Leadership Clarity, Systems & The Power of Pressing Pause with Adam Hamadache

What happens when the business you built suddenly forces you to stop?

In this episode of Time to Press Pause, Ellen Williams sits down with entrepreneur and agency founder Adam Hamadache to explore how an unexpected pause during COVID completely changed the way he approached leadership, business systems, and sustainable growth.

At the time, Adam’s company was thriving. 

Revenue was growing, the team was expanding, and everything looked successful from the outside.

But underneath the surface, the business was operating in constant reaction mode.

Then the world paused.

What started as a short trip to Australia with his family quickly turned into a five-month lockdown experience that forced Adam to step back and see his business  and himself differently.

This conversation dives into:
• leadership presence under pressure
• reactive vs intentional leadership
• why so many leaders stay trapped in constant firefighting
• the hidden cost of “we’ll figure it out”
• operational clarity and sustainable leadership
• cognitive fatigue and decision overload
• how systems create freedom instead of restriction
• why pressing pause can become a strategic advantage

Adam also shares how implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) transformed the way his company handled growth, communication, accountability, and problem-solving.

More importantly, this episode explores something deeper:

How leaders can create success without losing presence, clarity, or themselves in the process.

Because productivity without peace is not success.

If you’re a founder, executive, entrepreneur, or leader trying to balance growth with intentional leadership, this episode will resonate deeply.

Key Themes:
Leadership Presence • Strategic Pause • Sustainable Leadership • Executive Clarity • Intentional Leadership • Business Systems • Cognitive Fatigue • Creating Time • Decision Fatigue • Leadership Growth

Connect with Adam Hamadache:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamhamadache/

Website: https://thisisformula.com/

Connect with Ellen Williams:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenwilliamsny/

Website: https://thesalientstrategist.com/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Time-Ellen-Williams/dp/1637778481/

Subscribe to Time to Press Pause for more real conversations about leadership, growth, presence, and creating time for what matters most.

Transcript

speaker-0 (00:00)
Welcome, Adam, to this episode of Time to Press Pause.

speaker-1 (00:03)
Thanks, Ellen. Thanks for having me.

speaker-0 (00:05)
it's my pleasure. I'm excited to hear your Press Pause story and it's been nice meeting you So please share your Press Pause story with us.

speaker-1 (00:15)
Sure. my press pause story is back to the COVID period. I run a digital marketing agency. and I had just had a little girl, my first child. so we had her in November of twenty nineteen. I took a couple of months off. I was I was able to sort of got my business to a place where I had a brilliant management team and everyone

Did a brilliant job for our clients and we were in a really good place in business. You know, we were the biggest revenue and profit levels that we'd ever seen. and things were going really well. I came back to work in January and worked for about three or four weeks, and then I went off to Australia for three weeks, or at least that was the intention. so we had two weddings, two weeks apart.

completely different friends. It just so happened that those two weddings fell within two weeks of each other. so we flew over with our then three month old daughter and we went to the first wedding. It was it was wonderful. went to the second wedding and that was when things started turning and Australia had sort of very sort of similar timeline to the rest of the world in terms of when lockdown started, etc. and most of our businesses in the UK or at least it was back then. and so

it was that week leading up to the Saturday wedding when things really started turning in terms of you know lockdowns are announced, and my business works with lots of hotels. So obviously hospitality was one of those kind of first areas to  be kind of locked down and told you cannot open. And so what

was supposed to be, this kind of like really fun wedding week, turned into, obviously with the time zones, my evenings when everybody went off to dinner was fielding calls from clients and saying, you know what

I'm really sorry, we've got a pause. We can't do this, we can't do that. I was seeing the, you know, direct debits being cancelled, coming, you know, getting those notifications. It was like watching my business kind of implode in front of my eyes. And kind of to bring this back to that pause moment, obviously, we all know what happened thereafter. Hotels couldn't open. you know, we had a we had lots of different schemes in the UK, like you could furlough your staff. I'm sure you had something similar in the US.

Where you could obviously, you know, you get basically their salary covered by the government. And then we took a bounce back loan and all these sorts of things. But what it what it basically turned out was that, you know, we lost 75% of our revenue that week. And that small twenty-five percent stuck around and kept us in business, and we were very grateful for that. But all the hotels were closed. I had I furloughed all of my team except for one, my most senior, and

She sort of ran the show and it wasn't a really a full-time job because there wasn't a great deal to do. So I was sort of stuck in this most beautiful place in the Sunshine Coast in Australia, which coming from you know from near London, it was nice to not you know, there are places where it doesn't rain every day. I didn't know. so that was quite nice to have this wonderful tropical climate. I had this new this relatively newborn baby and I couldn't work. I jump on for an hour or so a day.

