we
Michał Stawicki 24:52
don't because we were made fun of. Yeah, so right now we have Ukraine,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 24:56
come on. There's some. There's always someone you gotta make fun of that's now. You did
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 25:00
mention that you had German and Russian jokes earlier. So if it hit us with one of those, I mean, you
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 25:05
can make fun of Germans for really up. They really screwed the hooch there, Germany and Russia. That's yeah, but you can't make fun of them for too long, because then that anger will probably pop out. Yeah. They're like, Uh huh, yeah, we really up world war two, and then they're like, Okay, that's enough. And it's like, enough you ever have that? Yeah? Okay, going
Michał Stawicki 25:27
back to my transition,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 25:30
yeah, you hosted.
Michał Stawicki 25:32
Thank you. I I worked in it, yeah, I finished college, I got it job. And in Poland, it was like at the beginning, I got two average salaries so I could afford to live. I could afford to raise my family. I have three kids. We started early. We got married when I was in college and I was moving from one job to another in 2015 I was working in big media company. The biggest, like one of the fortunes made during the transition, was this company. Actually it's the biggest Polish media company, and I was miserable as a corporate cog, and I just didn't see my future in there. And I was so dissatisfied with my life, which was okay on all fronts, like I had family, good job. But when I I was in that life, so I could easily look under this, you know, social media, shiny surface. I was over white. My health wasn't that great. Was shy as hell, like I had some relationships, but I never started a new one. Just was I was too shy for that, and I just felt well, there is something more to life, to my place in life, and it was providence. In 2013 I was on vacation in Ireland, visiting my parents and also my sister, who traveled the world, because she's a dancer. She was there on her vacation, and she had a book The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. In the book, it's around the message of Jim Moran, success is a few simple disciplines repeated over time. For me, that was, whoa. I thought success is something grand called the medal at Olympics, starting new Microsoft. And of course, I couldn't do those things, so I will not be as successful. Never Thank you. Goodbye. But small, simple things, it really opened my mind. And since then, I started like I tripled down on my personal development and rediscovered my desire to ride. And eight months later, I published my first book on Amazon.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 28:36
It's a pretty that's
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 28:37
awesome. I mean, awesome. This podcast is real mad all day. Yeah, man, it's really
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 28:42
for an audience of people that have that nexus point where they're sitting in a job they hate, they're frustrated. It's taking a toll on their mental and physical health a lot of the time. And you go, you get that frustration point, and you know, there is a part of the timeline where you stay there and you're just kind of miserable in life. And you go, this is safe. I can do this right
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 29:04
until it's too much. Or
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 29:06
you, you so for you, it sounded like you may have been unaware of some of this self help, self development kind of whole genre out there to even, to even go like, Oh, I should. I'm gonna read that book. And then that book kind of leverages you capitalize on that. Well,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 29:26
it just shows, like, sometimes things just have to be said to you in a certain way that your brain clicks in with it. But also he's thinking, Well, I can't do these things, so like, I might have to be a real success.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 29:38
But I'm thinking like, the hangover of communism too. There's not, probably a lot of self starters. There's not a lot of people that are thinking in that direction around you. Probably right. You're working at a good media company. Maybe there's movers and shakers there. But you know, it's really easy when you're hanging when a lot of people aren't feeling that kind of mode or self development. Themselves kind of thing. I don't
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 30:02
know Well, to me, he had the desire to do something with his life. But in his mind, it was a technicality sort of thing where it's like, well, you know, I'm going to post communist country, whatever, and you know, I'm not going to be able to really reach these heights because of, you know, administrative issues.
