Center Stage / the conversation
Founder & CEO, Systematic You / Former COO, Forte Labs
Dr. Monica Rysavy operates at the precise intersection where systems, strategy, and support converge — and the complexity of what she has accomplished across her career makes even her feel tired when someone recites it all at once. She holds two earned doctorates (a Ph.D. in Learning Design and an Ed.D.), is a current law student at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law focusing on intellectual property, has authored 25+ peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and built one of the most operationally sophisticated teams in the digital education space. She is the kind of person who completes degrees while running companies. And then starts another one.
Dr. Monica Rysavy operates at the precise intersection where systems, strategy, and support converge — and the complexity of what she has accomplished across her career makes even her feel tired when someone recites it all at once. She holds two earned doctorates (a Ph.D. in Learning Design and an Ed.D.), is a current law student at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law focusing on intellectual property, has authored 25+ peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and built one of the most operationally sophisticated teams in the digital education space. She is the kind of person who completes degrees while running companies. And then starts another one. For nearly four years, Dr. Monica served as Chief Operating Officer, General Manager, and Controller at Forte Labs — the company behind Building a Second Brain, one of the most recognized personal productivity brands in the world and a 7-figure digital education startup. In that role, she reduced company spending by $30,000 in two weeks during a cashflow pivot, decreased tax liability by 85% through compliance strategy redesign, and managed cross-functional operations across product delivery, contract management, and multi-product launches. She was the operational intelligence behind a brand that reached millions of people with the message that systems can change how you think and work. When she left Forte Labs in 2024 to go full-time at Systematic You — the company she founded in December 2023 — it was not a departure from that mission. It was an expansion of it. Through Systematic You, Dr. Monica designs backend operational infrastructure for service-based founders and growing teams: custom AI tools and automations, Notion and Airtable content and client delivery hubs, systems audits, and the ongoing consulting work that transforms what she describes as 'brilliant and buried' entrepreneurs into people who can finally breathe again. Her clients include consultants, psychologists, creatives, agencies, coaches, and creators — many of them neurodivergent or multi-passionate — all united by a brain that never stops and a business that hasn't yet been organized to match it. Before Forte Labs, Dr. Monica spent 13 years at Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware as a director of institutional research and training and assistant professor, where she taught computer science and educational technology while authoring peer-reviewed work on information literacy, instructional design, and knowledge management. She also facilitated professional development courses for K-12 educators across Delaware and held graduate assistant and special project roles at Penn State University. Her career trajectory — from high school IT department chair to higher education director to startup COO to founder — is a masterclass in applied systems thinking across every environment she has entered. Dr. Monica appeared on the Center Stage segment of Mornings in the Lab to share her approach to transforming business chaos into scalable, organized systems — and to make the case that the right systems don't just make you more efficient. They give you back your ability to think.
Earned credentials without ego
I admit when you were reciting all of my background it makes me exhausted — and normally I don't feel that way. So thank you.
Dr. Monica's self-aware humor about her extraordinary credential stack sets the tone immediately: she is not someone who performs her achievements. She has simply been doing the work, consistently, across every context she has inhabited. The exhaustion is honest and endearing.
Transforming chaos into scalable systems
She transforms business chaos into scalable, well-organized systems.
The host's crisp definition of Dr. Monica's core service captures exactly what her clients need and rarely have: not more tools or more hustle, but organized backend infrastructure that scales. Chaos is the default state of growing businesses; systems are the intervention that makes growth sustainable.
Academic depth driving operational excellence
She has dual doctorates — and she's a law student.
The host's delivery of this biographical fact — with genuine comedic timing — highlights the rare academic and professional depth Dr. Monica brings to operational strategy. Her credentials are not decorative. They represent decades of applied research in learning systems, information technology, and institutional design.
Crisis-driven operational results at Forte Labs
She reduced spending by $30K in just two weeks during a cashflow pivot.
This specific metric from her time as COO of Forte Labs is the kind of number that cuts through any abstraction about what systems and operational expertise actually deliver. In a real crisis, Dr. Monica produced measurable commercial results in two weeks. That is not theoretical — it is a track record.
Financial strategy within operational leadership
She decreased tax liability by 85% through compliance strategy redesign.
