Latest / The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast / The Solopreneur Scaling Without A Team with Silvio Porcellana (stage 2) - Ep. 427

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The Solopreneur Scaling Without A Team with Silvio Porcellana (stage 2) - Ep. 427 · The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast

0:00
Scott Ritzheimer: Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again
0:03
to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that
0:06
grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a
0:09
founder. I'm your host Scott Ritzheimer, and there is a trap
0:13
that catches almost every successful solopreneur. They're
0:18
so good at selling and doing whatever it is that they do,
0:23
that their demand out outstrips their capacity, and so they do
0:29
what you do. In that case, you hire some help, but only do that
0:33
to find yourself frustrated by your people, stressed out trying
0:37
to cover payroll, and ultimately doing less of what you love to
0:41
do. Why would you trade better for bigger? But that doesn't
0:46
have to be your story or even your choice. My guest has built
0:50
his entire career proving there's another path. With us
0:54
here today is Silvio Porcellana, who is an Italian developer,
0:58
marketer, and digital product builder focused on creating
1:02
scalable SaaS systems and venture-backed online
1:05
businesses. He partners with entrepreneurs to launch and grow
1:08
digital ventures through reusable infrastructure,
1:11
automation, and lean execution strategies. His work combines
1:14
software, product strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurship
1:17
to help founders move fast and build sustainable online
1:22
businesses, and he's here with us today. Sylvia, welcome to the
1:24
show from here in Atlanta, Georgia. We're glad you're here.
1:28
I want to start off with with you know this challenge that so
1:33
many successful solopreneurs run into, and and ask from your
1:37
perspective, what's the biggest mistake that you see solo
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founders make when they're at this point where they're
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drowning in tasks and trying to solve it by hiring their way
1:46
out.
1:47
Silvio Porcellana: Well, yeah. Well, first of all, thank you
1:49
for having me here, and welcome everybody. And thank you for
1:52
everybody who is listening and will have you know the time and
1:55
the patience to to listen to my you know very you know exotic
1:59
accent on and very exotic American. Well, I think the the
2:05
biggest mistake is that many entrepreneurs, small
2:09
entrepreneurs, or early stage entrepreneurs, which means that
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maybe you have been doing it even for a long time, but you
2:16
are still in the early stages, you know, of growing your your
2:19
company, your business, is not thinking in terms of systems,
2:25
right? But just thinking in terms of okay, what do I need to
2:29
do now? So the classical expression, putting up fires.
2:33
No, and you know the problem is that if you keep putting up
2:36
fires and you never stop for a second and start thinking about
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you know what ignites the fires, so the sparks that actually
2:47
cause the fires. You will always and be putting out fires, and at
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some point, most likely, they will overwhelm you. So I think
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there's this expression which is used very often, but which I
3:02
think is very well known, very you know popular, but very
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rarely actually used, is that you shouldn't work or you
3:10
should, especially work on your business rather than in your
3:15
business. And so what I think that sets apart you know early
3:20
stages, so people people you know who stay in the early stage
3:23
you know phase for 20, 3040, years, from people who actually
3:27
proceed in their journey is that little step right there. Well,
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apart from you know connections, networking, maybe a rich dad or
3:36
something like that. But apart from that, all else being equal,
3:40
focusing on systems, so really abstracting yourself from the
3:44
day-to-day work and seeing yourself as an actual resource,
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right? So, okay, I need to hire. For me, for example, I think of
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myself as I need to hire Silvio, who is a decent developer. I
3:57
mean, a relatively good developer. So, okay, I need to
4:02
hire him. Where, why, how much should I pay him? Obviously, I,
4:07
you know, pay myself the right amount. But you know, so I see
4:12
myself that way. Then I need to hire Silvio as a marketer, then
4:16
as a networker, and so on. So even if you are a solo founder
4:21
or a solopreneur, you need to think in. In any case, you need
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to think about yourself, about your business as a system which
4:30
needs to work to get to a you know an outcome, right? Which is
4:35
usually generating revenues, but you know that might not be the
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only outcome you actually want to achieve, and usually we we
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and by we I mean you know people like me who decide to you know
4:48
to embark in this solopreneur journey. We usually do this also
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because we want you know what is called a lifestyle business,
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which is sometimes used as a derogatory term, but which in
4:59
we. Realities, I think. I mean, like the perfect combination of
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you know family, fun, economic, professional, financial success,
5:08
personal success. Because usually we put our heart and
5:11
soul and you know passion into what we do, right? So the
5:15
ability to you know make all this thing, all these things
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work together by creating a system and thinking about it as
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a system is, I think, the the biggest you know gift that you
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can make yourself when you actually build and run and and
5:32
live your solopreneur career.