Michał Stawicki 30:21
I think it's very common. It's just human thing. It was my self worth. Yeah, I couldn't believe in myself. Seriously, the biggest struggle for me was the fierce move since reading the book, I was mulling over this like it's so simple, can I do it like I had to give myself permission to try, and that was the hardest thing I did in my life. Like then, when I started my transformation, I was working full time, commuting, two, three hours a day, writing on trains and back sleeping five hours a day. I remember publishing my six book like I stayed till 2am to finally hit the publish button, and I woke up at 4am to go to my day job. That was easy, giving myself permission to try it. That was the hardest thing in my life. So
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 31:27
if anybody's listening out there, there, there's that two, there's two parts to that, right? You have to, you have to allow yourself to do it and not be defeatist in your own kind of idea of doing it. Then here's where I think a lot of Americans really kind of miss this is you actually have to try it. You actually have to try the discipline thing you just read. Yeah, a lot of people might know it, or even read about it. Give themselves permission. They won't make themselves their own guinea pig for whatever reason that is. And that's the frustration point I have talking to friends. Sometimes it's like, well, if this is bothering you over months years, this must
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 32:05
not be that bad. Well, no, is what I think. Oh no. It's like, it must not be that bad on you. If you keep to doing the same thing over and over again, and you're not changing it, you're just, you just like talking about it.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 32:15
Well, there it's like your friend that asks for advice, and they're gonna do whatever they do anyway, right? And they always, I have a friend that has done that since high school, and it's like, now I just go, you're going to do what you want to do anyway, but I'm going to tell you what I think. Yeah, just so I get it off my chest for you. But it's that thing of like, no one does the guinea pig part. You go, okay, hypothesis. Does these do these small discipline things really work to to alter my life in a positive direction. And you actually did it. Now, a lot of people overthink about it. They already think about the failure part first. Or they don't think about, you know, they don't dangle their own carrot on like, I need to shake something up. At the very least, would be a net positive.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 33:01
Lots of people, I think, are like, I can't take another loss. I can't start something new, and then, because it's gonna it's gonna fail again. Yeah, they don't think like, Oh man, that's gonna be terrible for me. A lot of people think
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 33:13
like, it's gonna supplant what they're doing currently, and that'll go down if they try this other thing, right? Not, not on top of what they're doing. Well, yeah,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 33:21
it's just more like, how much worse can it get? And they expect things get worse, and with that, yeah, you're spiraling yourself into doing nothing, and which, in turn, long term, makes it even worse. So
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 33:34
I want to ask this part before we depart. But this is a, you have a wildly interesting story, and kind of really a lot of the reason we have the show. So, you know, kudos to you on your life,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 33:48
yes, and your accent. I am going to rewatch this one to learn your accent, and so do polish. I didn't even really think about it, but now, or after
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 33:58
so you said you're very shy. It's very I think it's hard to be entrepreneurial unless you're just an internet unless you have an app programmer kind of thing, something that you can do by yourself without having to talk to any humans. But you said your crippling shyness was, you know, a problem. But you did get married and got laid at least three times, by my count. Um, how did you get your wife? How did you I want to see that, and I bet it's related to how you overcame the shyness. I bet you extrapolated that out. That's my theory.
Michał Stawicki 34:36
You missed, damn it, like by a mile.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 34:39
I'm a mentalist. She was inside. I can't do mentalist stuff on Polish people.
Michał Stawicki 34:47
She was inside. She she asked me, that's how we started.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 34:51
She asked you out. Yeah,
Michał Stawicki 34:53
exactly.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 34:54
I'm in this country.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 34:55
I like an alpha lady like that, though.
Michał Stawicki 34:58
Oh, no, yeah, it's. Just a very shy guy. That's how you need to touch him. So by the way, girls, IT guys the best prey for you. Come on. They will do anything, and they even so much. What are you waiting for?
