Entrepreneur Unleashed

Developing Grit Through Entrepreneurship ⎮ Sergio Tronconis

Edward Collins Season 1 Episode 28

In this episode of Entrepreneur Unleashed, Edward Collins interviews Sergio Trocones, a manager at a hedge fund and former marketing agency owner.

Sergio explains that the freedom to create value was a major factor in leaving the 9-5, and he also remarks that money follows value creation.
He also discussed how reading books and getting close to mentors were fundamental in developing the necessary tenacity when talking to experienced people.

Don't miss out on this insightful conversation!
Tune in now and start unleashing your entrepreneurial potential!

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I offer web classes on how to Own Nothing But Control Everything. The secrets that millionaires use to stay protected, pay the least taxes possible, and keep growing their wealth. If you're interested in learning more about this opportunity, go to: https://thefinancialfreedomblueprint....

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Edward Collins:

Awesome. This is entrepreneur unleashed podcast episode with Sergio. Take one and there's only one take.

Sergio Tronconis:

My name is Sergio trakone. And this is entrepreneur unleashed.

Edward Collins:

Welcome back to another episode of entrepreneur unleashed. My name is Edward Collins, I'm your host. And if you've been watching any of these episodes, you know that I firmly believe that the best way to shortcut your journey of success is to learn vicariously through others, other business owners that have been through the thick and thin of it have been where you may be now and where you're looking to get to, you can learn from what they've been doing, essentially, knowledge is is something that is your power, your ability to get that knowledge and then ultimately put it into action is what's going to change your life. So we're joined today in studio by Sergio. Sergio is going to talk about his life. And I'm going to ask him tons of questions. And I know you guys don't want to wait any longer. So let's just jump right into it. Sergio, thank you so much for being here.

Sergio Tronconis:

Thank you for having me.

Edward Collins:

Oh, it's a pleasure. I know that that I know a lot about what you're doing. But the audience may not. So if you wouldn't mind give us like a, a high level perspective of who you are and what you're doing right now.

Sergio Tronconis:

Sure. I am an entrepreneur. And right now I'm a manager at a hedge fund. Been doing it for a year now before that I used to run a marketing agency. So I've been doing a ton of different things over the last seven years since I first quit the nine to five. And yeah, right now it's raising capital for our hedge fund.

Edward Collins:

Awesome. When you look at at the nine to five, that that was, that's where a lot of people are at the moment. They're actually thinking about getting into entrepreneurism, they're trying to think, well, how can I start a business? What type of business? Can I start? What before you start your business in the nine to five? What was it that motivated you to want to get out of that?

Sergio Tronconis:

Well, I think it's a good question. Because it's, it's different depending on on anyone you ask. So for me, it's freedom, right? The nine to five, I like to do what is best for the business. And sometimes when you work at a business that's either midscale or large, you can only work within the parameters that they give you. So I am a very creative person. And for me, I need the freedom to find out what's best for the customer, the investor, and what's best for the business. And if I have that freedom for myself to do, I know that I can take the business a lot further. So that's the main reason for me if money comes second, I tend not to be too money focused, I'd rather focus on the business and the money is the byproduct but of course, you know, the money would come second.

Edward Collins:

Yeah, I mean, if you're creating value for people value creation, it's access to money and money follows value creation in general. So what got you into the nine to five though? Like what Tell me a little bit about your background?

Sergio Tronconis:

So it's funny because I actually I dropped out of college, okay. And the way that I got into the nine to five was coincidental because number one when I dropped out I was a biology student. So I know nothing about sales marketing, okay, you know, in sales is one of the fundamental aspects of any business and for any of you guys out there if you are wanting to get more money in your in your life, get into sales, are we say that so I went to biology dropped out, and I met this developer through a family connection. And he was working with investors, right, I started raising so property development, property development, yeah. Okay. He was raising money from foreign investors and raising money through private equity. And I said, I love this space looks like there's a ton of money there. Let me work for you. It was kind of he gave me a chance to work there. And that was my first corporate job, just figuring out sales and marketing and raising money from 80 year olds, and I was a 1920 year old struggling because, you know, nobody takes a younger kid serious raising money. But I think that for me, was the fundamental piece of my life to develop that grit, right is dealing with all of that. And that's where it all started from.