And just couldn't really do anything. and it was it was probably the first time in, you know, I started in business when I was 25. And that was the first time that I'd actually stopped and couldn't work and actually pro paused in my life. So it was amazing to

you know, challenging, but it was an amazing experience to have been through that and just seen how powerful that pause could be, even if it was, you know, not of my own making.

speaker-0 (03:37)
So that was very interesting. Certainly many of us paused during COVID. a couple of questions. You said that you had gone for two weeks, but how long did you wind up there for the lockdown?

speaker-1 (03:50)
So we were there for five months in total. Five months. Yeah. So our flight got cancelled. and actually it was it was, you know, if you wanted to get out, you could. But my partner was on maternity leave, obviously, with our newborn baby. I can work from anywhere. So we were like, do you know what we're gonna stay? and we were in an Airbnb and the guy who obviously ran his property as an Airbnb.

all of his forward bookings cancelled because nobody could travel. so he did us a really good rate. And so we ended up just me, my partner Katie and our newborn baby in this enormous villa with a pool for a very, very reduced rate. So it was actually for a time it felt like we were winning a lockdown, you know, like this is this is working out. So we were very lucky in that regard. but yeah it was it was a really

Wonderful time. We stayed there until sort of I think we came home in August. and yeah, just had had the most wonderful experience as a result. So yeah, it was great.

speaker-0 (04:45)
Awesome. So you had also said that it was the first time that you had taken a pause and you realized how powerful it was. Can you dive into that a little bit about why it was powerful?

speaker-1 (04:56)
Yeah, I think, you know, where the business obviously we're I mentioned we're in a we were in a good place. sales were going up, we had a brilliant management team, you know, profit was there. So we were the numbers were all in a really strong place, but it was almost like everything was wobbling. we were just in that sort of place where, you know, I was asking perhaps too much of my team, or we've got another client, can we squeeze them in, you know, can we can we do a bit more? And I think that was

in r on reflection a sort of a bad leadership for me to sort of keep pushing when actually I didn't I was sort of considering the needs of the business rather than the needs of my team. So that was certainly a reflection point. And actually, you know that pause what it allowed me to do was to consider that you know

we've got to make changes. You know, it's almost like the cup analogy, you know, like the capacity is this, but actually if you if you go to another a bigger cup, then your capacity goes significantly greater. And I think where we were we were sort of pouring water into an already very full cup. And in order to you know obviously this cup analogy is really w about processes, efficiency.

really understanding how we do what we do on a repeatable scale. And that was where this pause was so significant for me because I realized that actually, if we don't take this time, you just don't see you don't see the wood for the trees. You don't you're trapped in the weeds and you might want to consider in that in that idea. But you know, taking that time to pause to step back and actually say,

What's not working? Why is this not working? And I'm sort of at the moment, and certainly back then, I'm sort of fascinated by this idea that somebody has solved pretty much every problem in business that you face. There are real, rare cases where you've got a very unique problem. And actually it's just about saying, okay, this problem of you know, how do we manage capacity and consistency of delivery and all these sort of challenging things that you face in everyday business?

somebody solve that, we need to we need to work out how. and for us, you know, the EOS system, the book traction was really amazing for that, the entrepreneurial operating system for those that don't know. it's just, you know, the I think the there was a line on the back of the book that says, you know, how about you start running your business rather than your business running you? But that concept totally resonated. I was like, yes.

That's what we need. So we started to implement that and that made a big difference. So it was that moment to step back and be like, hey, what's not working here? Let's work out how we fix this and actually go to work on it rather than just kind of rushing constantly, you know, fighting fires and doing more deals. And, you know, it's crazy when I look back at how we were running the business.

speaker-0 (07:33)
That's I think that's not unique. Sure. Growth has, you know, growing pains is a real thing in business. you had me at processes and efficiency, because that's what I do for a living. I help people get unstuck. I help people understand where their processes are working and where there's room for improvement. And then I marry that with technologies. Do you have the right technologies? Do you need

a different technology. So I am all about process and documentation. What I found interesting was the fact that you had this opportunity to reflect and you had clarity in a lot of what you were explaining. So I have a question. Did you feel like you were pouring water?

in a full cup while you were doing that.

speaker-1 (08:18)
Yes, and I felt I would take the analogy even further and say, I couldn't see how full the cup was. You know, we lacked that transparency to understand whether we could actually feasibly take on a new project. And half the time it was, well, they wanna pay they wanna work with us, that's a tick. They wanna pay us, you know, a reasonable sum for doing the work, that's another tick.

Let's figure out and make it work, you know, jumping off the diving board and figuring it out on the way down. That was very much my sort of approach. which as I s you know, obviously sounds ridiculous, but you know, that's what I was doing. And I think the often at times I look back, you know, I've been in business for myself now since twenty thirteen. I look at back at those early days and

There was no guide to take you from that one man band sort of you know hustle culture that you needed to get you to where you want to be. And at some point that ethos is just not sufficient anymore to get you to that next stage. At some point you need to mature as a company. And I think you know, my COVID stories I've shared today, that was the

tipping point it made me realize in a very positive way actually that I need to sort of mature as a leader as a business owner and you know we need to have much better understanding about what business we're in what we can feasibly do and what we can't so yeah that was that was a real positive

speaker-0 (09:40)
I agree. I have been an entrepreneur and an employee off and on throughout my whole career. pretty much a solo entrepreneur every time. And how many times have you heard not only yourself say this, but others? We'll figure it out. Yeah. Right? Which is one thing you said. We'll figure it out. And that's great if something new comes along, a new opportunity that's

Not a big shiny object, but something that's actually going to be a fit for your organization. But certainly the best way to be able to figure it out is to have an operating system or a plan for your business in the first place. So can you tell us how implementing EOS changed the way you approach business?

speaker-1 (10:21)
Yeah, sure. I mean, so I'd say one of the big changes is the weekly pulse meeting that we have as a team. so you know, there was never really a but probably the most tangible benefit of the EOS system is half the time when there was an issue, I would call my managing director or she would call me, and we'd talk about the problem for probably half an hour, you know, we're taking big chunks out of each other's day.

