How Shane Silsby Shifted from Government Executive to Solopreneur

Never Been Promoted Podcast with Thomas Helfrich

With two decades of experience in the public sector, Shane Silsby brings unique insights into transitioning to the private sector, highlighting how strategic thinking and resilience can turn career challenges into opportunities for growth. His journey is not only about navigating career shifts but also about enhancing service delivery and impact.


About  Shane Silsby:

Based in Southern California, Shane is the CEO of Silsby Strategic Advisors. After a significant tenure in government roles, he ventured into the private sector to expand his impact across various agencies nationwide. Shane's philosophy is deeply intertwined with his public sector experience, emphasizing strategic service improvement and efficiency. His professional journey, marked by a pragmatic approach to overcoming bureaucratic challenges and fostering innovation, serves as an inspiration for current and aspiring entrepreneurs.


In this episode, Thomas and Shane discuss:

• Career Transitions: Insights into moving from public service to founding a strategic advisory firm.
• Strategic Innovation: Strategies for enhancing service delivery in both public and private sectors.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: How experiences from government roles can enrich private sector entrepreneurship.

Key Takeaways:

• Embracing Change

Shane underscores the importance of adapting to new environments and the growth that comes from embracing change in one’s career.

• Strategic Impact

He discusses how strategic advisory can significantly influence the effectiveness of both government agencies and private companies.

• Mentorship in Entrepreneurship

Shane reflects on how his transition has allowed him to guide others through similar paths, emphasizing the value of mentorship in entrepreneurial success.

"Transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and strategic improvement is at the heart of entrepreneurial success." — Shane Silsby


CONNECT WITH  MARK AYLWARD:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-silsby/

Website: https://silsby-sa.com/

CONNECT WITH THOMAS:

X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/thelfrich | https://twitter.com/nevbeenpromoted 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hovienko | https://www.facebook.com/neverbeenpromoted 

Website: https://www.neverbeenpromoted.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neverbeenpromoted/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@neverbeenpromoted