Edward Collins:

I know that like as a young person it's it can be difficult and intimidating to be around people that have money because you don't have any yet also be around people that haven't life experience, because you don't have any yet exactly what what was it that that gave you the ability, the grit, if you will, to go into work each day and meet with people. Did you have mentors at the time? Or were you reading lots of books? Like what was it?

Sergio Tronconis:

Yeah, actually, it was reading lots of books, but that's not enough. Right? I mean, you have to implement so you read implement read implement at that age, I don't know many mentors. So one of my biggest mentors was the owner of that development. Okay. We got close, right. He was a family friend. So you know, our relationship was closer from the gecko. But it's also finding people through life right? There's coincidences that happen you're at a you're at an event networking event and you you look at the person that's way above you and you need to have that mindset as every It sucks in the beginning. And that's gonna be you and everything whenever you start. Yeah. And you got to understand that the person that doesn't suck, that's where you have to go and connect with right? And because that's what's going to level you up. So that was that's always been a mindset for me is not being the smartest person in the room. If anything being the lowest person a root cause that tells me I'm right. I mean, you're in the right room. Yeah. So that's that's how it helped me. And yet it 1920 years years old, imagine me in an oversized suit. Yeah, you know, and I've been there. I remember when I did it. So yeah, I was raising EB fives. And I'm sure you know that. Yeah, that is and it was foreign investors, you know, trying to give them a green card. Green Card, their family, they're under a lot of pressure. Yeah. And it was tough. But it was necessary for me to develop that grit. So put yourself in positions to develop grit. In order to get far

Edward Collins:

yeah, the green card through through investment is definitely an interesting process for a lot of people go. When when you look at that experience for you, like when you were in the nine to five, we use networking at that point to where did you So you started off networking, getting to know people because technically you were in sales, but as an employee, not as an independent contractor. Correct.

Sergio Tronconis:

So it's interesting, because when I got hired at first, they would supply leads to me, right to start getting oriented to start making calls. And then all of a sudden, they said, You got to hit the streets. So I had to develop my own leads. It took two years, but I was able to do it successfully. I raised 9 million at 20 years old. Yeah, for me at that, at that age was huge. Yeah. And it was good money. You know, for a 20 year I was making the most money out of all my friends. Exactly. And yeah, I had to go out there knock on doors, I was working with a lot of realtors, EB fives, there's a lot of Realtors in Miami, a lot of dough with foreign investors. And I was knocking on a lot of their doors, and I was able to build a whole database of two to 3000 realtors, Oh, wow. Two years, because I was going to events everywhere all the time. I was driving everywhere every week. So yeah, I mean, it was it was a lot of networking.

Edward Collins:

What was your like, main like, tool, if you will, in networking, like did you have like a tactic that utilized in order to connect with people what was at the time or now at the time.

Sergio Tronconis:

So at the time, it was? Well through through through these networks and connections that I would make, I would always try to have a sales pitch or some type of presentation for the realtors. That would be my tactic. Okay, because it was a lot more transactional. And that's why I asked you whether it was before now because now since I am the one of the managing partners of currents capital, the way I network is getting closer to the investor really understanding their needs, because back then it was a lot more transactional. EB five, I know exactly what your needs are. You just need to know your money safe. Right? And you need to make sure that we're developing the necessary jobs so that you could get your butt over here. Exactly. So back then it was a lot of public speaking. Okay. Yeah.

Edward Collins:

And then so public speaking is interesting, too, because you you're going out in public, talking about your pitch sharing that pitch with with people that were stranger to you otherwise? What did you do in order to learn how to do that?

Sergio Tronconis:

Well, trial and error, trial and error and a lot of YouTube videos, right? This? God bless my girlfriend, she used to help me a lot, you know, back then, it was the nitty gritty in the bedroom, one bedroom apartment that she had. And, you know, we would practice in there. And I'm sorry, I got good. But I know that the first few presentations were horrific. Oh, yeah. But eventually, I was giving presentations to groups of 50 people, and then 100 people and then 150 people. And it got interesting.

