Mindset Innovations Consulting: How Dave Machovsky Turns Supervisors Into Leaders

Dave Machovsky started on the manufacturing floor at 18 and worked his way up to director of operations, watching great workers get promoted into leadership with no one teaching them how to lead. As the founder, president and CEO of Mindset Innovations Consulting, Dave now helps manufacturers, mining operations, healthcare facilities and colleges build leaders who get results and keep them. In this Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, Dave shares the day a CEO asked him to name his price, why a membership that never took off led to his Leadership Operation System, and how trusted partners and the leaders he trains keep opening new doors.

Hi, Dave Machovsky! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

Mindset Innovations Consulting develops leaders who get results and keep them. We work with manufacturers, mining operations, healthcare facilities and colleges, training leaders at every level, from team leads all the way up to executives. Most of the supervisors we meet were promoted because they were great at the work, and nobody ever taught them how to lead people. We change that through Training Within Industry (TWI), our LeadSet leadership program, SellSet for sales teams and our Problem Solving Mastermind. Every leader we train leaves with a scorecard built from their real job expectations and a handful of daily tools they actually use, and our Leadership Operation System keeps those habits going long after the training week ends. The impact shows up in the numbers. One Midwest manufacturer cut its turnover from 49% to 36% in a year, and a mining operation that was close to shutting down over state violations now runs with minimal violations and recently came through a federal safety audit strong.

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

It was the day a CEO called me into his corporate office. I had just finished a one-off training at his Midwest manufacturing company, and he looked at me and asked, "How do I keep you? Name the price." I gave him a number for a full year of work, and he said yes. Up to that point I was an experienced operations leader running a young firm. Walking out of that office, I knew I had built something people valued enough to invest in for the long haul. That engagement went on to cut their turnover 13 points, and partway through the year he doubled my time onsite.

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

I started in manufacturing at 18 and stepped into my first leadership role at 24. I worked my way up from first-line supervisor to director of operations, and at 3M's Knoxville, Iowa plant I oversaw operations across milling, compounding, converting, coating and more, including a focus factory that ran $300 million a year. Along the way I watched the same story play out over and over. Good people got promoted into leadership because they were great at their jobs, and then they were left to figure out leading people on their own. Some made it. A lot of them struggled, and their teams felt it. I had been in that seat myself, and I knew the right tools and coaching could make all the difference. I wanted to put what worked for me in the hands of leaders across every industry, so I started Mindset Innovations Consulting.

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

Our Leadership Operation System has made the biggest difference. Training fades within a few weeks once the trainer leaves the building, so we built a system our clients run every day. It holds every leader's scorecard, training record, EHS audits, problem solving and one-on-one coaching in one place. Leadership can see who has been trained, who is using the tools and what's still open. It keeps the results going long after our training week ends, and it turned our business from one-time training events into ongoing partnerships with our clients.

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

Early on, we launched a monthly membership that gave people access to a vault of our leadership and TWI templates. It seemed like a smart way to build recurring revenue, but people never really understood what it was, and it never took off. That taught me what clients actually want: results that last after we leave. So we retired the membership and put that energy into the Leadership Operation System, which keeps leaders using the tools every day and gives executives real visibility. That shift changed how we serve clients and how we grow as a company.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

We grow through partners that manufacturers already trust. We deliver training through state Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers in Iowa, Colorado, Maryland, Connecticut and Arizona, and through universities like Grand View, where The Jacobson Institute builds certifications on our content. Those partners put us in front of the right leaders, and once we do great work, the leaders we train carry our name with them. One safety manager we trained moved to a new company and told his new general manager, "You should get Dave here." That one sentence turned into one of our premium clients.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

Overdeliver on your first client, and every client after that. Give every client more value than they expect, because those clients become your best salespeople. A CEO asking how to keep you, or a leader recommending you to their new boss, will grow your business faster than any ad. Also, your experience is your biggest asset. Start with what you already know better than anyone, and build from there.

Want to dive deeper into Dave's work? Check out the links below!

• Visit Mindset Innovations Consulting's website: mindsetinnovationsconsulting.com/
• Connect with Dave Machovsky on LinkedIn: Dave Machovsky
• Learn more about Leadset.
• Explore more about Sellset.