5:36
Scott Ritzheimer: It's one of those things that that seems
5:38
pretty easy to do, and if you were looking at somebody else's
5:41
business, it probably would be pretty easy to do from the
5:44
outside. But when you're down in it, everything and and you're
5:48
constantly firefighting and things are on fire. How do you?
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What's that first step in in creating the space to actually
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think what's igniting these fires?
5:57
Silvio Porcellana: No, that's that's a great question, and I
6:00
think that we tend, we as human beings, and then as
6:08
entrepreneurs, we tend to see fires much bigger and more
6:13
dangerous than what they really are. And this takes a lot of our
6:19
time and resources, and it you know makes us incredibly tired.
6:25
While instead, usually they are well. Obviously, my as you can
6:29
tell, my vocabulary is not so ample, but they are very small
6:32
fires in reality that can stay there and that maybe go out by
6:38
themselves. Out of the metaphor, right? Very often we, you know,
6:44
we have a set of clients. We have people that pay us, right?
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And so often we think that they are buying us, right? That we
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are there. I mean, at their total disposal. That is not
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absolutely the case. So I think that is something that needs to.
7:00
That that switch is what changes your perspective from being an
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artisan, from being you know like a professional to being an
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entrepreneur, right? Yeah. The the let's say the the priority
7:15
of the whoever sells services is the customer, right? I mean,
7:24
making sure the service is perfect for the customer and all
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that kind of stuff. The priority of an entrepreneur is the
7:32
system, right? So making sure that the system that you're
7:36
putting place keeps working, stays alive, and keeps growing,
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right? So when you start to think to prioritize the right
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way, okay? So you start to say no. You start to say no. Now I'm
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not available, even if you don't say it out loud. But you make
7:57
sure that time is blocked, that you are not always reachable and
8:02
all that kind of stuff. Life changes, okay. Life changes, and
8:06
especially you free up resources that you can then direct into,
8:12
you know, making the system work, right? So delegating,
8:17
which doesn't necessarily mean delegating to other people,
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okay, because we said we want to tendentially live, you know,
8:24
this solopreneur life, which doesn't at the same time also
8:27
mean that you cannot have some people that can help you,
8:30
virtual assistants, and all that. Okay, but thinking
8:35
abstract yourself from the day to day, and after all,
8:38
understanding that the client is not always right. That you don't
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always have to answer in five minutes because you're not going
8:46
to lose that client. And if you lose that client because you
8:49
haven't answered in five minutes, maybe it was a client
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that was worth losing, right? And maybe that freed some time
8:58
so that you you can create a system to find more clients,
9:02
better clients. So if you lose one client and you have some
9:07
free time-not free, but you know some free resources that you can
9:10
redirect somewhere else, you can find 10 more which are more in
9:14
line with what your you know vision of your life of your work
9:18
is. Right.
9:20
Scott Ritzheimer: That's very good. So I want to follow up
9:22
with that. So let's say that someone has has you know clawed
9:27
and scratched their way to some free time. They've gotten a
9:30
chance to step back. Where do they look first? What have you
9:34
found in all this experience? Are some of the more important
9:37
systems to start with?