Edward Collins:

I think this is a really important topic for people to really resonate with, because the concept of practicing so many people don't do it. No, like, they'll go out there, and they'll just try to wing it. I mean, I, I think it's so underrated the value that you get from actually doing things over and over and again, before you're doing them in front of other people. Right, exactly. To test it out. Like I can remember, when I was younger, I was basically learning how to sell as well. And I would just practice in front of the mirror, just saying it over and over again. I know that sounds strange. But literally every, every every person of success has practiced what it takes to get them the success they want. Right? Like we've talked about sports, you're not like if you're a basketball player, you're not taking shots just in the game. Right? Right. You're going into the courts beforehand, you're going the courts after the game and you're you're doing it over and over again. But the same thing happens in business and sales. I love I love that you touched on that. When you look at where you were then so you were you're doing pretty well, in the sales capacity. I mean, you raised a ton of money at such a ridiculously young age. Like, that's unheard of. A lot of people don't do that. Why? Why did you make a decision then to transition out because you're making good money?

Sergio Tronconis:

Because what freedom it was the freedom the freedom.

Edward Collins:

Describe the freedom for me, like, what was it that you were seeking?

Sergio Tronconis:

It's funny because when I first started at that development agency, or that real estate developer, they were starting out. So I had, I was wearing many hats. And for me, that was great, because I was exploring my strengths. And that was how I was able to find that position of hey, official capital raiser. And eventually, they came with the process of implementing strategies and implementing systems that would restrict my parameters in my position. So from there, I said, Hey, I'm making good money. Okay, but I'm not happy anymore. Right. So what did I do, I started learning how to trade. And I've been, I've been trading from before this job. I've been dabbling. I mean, a lot of you know, what forex and stocks are. So I started learning about what all of that was. And throughout that transition, I was like, let me really learn how to trade and like we just said, practice, I started waking up earlier started learning how to trade from 4am to 8am, when I had to go to work, and then when I got home from 6pm, to 10pm. So I was trying to condense the most amount of time to get out in the fastest amount of time possible. And I was successfully able to do it. So that was the main reason trading, I actually started making more than I was making at that at the developer. Okay. And I quit from there. I resigned I hate the word quit. I resigned. And from there, it's just it's, it's been the entrepreneurship journey. know, when I started

Edward Collins:

when you handed in that resignation, it was scary. Did you have a plan B in place at that point in time or plan being Oh, man, so what did you do like though? Like you handed resignation, then what was the next step?

Sergio Tronconis:

Just as a lot of people trading about keep growing.

Edward Collins:

So you're basically saying, Okay, I'm gonna make my money. Basically, engaging in trading activity. Exactly. And I'm hoping that that'll be enough to support the lifestyle on

Sergio Tronconis:

myself and my girlfriend, because that was another thing, right? We all have goals. We want to start retiring. We start making money, we start retiring people. Yeah, exactly. Right. So yeah, for me, there was never a Plan B, I just, I can't picture myself ever quitting when I start something. So yeah, that was always my plan a but it's funny, because in life, there's always going to be coincidences. And throughout the time, I started meeting partners, right, like my current partner, Cody, who was a big piece of my puzzle that started introducing me to new businesses. So one part is always sticking to the plan A, but always being open to perceiving those opportunities and those strategic partnerships that could either shift you to a new industry that you haven't touched yet, or make you better in your current industry, because the moment you think you know, everything you start losing, yes, you know, so it's always staying a student. That's, that's what I've always told myself as well.

Edward Collins:

Now, during that period of time, did you struggle at all? Was there any issues that came up? Like, tell tell us a little bit about that?

Sergio Tronconis:

My rock bottom was when I had to steal toilet paper from a Japanese restaurant. Oh, wow.

Edward Collins:

I'm definitely gonna dive into that. Yeah, what led up to the rock bottom? Not the rock bottom itself. But what led up to it.

Sergio Tronconis:

The mindset in trading. I mean, if I'm sure you've traded before, it's, for me, it's 80% mindset. And the moment I quit those first six months were like living in heaven, because the negativities didn't start hitting it. The pressure of maintaining the bills paid, you know, the debt paid. So I started making bad trades. I started thinking negatively, more bad trades started coming in, and I started getting more and more into debt. The account started coming down and every single day, you're like, crap, you know, I have to make another trade, you start overtrading making more bad decisions. So it's, it's part of it right now. I laugh, but in the moment, it was, it was tough. And that one night, my girlfriend I went to go eat at a Japanese restaurant in Miramar, and she came back and we were outside in the in on the street, and she's like, Hey, I did something. Don't be mad at me, but I know you're gonna be happy about it. She opened up her purse, and it was a piece of toilet paper or like the whole roll. And we celebrated and then we were done celebrating. We're like, what have we got into that we're celebrating stealing this piece of toilet paper. So for me, might sound silly, but the toilet paper was a huge shift in my life. And that because remember, when you're in a negative mindset, you're not perceiving any opportunities. You're just in the ship. So that's what flipped a switch. And I'm like, Okay, I need to, I understand myself. I can't live completely off of trading. Because the pressure for me too much. I need to have at least two sources that offset each other. And that's where I started perceiving opportunities. And guess what, six months later I met my partner, we started getting into different businesses, and things started getting better.