Another concrete Forte Labs outcome that demonstrates the financial depth of Dr. Monica's operational scope. COO is sometimes treated as an administrative role; her record shows it is a strategic one. An 85% reduction in tax liability represents significant value creation, not just cost management.
Serving the brilliant and buried entrepreneur
My clients are brilliant and buried. My job is to give them systems that let them breathe again.
Dr. Monica's most defining description of her client profile and her mission. 'Brilliant and buried' names a specific and widespread condition in the entrepreneurial world — people with exceptional ideas and capabilities who are drowning in disorganization. Her work gives them structural relief without removing their humanity.
Human-centered systems design
This isn't about running your business like a machine. This is systems design for more than metrics.
Dr. Monica distinguishing her approach from the cold, mechanistic version of operational efficiency that many people fear. Her systems are designed to fit how people actually think and work — especially founders who are neurodivergent or multi-passionate — not to force them into rigid processes that strip the soul from what they've built.
AI automation for founder leverage
I build AI systems that run your operations when you're not in the room.
Dr. Monica's most current and forward-looking value proposition: using custom AI tools and automations to create operational infrastructure that functions without the founder being physically present. This is the leverage point that allows small teams to scale without burning out.
From Struggles to Success
Episode #CS-014
Center Stage
My clients are brilliant and buried. My job is to give them systems that let them breathe again.
This isn't about running your business like a machine. This is systems design for more than metrics.
I build AI systems that run your operations when you're not in the room.
Dr. Monica Rysavy (known professionally as Dr. Monica) is the founder and CEO of Systematic You, a systems design and operational consulting company for service-based founders and growing teams. She holds a Ph.D. in Learning Design and an Ed.D., and is currently a law student at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law. Before founding Systematic You, she served as Chief Operating Officer and General Manager at Forte Labs — the company behind Building a Second Brain — where she led operations for a 7-figure digital education startup. Through Systematic You, she builds custom AI systems, Notion and Airtable operational hubs, and backend infrastructure that allows entrepreneurs to scale without chaos. Her clients include consultants, psychologists, coaches, creatives, and agencies — many neurodivergent or multi-passionate — who need systems that fit how they actually think.
As Chief Operating Officer, General Manager, and Controller at Forte Labs from 2021 to 2024, Dr. Monica Rysavy led operations at one of the most recognized personal knowledge management brands in the world — the company behind Building a Second Brain. Her measurable accomplishments include reducing company spending by $30,000 in two weeks during a cashflow pivot, decreasing tax liability by 85% through compliance strategy redesign, and designing infrastructure to support multi-product launches. She managed cross-functional initiatives including product delivery, contract management, tax strategy, and vendor optimization while supporting a fully remote team across multiple product lines.
At Systematic You, Dr. Monica builds backend operational infrastructure tailored to how each founder actually thinks, works, and leads. Her deliverables include custom AI tools and automations (Custom GPTs, workflow automations), Notion and Airtable hubs for content management, client delivery, and internal operations, systems audits that identify friction and map strategic next moves, ongoing consulting and strategic support, and a membership community called The Systematic AF Club for founders who want to get organized without burnout. Her clients are predominantly consultants, coaches, creatives, psychologists, agencies, and multi-passionate entrepreneurs who describe themselves as brilliant but buried under disorganization.
Dr. Monica Rysavy holds two doctoral degrees: a Ph.D. (in Learning Design and educational technology) and an Ed.D. She is currently enrolled at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, focusing on intellectual property law. She spent 13 years at Goldey-Beacom College as a director of institutional research and training and assistant professor, where she taught computer science, IT, and educational technology courses. She has authored and co-authored 25+ peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and edited collections. Earlier in her career, she served as IT Academy Department Chair at a Delaware vocational high school and later held graduate assistant and special project roles at Penn State University.
Dr. Monica Rysavy's approach to AI and automation is rooted in her core philosophy: systems should be built for how people actually think and work, not to impose mechanical efficiency on human businesses. She builds Custom GPTs and workflow automations designed around a specific founder's brain and business model, not generic templates. Her goal is operational leverage: systems that run your business operations when you're not in the room, allowing small teams to scale without proportional increases in labor or cognitive load. She also helps clients understand and implement AI-adjacent tools (Notion, Airtable, automation platforms) as part of a coherent operational stack rather than a disconnected collection of apps.