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfrich/

Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com

InstantlyRelevan

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of Never Been Promoted all about unleashing your entrepreneur. Our mission is very clear. It's to help a 1000000 entrepreneurs get started, get unstuck, and just get better at entrepreneurship and life. And we're doing this through the, you know, learning and the the journeys of other entrepreneurs. So their successes, their failures, their struggles, you know, the everything that they've been through. And if you can find one thing from any episode that you've learned, you've really taken a step forward to becoming just better at entrepreneurship or becoming 1. The idea is micro mentoring. It's how I've grown, you know, as a professional in my life world and and and improved as an entrepreneur. So I'm trying to bring that to all of you as well. If this is your first time here, thank you, for coming. I hope it's the first time of many. And if you've been here before, thanks for coming back. I I randomly award dad points. And if you're a dad, you know that you can spend them nowhere, and they are so valuable at the same time to get. But thank you for getting here. A bit of humor. Today, you know, we're we're gonna continue the conversation with Shane Silsby. Shane Silsby. I butchered that. I'm excellent at butchering names. He is a CEO of Silsby Strategic Advisors, and he's gonna give you, where he's where he strategize and with It's your word. The word. Yeah. Shane, nice to meet you. Own it. Strategize. It is my word. I think strategize. Wasn't that a George Bushism?
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Potentially. Many others. Yes.
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We won't go down the political path this afternoon.
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Shane, do you wanna give, first of all, thank you for coming on the show. Yeah. Thanks, Thomas. Thanks for having me here. And just a bit of background just so people know even why I'm on. Yeah. So, I I was 20 years in the government sector. I started in Michigan, grew up there. That was too cold. Then I moved to, Arizona. I worked for, city there, city Phoenix for 9 years. That was too hot. And then I ended up in Southern California, working for a county here, Orange County, and then, after six and a half years, shifted to the private sector. So it's kind of the Goldilocks and the 3 bears porridge story to get to where I am now in, Southern California. Happy to be here. But after, 20 years in the public sector, I had felt like I'd accomplished a lot of things and, wanted to try to help more agencies. On the government side, when you're working for an agency, you can do a lot of great things, but you can only really do things for that agency. And so the thought was, you know, let's let's look at private sector where I can maybe help more people across the country and do different things. So it was a bit of a growth element to shift to the private sector. And then, of course, we have pandemics and all those things happen and are experiencing kind of the corporate world on on how, like, clients and, this the employees are treated certain ways, sometimes good, sometimes, more interesting. I felt like I could provide a little bit better service directly, and so that's when I shifted over to be a solopreneur. Yeah. I've only been doing this about 2 years right now, but, fortunate and happy to to have good clients and work on fun projects. And, it's been an interesting journey, and I I was thinking about with your podcast, Never Been Promoted in my career. I think only one time when I was at Phoenix did I ever officially get promoted. The rest of the times, it was just, you know, we need you to do some more things, or can you work on a special assignment, or can you shift over here, or I change regions? So, it's an interesting element and, something people maybe focus on too much. And I always advise folks you talked about micrometoring. I always advise folks, just try to do the best you can, take on the most challenging, most complex things you can do. Try to do the work of that job at the next level, and then, you know, that that can reward you, you know, personally, but then also let people know and trigger and flag that maybe it's a reduced risk if they wanna hire you at the next level. Yeah. They I mean, then the shift from working for someone to becoming entrepreneur. So,
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you I I'd love to talk about that step because that step is, I think, the hardest. I think the desire happens maybe a few years prior or a couple bad days, bad boss. Usually, not a bad client because that would you know, that's usually the one that makes you like, I'm so glad it works somewhere. But did you let me let me start this question. Did you feel like you had more to give than what you're allowed to do in the world when you work for somebody?
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For sure. And you don't always realize that until you get some time freed up from, like, administrative things or stuff that a corporation asked you to do. Or on the government side, there's a lot of administrative things that have to occur to get the budget set and work with constituents and elected officials and all those things, which are part of the government process. There's nothing wrong with that, but that limits your time to do maybe some of the more creative, strategic, you know, community changing or region changing initiatives or projects. You you just don't have time to do those things. So kinda shifting those, what I would call kind of administrative duties, can really free up some time to do some fun things.
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Well, tell me about the shift then. So, you know, from how'd you make it? Like and and maybe and specifically talk about the things going on in your life maybe that you're comfortable to talk about, of course, of, you know, just some of your life go, what are you doing? Why? And, like, I mean, like, talk about, like because that is that's a that's a change of, you know, security, and I put that in quotes to, you know, chaos.