Edward Collins:

Okay, what was the first business you got into?

Sergio Tronconis:

With my partner? Yes. Marketing Marketing? Yeah. So

Edward Collins:

let's talk about that a little bit like what was that business like? So it's

Sergio Tronconis:

all it's, it was all social media marketing, branding, content creation, you know, podcasts like this. And I was always reluctant to be on social media. So it was a big mindset shift, paradigm shift. And it was tough for me to transition simply because, hey, I need to do this, or else I'm gonna keep trading negatively. So I need to offset it. So I had to have that personal conversation with myself. Yeah. And make it happen. So that agency, we ran it, I ran it with him for about four or five years, he ran it before me, but he brought me on as one of the guys that would have the client relationships with their, with their clients, and, you know, manager of all the people that would be working with us. And it was a good, it was a good journey, because that's what helped me build my social presence, because that's what we were doing for people. And I said, Why not myself. So I started growing my page just started creating content started going to networking events, again. Because as a trader, you say, I'm a hermit now,

Edward Collins:

in front of my screens, and I'm gonna exactly let that be the way I live my life.

Sergio Tronconis:

Exactly. And that and I'm an extrovert, I'm an introverted extrovert. Okay, so I like to go out and meet people. So for me, I see it as a coincidence, because they're strengths that I wasn't using. And thanks to that, I was able to start using them again. And they flourish. So I was okay, this is a sign that I gotta I gotta go all in. And I did. And things really blew up from there. Okay, yeah.

Edward Collins:

Now, you're in an environment where you're building your social media presence and that point, yep. What were some of the tactics you use to do that?

Sergio Tronconis:

There's many. There's, of course, content creation, there's advertising, there's press release that you can that you can obtain paid press, it helps with views. And then there's leveraging influencers, right. So we did a lot of leveraging influencers, we had a whole bunch of connections that would bring influencers to the table.

Edward Collins:

What like, what type of connections you're talking about, like?

Sergio Tronconis:

So there's brokers out there that they would find a plethora of influencers that would be willing to run campaigns for other people, right? Hey, go follow this guy. Like, shout out. So

Edward Collins:

shout out essentially, yeah. So that

Sergio Tronconis:

that was the main thing we were doing. Okay. And that's how I grew mine. So it was a mix of shout outs going to networking events and advertising content. There's, there's a formula to it. Okay. Right. But

Edward Collins:

when you look at at the things that moved the needle the most, what would that have been? In what sense from building like building your social profile? Like, what were the things that you were doing that had the most impact? Getting in front of the camera? Get in front of? That's it started, right? Yep. And how did you build the confidence to do that? Because that so many people are so like, fearful of getting on camera in the first place.

Sergio Tronconis:

Yeah, same mentality I use when I started doing the speaking gigs. So it's funny, because I've done speaking, I've done speaking in front of hundreds of people. But when I raise the camera, and I'm in front of a story, I start stuttering messing up. Yeah. It's like, how am I getting nervous with myself? You know, so? Because there's the on the other side, there's maybe 100,000 50,000 people watching you? Yeah, you know, so that's, it gets in your head. But what we mentioned at first is practice, right? You have to do it. Sometimes you just got to pick it up, talk your stuff, post it, don't even think about it. Right. Whatever happens, which sometimes those are the best type. Oh, is when you actually mess up five times because you feel more human? Oh, yeah. You know, sometimes we tend to get too robotic. So yeah, that was it for me is kind of just filming, posting, filming, posting until I got good at it. Yeah.