The Systematic You methodology is a systems design practice built on the conviction that operational infrastructure should fit the human running the business, not the other way around. Dr. Monica designs backend systems that account for how a specific founder processes information, manages energy, and makes decisions — with particular attentiveness to the needs of neurodivergent and multi-passionate entrepreneurs who struggle with generic productivity advice. The methodology blends operational consulting, AI implementation, and strategic coaching. It is for service-based founders and growing teams who know what they want to build but are drowning in the disorganization that prevents them from building it. The result, as Dr. Monica describes it, is not a more efficient machine — it's a business that lets you breathe again.
hey we are back with Marty we're back with Johnny and we are back with Dr Monica rasabi Dr Monica good morning and welcome to morning's in the lab and I'm going to do this justo so we had you here for the crater Spotlight yesterday we gave you some of this and we're going to do it again Dr rashab morning thanks for having me absolutely so listen let's get into let's get into knowing who Dr Ravi is so do is a master of scaling systems she is an expert Johnny in custom system design and I was excited John when I knew she was coming on the show today I know systems turned your life around so she helps entrepreneurs streamline her operations and grow profitably she's the former so of Fort Labs Marty she led operations at the productivity power host behind building a second brain oh yeah we all need second brains cutting costs and optimizing efficiency she's the founder of systematic you through her company she transforms business chaos into scalable well organized systems if you're an entrepreneur right now if you're a human looking for systems this is the show you want to hang out with and Hey listen she has dual doctorates she has them been sitting around boys and she's a law student with two doctorates and currently pursuing a law degree oh yeah Monica just sits around does nothing she Blends academic Insight with practical experience to drive results and here today we are excited to bring in Dr Monica Ravi into lab here Monica thanks for hanging out with us today what's going on I'm excited to chat with you I admit when you were reciting all of my background it makes me exhausted and normally I don't feel that way so thank you somebody has to put the Good Deeds on the show
Introduction and credential stack · ~2 minutes · The host introduces Dr. Monica's extraordinary background — dual doctorates, current law student, former COO of Forte Labs, founder of Systematic You. Dr. Monica responds with characteristic humor about how exhausting the list sounds. · What Systematic You is and who it serves · ~4 minutes · Dr. Monica explains her company's core service: transforming business chaos into scalable, organized systems. She describes her typical client — brilliant and buried — and why generic productivity advice fails them. · The Forte Labs chapter: COO of a 7-figure startup · ~4 minutes · Discussion of her nearly four years as COO of Forte Labs — the operational wins, the cashflow crisis she navigated, the tax liability reduction, and what it taught her about running a digital education company at scale. · What systems actually are (and aren't) · ~3 minutes · Dr. Monica pushes back on the cold, mechanistic view of systems. She explains that real operational infrastructure is designed for human brains, not against them — and that the best systems make people feel free, not constrained. · Custom AI and automation for founders · ~4 minutes · Dr. Monica describes her current work building Custom GPTs and business automations for clients. She explains what it means to build AI systems that run your operations when you're not in the room. · The academic background and why it matters · ~3 minutes · Discussion of her Ph.D., Ed.D., and current law school enrollment — and how 25+ years of academic research in learning design and information systems directly informs her operational consulting work. · Serving neurodivergent and multi-passionate entrepreneurs · ~3 minutes · Dr. Monica discusses the specific challenges facing neurodivergent entrepreneurs and why most productivity systems fail them. She explains how her approach is built to accommodate the reality of brains that work differently. · The Systematic AF Club membership · ~2 minutes · Brief overview of her community offering — a membership for founders who want to get organized without burnout, with access to her frameworks, tools, and direct engagement. · Winning quietly: chalking up wins in the background · ~3 minutes · The host and Dr. Monica discuss her pattern of substantial achievement done without fanfare — a characteristic that the morning show culture recognized and wanted to celebrate. The distinction between building quietly and building publicly. · Closing and how to connect · ~2 minutes · Sophia closes with Dr. Monica's core message — that the right systems don't just make you more efficient, they give you back your ability to think and lead. Viewers directed to Systematic You and LinkedIn.