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Yeah. It was an interesting change, and it kinda happened incrementally. There's a couple things, and you know this, that that entrepreneurs have to be, cautious of. 1 is the ambiguity of projects, clients, funding, all those things, and the other is to have patience. And I don't prefer ambiguity, and I don't have much patience. So that's a challenge, going into this, but, I do like to help people, and this allows me to help more people more directly. So the shift really I was working for after I was in the private sector a couple years, the pandemic really changed the way, things are working from a virtual environment. And, I I went from a a position on the government side where I'd see hundreds of people a day, maybe 1,000, and, got some, nice, enjoyment out of that, working with people and interacting with folks. And then, at pandemic, just like we're speaking virtually now, I I expected to be, you know, traveling 80% of the time. I expected to be in multiple geographies, meeting new people. I had, you know, thousands of people that were responsible, for as a COO in the private side. And it went virtual. And so I ended up seeing nobody in real life, really, and just working, you know, 10, 12 hours a day like this. And that was, a huge shift, a huge tidal wave shift from what I was doing, interacting with the public and electeds and staff and other professionals all day long to really interacting with nobody, physically or personally, just through virtual means, and that was a huge shift. So, when you're working for a corporation as a as an executive, you've got to do a lot of, different things that help the back end of the company, as you know, but might not give you as much satisfaction as you like. So all that happened a couple years, and then it it came down to the point where I needed to decide. Things were shifting at the company I was at too, but I had to decide how I wanted to interact with clients and how I wanted to treat my colleagues and peers. And in some cases, you might have experienced this in some companies, you know, the the dollar, moves up in priority versus the service. Right? And so for me, I'm more about the service, and, hopefully, the dollars will follow that versus the other way around. So that so that was the shift. And I was working on some fun initiatives, an Olympics initiative in Southern California and other major development, and so I was able to shift over, somewhat seamlessly to have revenue right in the beginning, which is I'm fortunate for that as an entrepreneur. That doesn't always happen, and so it gave me a little bit of an easier transition into the into the solopreneur side.
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Well and talk about that. So the first, you know, customer, that's usually the hard part. Right? If someone can get your 1st customer because it's the revenue piece where you're not even if you have savings, you don't wanna burn through it. And, if there's anybody else in your life that has a decision, your your burn rate gets even shorter. So it's one thing if you're by yourself, you know, like, listen, I'll burn it all down to to get this right. It's different when there's, like, you know, people, like, I'm not sure that's from onboard. You want to talk about that? You know, how you got that first customer, you know, the timing of that, like, you know, where you're working for somebody. You know, I always say have your W-two angel investors. You set up your company. Right. So the non equity investor that's just paying your bills while you're getting things ready. Talk about that specific hand off because it's so it's so critical for most people realizing their dream.
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A lot of people say if you're going to, you know, start your own business, do it on the side and then have a may, you know, have a main job and then do this on the side. That wasn't the case for me. So, to your point, it was it was interesting. And I was working on these couple of major initiatives, and when I left the company I was at, because I was the point person for these initiatives, this Olympics initiative and and some others, they allowed me to stay working on that because it was a good way to serve the client. And so I became a sub consultant to the company I used to work for and just kept going and working on those projects. Instead of billing the client, we I build the company I used to work for. So that was a nice transition. But, I had a good experience thereafter where, you know, I partnered a lot, and I I I even pushed for strategic partners, pursuits and going after proposals and things like that. But I had an opportunity to to propose on one and another, Southern California City, all on my own. It was my full proposal, my full evaluation. It was an an an on call or as needed contract opportunity. But I went in there and I and we won. Right? I won. So that was, great to to have that happen, because that kinda checks a box of, can you compete as a business even if you're a solopreneur? Can you compete with people that have a full team or, you know, hundreds of employees or all these resources? And I knew I had the the technical skill set to compete, but what about all the business elements that have to go into that, presenting that? So that was a great, win too.
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Well, I mean, I and I hear that way. And give different organizations can only you know, there's different sizes and how you and especially government can work and not to give the details. I mean, not nearly as much as you, but enough to know that the contract vehicle probably matters as much and how your organization set up matters as much. But what you don't have or what you do have that others don't is you don't have history with those specific people. So if there's any riff, they need some new like, you don't you have your reputation and there's no history to say these guys can't do this. They don't know any they know only what you present, and they trust it to some kind of degree. And some other companies that don't have those expertise and they're very specific in the RFPs. Right? You actually have an advantage because you have a very specific niche thing that the other company might cost more and they they know they don't really have. And, like, let's try this guy because the worst to do is get rid of you. Right? And and I did you realize that when you were kinda doing your proposals and bids of how you niche in? Like, I know they can't compete with this because I I am that person that they would have hired or or something like that.