Edward Collins:

And it's the repetition, the repetition. We live in, in this Instagram society right now, where most people just see the end result. They just see the good stuff. Exactly. They see the edited clip Exactly. Like I had one post on on Instagram has like, over two point. Wow. 2.1 million views on it. That's awesome. Right. But I didn't take that in one take. I mean, I believe I am sure. I imagine like my team could tell you Yeah, probably took 19 days. Yeah, in order to get like something that says 45 seconds. And that's the reality like, yeah, I when I post and it's published, it sounds great, right? Because it's curated? Correct. Take my team has edited it. Make sure that you get the right angles

Sergio Tronconis:

and they cut you off like that time. Sounds like a whole sentence sounds exactly. Yeah. And

Edward Collins:

that process is something even then it's taken me a long time to be able to get it down to just 19 takes right Right, right like because one I am perfectionist, so you don't need to be that though, right? There are plenty of people that can build a real good social media presence without, without having like perfection in in the mix. Right? You can you can just be authentically you. Right. And that can move the needle with

Sergio Tronconis:

Yeah. And I and that's a good topic, because it. it's a good point. Because there's a lot of influencers out there that they're too perfect. Yeah, right. And for me, now that we're in the topic of the marketing, there's an influencer bubble, there's two mega right. And there's gonna be a point where influencers are just doing things for money and perfection. And people are gonna stop following them, people are going to stop buying from them, companies are going to stop trusting influencers. And there's going to be a whole shift right of out of the millions of influences, or are probably half of those are going to get chopped off. And the ones that are going to say are the ones who are influential in their own authenticity, and people who follow them because they can actually connect. But if I go on social media, I'm like, I'm perfect. I've never been through any struggle, I make millions on a daily basis, right? Who the hell is gonna connect with me? Exactly. Because the big guys aren't on social media anyway. Exactly. You know? So you got to have that authenticity, and there's no better vibration than authenticity. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. And authenticity is just when you incorporate that conversations flow.

Edward Collins:

I was talking with another social media star, if you will, millions of subscribers type of situation. And he was just talking about just be authentically you. Because there's a billion people on the planet, about 6 billion of them using using some form of social media at any given point in time, right? You don't need all 6 billion in your camp, you need the ones who resonate with you. And if you if you try to be fake, I mean, that's just so much work. Like you constantly have to be someone who you're not. I, like I am who I am, right, like when you see me on socials, that's just me. Maybe 19 takes later, but it's still made. I mean, I don't I don't present myself to be anything other than who I am. Right. And I just think that that's the that's the thing that that gets people to connect and resonate with me. Correct. And I think that that's why people resonate with you, you are who you are, like, when I dive through your social media. And I'm like, Yeah, that's Sergio. Yeah, because I had a conversation with him the other day, he's, this is how he talks.

Sergio Tronconis:

Yeah, I have some videos and reels on there that I just stuttered two times, and I'm like, whatever.

Edward Collins:

But that's just you. And that's why people resonate with you. That's why people connect with you. And that helped move the needle in your agency. And it build your build your popularity and build your people can know like, and trust you. What was the next step, though? Because the the marketing endeavor that was how long was that?

Sergio Tronconis:

That was years. Yeah, that was that turned into my whole career, essentially. I mean, I started doing trading part time at that time.

Edward Collins:

Okay. Yeah. And then what made you decide to make a change? I was again, that happens, right? You made a change out of the nine to five, because you want it freedom. Correct. But now you were in a state of quote, unquote, a freedom as much as any business owner can be really free. We're the crazy one.

Sergio Tronconis:

We go from nine to five to 24/7.

Edward Collins:

Exactly right. We trade the ability to work 40 hours for someone else to work 80 to 100 hours for us Exactly. Which

Sergio Tronconis:

I really rather do anything. Absolutely.

Edward Collins:

It's your it's your baby. Yeah. But what was the thing that motivated you to make another change,

Sergio Tronconis:

from marketing, to marketing to anything else? Well, I think there's two things. Number one, social media marketing agencies, right now, there's a lot of them, it got real saturated, gotta be backtrack, it got real saturate, and there's a lot of them that are kind of falling off, and revenue starts slowing down. So that's number one. And number two, we just want it to get bigger. And sometimes the vehicle that you're in isn't the indicated vehicle, right? It's not the correct one, there's some vehicles that you could really squeeze the juice out of. And we said, Where do the wealthy play? Right? Hedge funds,

Edward Collins:

they play with money? Money,

Sergio Tronconis:

Right? So we saw an opportunity, because we're always also investing our money. And we found some really good strategies that work for us. So we said, why can't we just implement these strategies? We've built a huge network of people over the last six, seven years. And we bring those opportunities to the few people who are accredited within those networks to our fund. Okay, so it has to do with that. And, you know, the strategies that we found in understanding that, hey, we do have big goals, we do have audacious goals. We have to find a new vehicle that that can do that for US interests. And for me, marketing has always been real good for me because it helps me better connect with people, right? Everything has to do with relationships, and being able to go through that marketing phase before I got into the hedge fund phase. Kind of reintroduce me again, To start connecting with people, right? Because when I was trading if I went to trading to start raising capital again, I became an introvert. Right? Because I wasn't talking to anyone other than my girlfriend, my family. Right, right. So yeah, that's that's why I transitioned... For me.