Now it goes into the pulse document for discussion as an issue. And there's a framework around discussing that issue. So you identify it, you define it, or discuss it and then solve it, you know, and

you get all members of your team involved in that process, But you know, that's a small example of having a system to deal with the issues that arise and you know, issues will always arise. so I feel that was really useful. And also you know that they're big advocates in the EOS system of having a scorecard. You know, I think I I still remember when I read the book

some years ago now, but it talked about the scorecard is a sort of like a almost look at it like a dashboard on your car and of warning lights. And you could be on a beach somewhere and you could jump into your scorecard and see if there are any warning lights in your business based around those kind of very small select group of metrics that give you a clear understanding where your business is. and that now is something we look at every week. and then if there are

any warning lights that come on, it gets raised as an issue and we tackle it together. So just having that process for dealing with the fires is game changing. It has been for us at least.

speaker-0 (11:56)
A process for dealing with the fires. So from what you explained, have you reduced the number of fires?

speaker-1 (12:04)
Well that that's the I suppose the added benefit is that, you know, when you stop the idea that you're constantly firefighting is because you lack the processes and so therefore you're spending so much time reacting to those fires. It's a long process because every business can be quite complicated. But over time you start to reduce the amount of issues or fires, and therefore

you have a process to tackle the fires, but you also start to see the fires reduce or decline in their severity. You know, it's not like, you know, there are always going to be issues. This client wanted this, but they've got this. Okay, how do we tackle that? but they're not, you know, sort of, God, this is like game changing. This could be disastrous. You know, we're gonna run out of cash in three days. How are we gonna tackle you know, we don't have those types of issues perhaps that we might have done previously.

so yeah, I'd say that that's been a big step too.

speaker-0 (12:56)
I'm glad to hear that you're the proponent of systems. And everything you said, I suspect that in addition to having fewer fires, you probably are able to sort of head them off at the past, right? See them, coming before they happen and make sure that they don't. So I am I'm excited to hear about processes and systems because that's totally up my alley.

So I have one last question for you, Adam. what advice do you have for leaders as to when they would identify it's time to press pause, especially since your pause wasn't something that you chose to do?

speaker-1 (13:34)
Yeah, I think look, there is pause is basically the power to recharge, I would say. you know, whether that's of your own making or force, like in my situation, you know, when I was growing my business, you know, I was not gonna fail. I was, you know, working all hours and I was doing everything I possibly could. You hustle, right? And you certainly in the early days, admittedly before I had kids. So it's a bit of a bigger challenge these days.

But it's so powerful to take proper time off and proper disconnect time. And obviously that might not always happen. There might be something that needs me, but just getting time to properly recharge and then it's cause what I want is I want that sort of

extra energy, cognitive energy that you sort of a bit I almost it's so similar, I think, in terms of your cognitive fatigue, in terms of as well as your sort of muscular fatigue, like if you go if you go to the gym a lot, you know, if you if you overtrain, you start to actually in terms of the gym wise, you start to go backwards. You just hit a plateau and you cannot move forward. and I think it's the same cognitively as well. You need that proper time to

you know, just stop using those kind of problem solving part of the brain that you perhaps you do on a daily basis. have that time and then what sort of emerges is higher motivation when you're ready to go back in and fresh perspective. the pause is now an essential part of my year and I try to orchestrate

multiple pauses over the course of a calendar year 'cause I think it makes such a big difference.

speaker-0 (15:02)
Wow, what a tremendous lesson that you had a pause thrust upon you and now it's just part of your system, your, you know, your process. I love that you talked about it being a way to recharge and get a fresh perspective and a little more motivation. I certainly agree with that. but I really love the fact that you talked about cognitive fatigue.

Right. How much can we really think and problem solve? And have the energy to continue to do that. It it's funny, I just I just finished writing the book and I've been writing it for a while and now it's in the hands of my editor and I don't know what to do with myself.

It's like, you know, I've been thinking about the book and all these different sections and how I want to write it. And then I did all the writing and now it was almost like planning my wedding, right? The day after the wedding was like I don't have to think about planning my wedding anymore. So this has been great, Adam. Thank you so much for sharing not only your pause, but all the great things that came out of having that pause.

and it sounds like you have more than one kid now?

speaker-1 (16:04)
There's two of them now, yes, very two very happy young children.

speaker-0 (16:08)
Fabulous. Well, again, thank you for being here today. It was really great hearing your story.

speaker-1 (16:13)
Thanks for having me, Ellen.