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Yeah. Very close. So I think that's a differentiator in what I do because I was on that government side, and so I know what's being looked for. I used to evaluate those things. Right? I used to talk to people about that. That doesn't mean you're always gonna win, but I I understand the process. And I can speak a little bit more of the language, and I can really get into And to your point, I didn't have a business track record on the private side, but I had a public track record, and so people could see what was accomplished there. The question always is, is that translatable? Right? Will that translate over, and will Shane be able to work on these things on the private side outside of a city hall like he could inside? And so that's the risk, but the the track record was there
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to to give people confidence that they could make the selection. That doesn't always mean they do. He gets choked up about this, folks. It's a and and that acts echoes my next question. I was waiting for him to get choked up so I can ask
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him this next question, which was truthfully, though,
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there's usually usually, I think the most successful entrepreneurs I've met are ones who aren't chasing money. That's that's an outcome of a passion or a bigger purpose. And as you've made you know, there's always the basic needs you gotta make, but tell me, you know, you you've alluded to it a little bit, but, tell me about me your bigger purpose, passion, you know, or, you know, a big, audacious goal or whatever the hairy goal thing is that people I know how people talk about it, but the game changing goal, like, do you have a bigger passion and purpose and what is it?
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Yeah. My passion is to help local governments, improve their communities through quality infrastructure and services. That's my passion. That's my bumper sticker. And part of the reason for that is I have a passion for what, governments can do. They do for the people what they can't do for themselves, and so having good leadership, good strategies, good plans can can really improve communities. The other thing that we're seeing in the workforce, and you know this with, you know, the silver tsunami and the impacts of pandemic and the prior recession and the fact that, unemployment's at a somewhere between a 30 50 year low depending on what statistics you look at, It's harder for governments to compete to for for employees, for for human resources. If you're able to solve all those things I just mentioned, then you go into a salary competition between public and private sector. Private sector usually wins that, and then you go into work from home and virtual environments like we're doing today. Normally, the private sector wins that too. So for governments, they're they're they're at, like, one of the biggest disadvantages I can see in my whole career just because they're they're lacking some of the people. And we have some good federal funding and other stabilities in the marketplace that give them revenue resources, but they don't always have the people and the expertise to deliver those. And then the second I was just gonna say the second part of that is we've got 5 generations in the workforce now. You know, millennials coming up, taking over, the the top spot, but lacking that 20 years of experience. And so, you know, well, intentioned, motivated, smart, intelligent, people, but just don't sometimes know, what they don't know. And that's where I try to come come in and help sometimes.
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Yeah. Well, I I think this is where some technology can bridge where they don't know what they don't know, but if captured in knowledge share and transfers are done correctly, you can get a younger generation that, you know, can't find jobs. And sometimes the corporate world, they're very talented, and you get a new group that's better. One of the negative things on, I think, most local governments is people are just it's it's outside of maybe the top leadership will say mirrors and appoint to people. Like, it's just not there. Like, I mean, it's it's it's it's difficult. And and for I'll just give you a my new show point. I'm trying to get an irrigation meter at our house. I can't get someone to call me. I I don't know where I can't find a form, and I wouldn't know where to submit it. Like, it's like it's so frustrating to just to do something. I'm trying to get the city money to do something for me, and and and it's like but no one cares. They're like it's there's absolutely it's it's it's so frustrating. And so, like, that is another major problem, and I think it's tied to people. And and it makes you just loathe government, which makes you loathe taxes. Like, well, if I can't even give you more money to do something I want, let alone take the money you're taking, what are you doing with it except fixing the same road over and over, which I'm pretty sure your buddy owns that construction company anyway. So so so sometimes you look at it and you're like, it's frustrating. And so I think that's another thing from a brand standpoint. I don't know if you help me with this, but I think this is sometimes translatable to an entrepreneurial world that being conscious of where your brand is a differentiator so you can beat a competition or, you know, if you look at the worst case local government and look at your own company, maybe private sector, don't be like the current local government. Like care, hire good people, pay them right, give them the the right, you know, tools, learn something from that. And and and if you're advising them to get better on that, well, you know, at least, municipality, then good for you because that's a Well, here's an example. Right? I'm gonna go off my soapbox. Thanks for listening today, people. Like, man.