9:40
Silvio Porcellana: Well, you know, I think in reality this
9:42
really depends on the personality of the actual
9:46
entrepreneur because I think that especially in our case, but
9:49
also when you know the company grows, I think it is important
9:53
that what you do is in line with who you are, right? I mean,
9:56
aligns with who you are. So, for example, in my case. That I am a
10:00
very product-oriented person in a sense that I like to write
10:04
code. In reality, I never thought I would. I mean, anybody
10:08
would ever pay me in Word for for writing lines of code, which
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was my passion ever since you know I I began 40 years ago. So
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you know, every time I want to solve a problem, I start writing
10:23
some systems. I have a platform that I use, you know, that I
10:27
sell, but I also use for myself. So I have my I don't know to do
10:30
list, my personal you know project management system and
10:34
personal productivity system. So you know I start there, right?
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So I start saying, okay, now I want to. For example, something
10:40
I'm focused at the moment right now is building my own agents,
10:45
which which AI agents, which which align with my personality,
10:49
with my needs, with my capacities and my you know you
10:53
know limitations. So I think I know that that's not maybe the
10:59
the answer. I mean, the concrete answer that your audience was
11:04
expecting. But what I can say is that the first step is look
11:09
inward. What is missing? What do you? How are you? What are your
11:14
weaknesses and what are your strengths? And build on that.
11:18
Okay. So are you an extrovert? Okay. So focus on networking.
11:22
Focus on finding people. Leverage your capacities, right,
11:27
and build systems on top of that. While not forgetting,
11:31
obviously, that you also need discipline. That you also need
11:34
to fill the holes, the you know the the shortcomings that you
11:39
have, right. So the the main thing, because this is a life
11:43
journey. It's not just a job. Otherwise, you know, we would be
11:46
sending you know CVs and try to be hired by companies, by a
11:50
bank, or whatever else, right? If we wanted the classical nine
11:54
to five job, this is a life journey. It's something where
11:57
you, you know, express yourself, right? So to express yourself,
12:03
you need to know who you are. What is this self, right? So the
12:07
first step, well, first, even if it's even if you have been doing
12:11
this for 3040, years, it could be your first step toward you
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know a better balance and a better entrepreneurial life and
12:19
more financial and more professional success because
12:22
that comes automatically. I mean, it cannot. I mean, you
12:26
cannot miss if you you know know who you are, what you want,
12:30
what's your mission, what's your vision, and then you act on it.
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Obviously, you cannot fail.
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Scott Ritzheimer: It's so important because yeah, because
12:41
like you're saying, like staying a solopreneur is a deeply
12:45
personal choice. I think the primary reason why you would do
12:48
it is to keep doing the things that you like. So even if you
12:52
were to avoid you know getting into this situation where you
12:54
had to manage a whole bunch of people, you could still work
12:57
yourself out of doing the things that you like by automating the
13:00
wrong thing, and so while that might not be a hey start in this
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for everyone all the time, it's an even more concrete answer for
13:10
for folks that are listening. So Sylvia, I absolutely love that.
13:13
It does bring me to a question. It's a question I ask everyone,
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and I'm interested to see what you'd have to say. But the
13:19
question is this: What would you say is the biggest secret that
13:23
you wish wasn't a secret at all? What's that one thing you wish
13:26
every founder watching or listening today knew?
13:30
Silvio Porcellana: Focus on your strength, and let me explain
13:34
that. Usually, we are taught in school, in family, and all that
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that we need to strengthen our weaknesses, right? Okay, but
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that is hard. That is very hard, and usually you achieve a
13:50
certain level of success by you know strengthening your
13:54
weaknesses. So okay, I I don't know. I don't know how to do
13:57
marketing, for example. No, it's not. Let's say, for example, I'm
14:01
not very good at marketing, so I need to study study a lot of
14:04
marketing and to do that. But I am very good at coding, right?
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So the classical, you know, the traditional approach is you need
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to study marketing, you need to focus on that because you need
14:13
to bring that to the level. No, I think that's not the case.