Edward Collins:

When you when you look at that transition itself, though, like, obviously that you recognize that that's where money was was was happening, right? Correct. Yeah. But what what were the steps you took?

Sergio Tronconis:

Because it was tough?

Edward Collins:

So what steps did you take one to learn about that? And then to implement it.

Sergio Tronconis:

So first of all, there's transitioning within industries where there's going to be a gap, right? Because opening the fund took about four or five months, okay? It took money took a lot of money. And of course, through that five month period, you're speaking to your attorney, your admin, group, your auditors and you're learning through the steps that you go through my partner, he has real good connections with a lot of different attorneys and admin groups that the attorney is able to refer. So he starts learning about that. I bring in my expertise of capital raising, and I start reintroducing myself to that. So there's that five month transition where it went from making a ton of revenue to stopping the agency and making no money. Yeah, so that was that for me, that was scary. Yeah, but but I was like, hey, if I did this once, I could do it again, right. And every single time we go through this four or five months transition, because it's not the first time I've done it, I know that when it's done, and we start the ball rolling, the the return is 10x, Ray, 100x, whatever it is. So throughout those five months, it was a lot of going back to the drawing board reading books on investing again, right, because I do have my own trading strategy, but we're working for retail investors and institutional investors, accredited investors. So throughout those five months, it was just reintroducing myself to it, learning everything I could about the hedge fund, I mean, I have money saved up. So it's not like throughout the five month period, I need to figure something else out to do right. So I just, it was like school for me, you know, went back to school, with books and YouTube University. Yeah, right. Nothing is just learning. Now it's learning through experience, right? Every single month, we learn something new, every single month, we have more capital A under management. And with that, you have to update your strategy. And you have to change your strategy, right? For every X amount of money you manage. You need new strategies. It's not the same one isn't going to work the same. If you have 10 million today and 100 million tomorrow. You know, you know this. So it's, it's, it's it's a progressive learning progress. Process. Yeah.

Edward Collins:

When you look at at the YouTube University, as an example, what I find so many people trying to do is is to wing it, and just like go on there and use it as a search engine and hope for the best. Like, how did you learn to curate the information you're getting? Because that seems to be the most difficult thing?

Sergio Tronconis:

Yeah. Cuz there's a lot of information out there that you shouldn't listen to. Definitely. Yeah. And I think it's learning through experience. So when I started, I got rid of all those personal development videos that you would see right, that thinking Grow Rich, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. There's a ton of other books that I've read. So right now, I'm not focused on personal development, but I know exactly what my investor needs from me. And I know how to curate that and find the specific information. And once I do, whoever is teaching that that influencer or YouTuber, I have to research them to make sure that they are doing what they say. Because there's guys out there that they say how to manage 100 million. I can't talk about that, because I'm not there yet. But they are because they read it or learn from it from another YouTube channel. Right? You know, you're not there yet. You can't be teaching. If you haven't had that experience, yet. There's ways that you can do it. But yeah, that's that's my process is making sure that that person knows what they're doing, and that it's a proven process.

Edward Collins:

I find that it's so difficult because like, what I've gotten into now is a lot of people will ask me to take a look at the videos that they find online and determine whether or not it's legitimate. Right. And there are I think there are a lot of well meaning content creators out there

Sergio Tronconis:

I saw that you reviewed a few..

Edward Collins:

I tried to be nice about it, because I think for the most part, a lot of them are well meaning like they they're just trying to do what's best for their community. And they share things that they may have heard, but it's not stuff that they actually know. Yep. And like it's taken me 25 years to learn the things that I know about the tax code and how to structure businesses and how to create wealth through business or real estate. Like it's taken me a long time to learn that stuff. And I've learned it by actually doing it right. So when I jump into some of these videos, and you hear some of the things that are said, I'm like, Why did you ever hear that? Because that's just not right like Like you can't do it that way, in your curation process, then so you would you'd go back and investigate those individuals who were sharing the concepts with like so that you knew that you could follow it.