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Yeah. No. It's good, and and happy to jump on the couch here and listen some more. But for that example, there's something there's always something you can do. Right? But you have to think about it beyond the current state. So one of the challenges that local government sometimes faces, okay. I've got a 20% vacancy rate. So 20% of the I'm supposed to have a 100 positions. I only have 80 80 filled because of all the things we've talked about. And so that becomes my excuse. I can't deliver that service or I can't get to that water meter, answer that phone because I I'm short 20 peep 20 people, 20% of my workforce. Well, that's where embracing the private sector, that that mentality has to come in to fill in those resources. Number 1 is an option. But number 2, you can do things even with limited resources, technology, things like that as you mentioned, which I've implemented some of those. But the biggest thing is bringing predictability to the customers. Right? If you knew for your water meter, right, nobody called you back or or, you didn't get maybe the best service you liked, but you knew in a month it was gonna be done.
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I can't even get to that point. Right? If they're pretty predictable on that, you might not like it, but you go, okay. I get it. I can move on with that. Fine with that. That'd be great. 2 months from now, 5. I don't care. As long as it's coming, I'm good with that. But I can't get to the point of just
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coming to the you know? Yeah. So providing base information, being consistent with that, and being predictable, that's that's a area where governments can shift to to deal with some of the the lack in resources and then bringing in the private sector to supplement. So there's a solution for everything. It's not always easy or great or cheap, but,
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there are there are So so so entrepreneurs listening are probably more in the commercial part than government because it's it's you know, maybe they're listening and they work for government when it come out. But maybe do we give me the bridge. Where where do what you do? Where could be applied into someone building their own business or is running one that's trying to scale? Or, you know, how do you see what your advisory ports over to the private sector?
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Yeah. I think and and, again, I've been in 2 years, but there's a couple of things that I just I talked to people about, and I try to help them set up their own businesses now because there's a lot of people making the shift. Excuse me. Couple of things. We talked about being comfortable with ambiguity. We talked about trying to have some patience, which I don't. But, also, there are more expenses than you think, right, when you get started up. You know, every city I work for, I need to get a business license and shift the insurance and all those things. And then, the clients are random, and when and whenever you're working with a client or a potential client, a lot of things take much longer than you think. So just like you said, man, I we we had a discussion. We we have the basis of a contract. We we should be working on this tomorrow. Right? And it and sometimes weeks go by. So, having some of that same patience in my experience is mostly working with local governments, but I do some work on the private side. I think having some of that patience, to, you know, be focused, get that piece done, but then move on and be productive in other areas while you're waiting for those things to to, come to fruition. And I I got good advice from somebody. I don't always listen to this, but the advice was when you're when you're the busiest, you need to be marketing the most and keep doing business development the most. And you may have heard that before too, which is very hard to do. But I think that once you get on a streak, it's important to take advantage of those those headwinds or those tailwinds. Excuse me.
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Yeah. Well, no doubt. So, you know, since I you know, one of the triangles of my business is, you know, is a is is a marketing agency. And if you want to get rid of the sawtooth effect to your revenue of hunt, kill, hunt, kill, the few things may happen. Right? You need to always be promoting yourself in a way and and getting your personal brand and and do it, but you're gonna need to outsource components of it to scale. And so initially, you gotta do it yourself, and it's a lot of work and it's exhausting. But as soon as you get revenue, it's one of the first places you have to invest is in an ongoing brand awareness. The very you know, it's usually sometimes enough. Depends on your industry, but you have to do something to get your name out there without you having to do it. Doing it while you sleep, effectively. And so maybe it's ads. Maybe it's hiring a team, whatever it is, but I I a 100% agree with you. It's, it's often a miss where people are high on the hog and then, you know, have no water to drink. Right? So Right. And you'll have that early, but you you just you have to invest back in. I don't know if you've done that or not, but, like, you do need to invest back in either in referrals or something to just just to get some kind of level where you can say, hey. I think I can just live on that at least. And if we get above or below, I can I can grow a business from that as opposed to, you know, sink or swim? So are are do you do you factor that in in your own, or are you 2 years in, like, you're in a critical stage. Right? Getting from 2 to 5 is a big big jump.
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Yeah. And there's the stats that you probably know most businesses every year, there's a higher chance they they fail or or go away, for small businesses. So California is a unique, I would call it a microcosm, but it's 10% of the country. So it's a it's a trend here. It's its own world. Let's be honest. It could be its own country. Yeah. It it's more difficult for small businesses to grow in California because, if you add one person, you need to provide workers' compensation insurance now as a company and all those things, and you need to set up retirement plan plans, private retirement pension plans, all those things if you add 1 employee. Well, adding 1 employee is likely not gonna give you the revenue to cover those overhead costs. So, just to get, you know, a little more technical on the business side here, but what you almost need to do is jump to 5 employees. So you go from, like, 0 as a solopreneur, technically 0, to 5. Great. Now you have overhead to cover sorry, revenue to cover those overhead elements we talked about, but who can find 5 great employees right now that's gonna represent you and your company? Thomas, if they've got your name on their business card, that's very difficult to do for any business right now. So you just kinda then revert back and say, okay. What can I do with technology? What can I do with multitasking? And and just trying to look at some different venues to to promote.