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Delegate what you can outsource what you can. I don't like the
14:23
term, or better. I like the term delegate in some cases, but I
14:27
like also the term outsource in a sense that find somebody who
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is very good at what you're not good at and partner up with him.
14:36
Okay, with him or her, obviously. But then focus on
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your strength because you can leverage a lot of what you know,
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what you are good at, to get to a position where you can really
14:50
outsource what you are not good at, and you can keep doing what
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is what are your core strengths. That I think is is a win. Win in
15:00
in in the sense that it is a win in terms of you know results
15:05
because if you you know empower and you you grow what you are
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already good at you can get to very I mean I mean really high
15:17
positions right and at the same time it makes life easier and
15:21
after all, while I agree and I think I mean I profoundly think
15:26
that a fourth discipline is something which is extremely
15:30
important in life. In the end, it is also important that you
15:34
enjoy what you are doing because otherwise you will not be doing
15:38
it anymore. Right?
15:39
Scott Ritzheimer: Yeah, it's so true.
15:40
Silvio Porcellana: So it's so true. That's that's a little bit
15:42
of you know what I what I thought and what I arrived to in
15:46
in in in all these years.
15:48
Scott Ritzheimer: I really like that, and I like the I like the
15:50
language of outsourcing. And and on that note, none of us is the
15:54
complete picture. So there's something for all of us to
15:56
outsource. And you've been doing this for a while. You've got a
15:58
lot of these systems figured out. And like you mentioned
16:01
earlier, you've got a platform for helping folks. Tell us a
16:04
little bit about that. If someone wanted to take the next
16:06
step, where can they reach out to you and find more out about
16:08
the work that you do?
16:09
Silvio Porcellana: Yeah, sure. Well, first of all, they can go.
16:11
I mean, my my presence online, my online presence is my website
16:15
silvioporcellana.com. That's so that's my first and last name.
16:19
com. What I do well, let's say that I started solve well as
16:24
every programmer does. I wrote my personal CMS. I mean,
16:29
everybody does. It's like a rewrite of passage, right, for
16:32
everybody who writes code. That was like 35 years ago, probably.
16:36
Then I discovered the mobile web. I fell in love with the
16:39
mobile web with the idea that you could access the web, this
16:42
fantastic, you know, huge library of knowledge, even with
16:48
your phone, and I'm talking before the iPhone came out,
16:52
right? So we're talking about WAP, Nokia phones. I mean, I
16:56
imagine you haven't even seen those those pieces of
17:00
archeology. Anyway, so in time, I you know expanded this
17:05
platform, and now what I do is basically I let's say I partner
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up with entrepreneurs and marketers and salespeople who
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want to build their own SaaS business in this space, right?
17:21
So I provide the technology in a totally white label fashion. So
17:25
I build partnerships, you know, geographical partnerships,
17:30
demographic part. So I have a very strong partner in the U.S.
17:33
which, for example, is targeting let's say seniors, right? So we
17:38
build a business targeting that kind of demographic in the U.S.
17:44
I have a partner here in Italy. I have a partner in Australia.
17:47
We define an enterprise together. Let's say we call it a
17:53
joint venture, and then we target specific markets. So
17:57
whoever wants to, you know, have a chat about you know my
18:01
entrepreneurial journey, or explore what we could do
18:04
together in this environment right here, in this kind of you
18:07
know space, and you know with this kind of with this kind of
18:12
vision, it's more than welcome to to get in touch with me again
18:16
at silvioporcellana.com.
18:18
Scott Ritzheimer: Brilliant, brilliant. We will give that in
18:20
the show notes for you all. Definitely recommend that you
18:23
check it out, see some of Silvio's past work, and explore
18:26
what opportunities are there. Silvio, it was a privilege and
18:29
honor having you here on the show today. Thanks so much for
18:32
being on, and for those of you who are watching and listening,
18:34
you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you
18:37
got as much out of this conversation as I know I did,
18:40
and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care. Hey
18:48
everyone, Scott Ritzheimer here. Thank you so much for listening
18:51
to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode
18:54
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