Sergio Tronconis:

Of course, for example, there's a guy on online that I'm going to one of his events this month is called Bridger Pennington fund launch. Yeah. He's talking about opening up hedge funds. So I wanted to make sure that he's ran a hedge fund before and that's been successful at it. And that's pretty as simple as a Google search and searching maybe even the companies that they own right? You just start going through that rabbit hole,

Edward Collins:

Do your due diligence,

Sergio Tronconis:

Do your due diligence. Exactly. Everyone should always do it no matter what you're doing, either researching for education, or researching to make an investment. Yeah, you got to do it. You know. And it's funny because people go to university in school, and they don't research it on teachers. Exactly. Right. Oh, who is this guy? That's research that's working people working in Harvard, for example, that might be teaching an MBA right class or course, and they've never ran a successful business or business worth a billion dollars. And they're just talking about how to do that. Right. Right.

Edward Collins:

So it's difference between academics and real wisdom. Right, exactly. Wisdom is a practical application of knowledge earned.

Sergio Tronconis:

Exactly. And you can write a review on someone who did it. Yeah. But it's not the same coming from that person. Exactly. You know, there's pieces of experience, like you said, that you don't post anywhere you keep it to yourself until somebody asks, exactly, you know, wow,

Edward Collins:

When you look at at where you are now, then so so you're operating this hedge fund, you're building it up? Like, what's your day to day? Like? What do you what are you engaged in on it?

Sergio Tronconis:

So right now I'm taking the position as well as COO. So we are implementing processes for current client relationships, we're implementing, hopefully, a new CRM soon. But my day to day work, I wake up, you know, I do my my routine, I have to make sure that I'm good mentally and physically, before I go out there and start speaking to people. And pretty much there's a lot of calls throughout the day to raise capital. And now we're going to be, you know, building more relationships with our investors. So it's, it's a mix of just a bunch of calls for investors, making sure everything is going right. And we do daily reporting for investors. So we have a town. Yeah, it's rigorous. But we're, it's competitive. You want to stay ahead. And yeah, that's, that's my day to day. It's, it's, it's simple. But I've been able to structure it to call it simple, you know,

Edward Collins:

I'm curious, like, as, as Chief Operating Officer, a few LC Oh, the development of process and procedure, like, tell us a little bit about how you go about doing that. Because I think that that's an area that a lot of business owners struggle in, that they don't build out processes and procedures, not officially, right. And they all they sort of wing it, right? A lot of business owners are, unfortunately, in the habit of winging it, because sometimes

Sergio Tronconis:

they get it right, and a lack of lack of capital to lack of capital.

Edward Collins:

So what's your what's your process for developing processes and procedures?

Sergio Tronconis:

So it's funny, because I've learned through osmosis, and I've learned through courses that okay, so I took a course for six sigma, oh, yeah, while I was working with developer, and while I was working with the developer, that's where he made the transition from a new company to a company with strategies or a company with structure and processes. So I was able to physically be there as it happened. So I took all of that in. And for me, it's what I did with the marketing agency with my partner, when he brought in I developed systems to streamline processes. And if you're getting into a company that already has employees, and has people taking different hats, number one is making sure that each person knows what hat they have on interviewing that person making sure that they're even strong for that position. And if they're not, you switch them over to another one, and replicating that process for a new hire. So it's grabbing everyone's input, making sure they're right for it, making sure that that process that they're managing either for account managers, capital raisers, administrators, whatever it is that you can replicate that for somebody else. Mm hmm. So that's the way I see it. And fixing those little discrepancies in the processes that aren't unnecessary that then that might be costing time and money. And those processes usually result in more money and a happier investor, right?

Edward Collins:

Yeah. Interesting. When you look at at what's next for you guys, like where do you see things going over the course of the next two to five years.

Sergio Tronconis:

We want to get to a billion dollars a year. We have been implementing strategic partnerships. Right now. We have strategies in equities and forex. We're getting into private equity with with a strategic partnership that's been To bring us access to those private deals before the IPO, and then we're getting into real estate. So it's moving into new vehicles, again, the whole thing that's gonna bring us the capacity to bring that amount of money in and being able to consistently bring in a positive return. Okay, so that we have an audacious goal and is to have a billion AUM.