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 35:14
Yeah, that's is that your stand up set. He's the the difference between men and women. Um, yeah, I can, I have a I think
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 35:24
he's just, like, looking out for IT guys in general. I mean, probably could use it, yeah. But so
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 35:30
how did you did now? Did your was your wife the reason you were able to get over your shyness later? Did she? Is she the one that pushes you? I feel like there's always a woman involved in some No,
Michał Stawicki 35:43
yeah, it's, it's kind of because part of of my this desire to change was she was nagging me. Okay, you're more. Oh, my God, we cannot afford this. That's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 35:58
the other N word women don't want to hear Yeah,
Michał Stawicki 36:04
so I because like, like you said, out of my own comfort I wouldn't maybe start, but I was a bit pushed out of my comfort zone. She wanted more from her life. So that's one thing. Actual way I overcame my shyness, small steps, very, very small steps, like I deconstructed how what is the this whole process of approaching a person and starting conversation, and I realized that I was so shy I didn't really try to notice other people, like this person who just looked into the ground and like I technically saw them, but I like you see a homeless person? Yeah? You pretend you don't see them. So that was me my whole life, not just homeless everybody, yeah? So my, my first small discipline was, okay, let's start noticing people around me, recognizing them, start thinking about how I could approach and start the conversation. I figured out I could do that with compliment, and also I was conducting this conversation in my head, because I was just too shy to start. I was too fearful. And then my next discipline was making a connection, smiling. And I tracked those things like I was very nerdy about those. I
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 37:55
was gonna say, This sounds like a very Eastern European reverse engineering mentality to take. Yeah, it
Michał Stawicki 38:01
was, it was just because when I had this few moment of setting goals, okay, I will overcome my Chinese. So how I will do it? By speaking to strangers, because I know that scared the of me. But then I tried, I couldn't. I was scared. I just couldn't. I was physically unable to then I had to deconstruct it to so small pieces that I finally could do something. I could by myself, not with other people around me. I could have a conversation in my head. I could look at people, that's why I'm done, and finally, I could start the conversation. The whole process took surprisingly short, like I would say, half a year, and I was able to confidently speak with people, start striking conversation with anybody at any time.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 39:03
Yeah, marginal gains,
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 39:05
yeah, it's just so crazy that power your brain can have over you of because, I mean, it was probably quick, because you got to a point where you're like, Oh, what am I? What was I afraid of? What was I for that everybody just pull out a gun shoot me. What was gonna happen? You know. And it's like a win before that happens, that is so real, that fear that people, you know, and it's just like, you can tell people say a lot of things, but until they do it for themselves, it's just overwhelming. Obviously,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 39:36
everything you said made me feel like when I take too much edibles, and then I don't know how to talk to people if I have to, well, you
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 39:44
gotta stop just going public. Yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 39:47
I gotta stop doing that. But sometimes you didn't know it was a higher milligram.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 39:53
I know, but, you know, I've been trying to coach you up on this. I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 39:55
know you have been. You know, I've got raw talent, but I don't. Listen, I
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 40:00
know you're very uncoachable.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 40:01
No, I'm coachable. I just got, you know, sometimes I got to drive to the hole. Yeah, it's one of those things where you fail. Like, I get a lot of like, how do you go on stage and not freak out? And it's like, oh, I
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 40:15
failed a lot. Oh, you just gotta stop giving a And
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 40:19
over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times of doing it, you don't care. I'm gonna go do a set tonight. I don't know what I'm talking about yet, but it doesn't I'm not worried about it at all. 15 years ago, I'd be like, be in my head the whole time. Yeah. So well, you have an interesting story. I hope people go find your books. You have an eBook out that you're promoting. Is that correct
Michał Stawicki 40:48
for your audience? I have something I Well, it's not available on the internet by itself. You need to reach out to me, and it's a self coaching mini course so you can go over, establishing a goal, finding what stops you, and then tracking your way to success on your own takes like 5030 minutes, and all you need to do is to find me on LinkedIn and Send me the message business 24 I will send you back the way to register for that mini course, and that's what I have for.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 41:29
Yeah, you're on X solopreneur, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Send the DM business 24 without spaces, and you'll get that hook up. All right. Well, I appreciate you coming on. Yeah, man, you have an interesting life. More power to you. I hope you're you're still making the incremental gains.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 41:48
Yeah, your voice will be ringing in my head for a minute here, until I figure it out. So maybe I'll send you a voice message in your own voice that's not creepy at all.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 41:59
Hey, I've been working on your voice. What
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 42:00
did I just say? I don't give a
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 42:03
That's so stalkerish.
Eric Readinger, Fractional CMO, Producer and Head Of Media 42:06
It's like, stand up, yep. All right, thanks, man,
Michał Stawicki 42:11
thanks guys, thanks. It was great. You.