Edward Collins:

It's definitely doable. It's definitely do. When you look at at the areas of struggle right now, though, like, what what would you identify as the biggest challenges that you guys are going through?

Sergio Tronconis:

Like any new fund, and I'm assuming because we're a new fund, and I've spoken to other guys that have newer funds, it's getting in the streets, right, getting around the right circles, okay, building trust, and sometimes that trust comes with time. Yeah. And unfortunately, we can't speed up time, you know. So that's the biggest challenges, okay, we're getting into the right rooms, we are the New Kids on the Block, we're always going to be perceived as that, until we hit, we hit our five year mark 10 year mark, which is fine. But that's it, because everything else has been thank God has been pretty, pretty smooth. Right? Raising capital has been smooth, the returns have been smooth. So, so far, so good.

Edward Collins:

One of the things I like to do with every guest that comes on is I like to do sort of like this mental exercise, okay. And if you wouldn't mind, taking those journey, what I'd like to do is I want you to imagine for a moment that you have the ability to go back in time, okay, any previous version of your you and your life. And you can share with that younger version of Sergio, one piece of wisdom. What would that nugget of wisdom be? And who would you be giving it to?

Sergio Tronconis:

Well? There's so many things, I'd like to say, yeah. Because in every, in every phase, you have different worries and different doubts. I would say number one is never doubt yourself, okay? I'd keep it very simple and condensed. I would say just don't doubt yourself, it's going to be fine. It's always going to be fine. Just keep that positive mentality. Don't get into the negative turn of things, because that will bring more negativity. But always trust yourself. If you can't trust yourself, nobody else is going to trust you. So that and stick it through. Somebody told me stick it through seven years ago that's been engraved in my head, every time I go through some type of trouble or whatever. That quote, keeps me going.

Edward Collins:

What younger version of Sergio needed to hear that most?

Sergio Tronconis:

Right before I started working in my corporate job, okay, and the the one when he quit, and it was a year later when I was really struggling. Yeah. Those two. Wow. And there's gonna be a lot I'm sure.

Edward Collins:

That's life, right? Yeah. Well, I wonder if there's a second parts of this exercise. Okay. I want you to imagine then, for a moment, that a future version of Sergio has now come back in this moment and is joining us during this conversation, and he's going to share a piece of wisdom with you now. What would he share?

Sergio Tronconis:

I would say it's gonna turn out a lot better than you expect. Yes, yeah. I love that, you know, all those little worries and things that happen. In between, it's gonna turn out way better than you expect. I love it. You know, and I don't know if you've ever seen that video, which is a visual of you in a problem and then it starts panning out and it goes into the universe and then the galaxies. So yeah, yeah. little speck in the universe. We all are at the end of the day. None of it matters. Right. But it's always going to turn out better than you expect.

Edward Collins:

Yeah, yeah. Now is the only thing that's real.

Sergio Tronconis:

Now is the only thing that matters. The past is in it's frozen, it can't move. It can't change. The future hasn't happened yet. So right now is what you need to do to make whatever it is you want to do happen.

Edward Collins:

Wow. You know, well, I appreciate you so much for coming out here and how if the audience wanted to get in touch with you learn more about what you're doing, like your story, how you're actually helping people like what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Sergio Tronconis:

My Instagram? Okay, so it's my first and last name Sergio Tronconis one underscore That's it.

Edward Collins:

Okay. Yeah. So all the fake ones out there to make sure that yeah,

Sergio Tronconis:

that's the one is not wondering what kind of discord

Edward Collins:

I'll make sure that it's in the show notes as well. Sir, thank you so much for coming out and sharing so authentically with us. Sure. I know that I've enjoyed it. And guys, I know you've enjoyed it too. And if you have and you're not yet a member of up level and our community you're definitely want to do it because even though this particular episode is over, so just going to be sticking around to share some actionable counsel to the individuals that are part of the community. So if you You want to learn how to get access to that, be sure to go to uplevel entrepreneur.com forward slash join up level and ultimately get an opportunity to learn vicariously through this guy, even more than you've already enjoyed so far. Once again, my name is Edward Collins. This has been another episode of entrepreneur unleashed. I thank you so much for investing your time with us. And I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Bye for now. Sergio, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm breaking careful there. That was so awesome.