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That's a that's a big challenge. Right? So I don't I don't think California's alone in that state, but, even our own company, you know, we've we've gone, a labor arbitrage and avoiding any full time employees and just paying the employment tax because because it's so expensive to even hire yourself. It's like you're you're, like, chipping off, you know, 25% of your revenue just to pay yourself, which is just insane. It's like and and then you pay taxes on it. And so it that model is so broken to be able to to get started off the ground. You you do need to be conscious of it. And you're you're absolutely right. So either find a way to repeat your processes in some plan or get a project that but then now you're puckered up because you're like, oh, I got to deliver this, which means I have to go 5 find 5 people right now and know that I'll probably have to get rid of 3 of them and go through this several times and manage the client's expectations without losing the deal without because that's the syncer. Right? That syncs the company if you can't if you can't make payroll. Right? And so that's a that and and makes and what happens is, right, is you're like, I think I'll just stay a solopreneur and trade my time for dollars because it's easier. And
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I was just gonna say what I do on those larger projects if we're on that is I partner with a company that has more of the heads down technical resources. I provide the strategy, QAQC oversight, and then let that company use their employees to deliver some of those heads down activities.
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Doesn't always work perfectly, but it avoids me having to go through all the things that you just mentioned. And and I think what I've noticed there so if an entrepreneur, you know, kind of advice trying to find those reflective moments, partnering and building those relationships are super important so because you may need them. And, this is also where, you know, mergers happen where you're your own business unit, but you're part of a bigger organization. It's already established because of whatever private you're bringing maybe the public sector part in. This is the opportunities in your environment in California, how you described that. I think a lot of people go is like, hey, how can we kind of come together? Which creates a whole different set of problems when you start partnering and things. But if you're trying to grow something bigger, you're likely it's hard. It's gonna be really hard to do it by yourself, and it's gonna be if it's in the services business in particular, I'd say it that way. It's gonna be very difficult. If it's digital, yeah, you might be good with it. But when you're in person shaking hands and showing up, it's it's you're, yeah.
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And I think the people that that may wanna work, you know, for you now or or, try to join a company that's growing, They wanna know what's what am I gonna be doing? Right? What's on the horizon? Why would I come and work for your company? And so you've gotta build your resume, which is hard to do in beginning. Right? And then you have to have a backlog, right, that so those employees can see, okay, there's there's revenue, there's contracts, there's stuff coming in. I'm not gonna get let go after a week. And those things then also the the reference projects and initiatives and the backlog also have to be interesting. Right? You probably I mean, it's fine to have somebody, that that might be doing some administrative elements that really doesn't care about the projects as much. I'm just here to help. But then the people you need to really be, you know, heads down, your technical experts, the ones that are gonna lead and get you more work, you know, they're gonna wanna work on interesting projects and initiatives.
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Well, they're gonna they're the ones driving your revenue for you too. So, let me piff the conversation a bit. So you're 2 years in. What's the one thing you'd go back and tell yourself 2 years ago? Oh, man. Do this.
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Don't do that. Yeah. That's a that's a good one. I think, what I would say to to do is to be more patient, to not get frustrated as early, when you know you have something to give and offer to folks. Maybe not go as heads down as quickly on some projects. It was great to have revenue and work on fun things, but maybe spread out a little bit more to get a broader base would have maybe been helpful. And then what not to do, I think, you know, there's as you know, Thomas, there's so much noise right now, for, the private side, especially, you know, 25 virtual assistants that can help, 37, you know, website builders, all these this information coming to you. And so, just trying to be very strategic and straightforward, and I'm not gonna do everything in the beginning. I'm gonna do one thing, and I'm gonna do that well. I'm gonna get that going, and I'm gonna work on projects, and I'm gonna go and do another phase, right, and just kinda work through that more than trying to be, you know, Google, by the end of your 2nd week and have all that in place. So I think I wouldn't maybe do as much of those things which I thought were important, and and maybe they'll turn out to be important, but, really, the clients, you know, are the most important thing at the end of the day.
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Agreed. I think one of the interesting I took a note there, is but the the trick is, right, is but knowing what to focus on is a bet. And you're in the moment, you're like, I think it's right. But, you know, if you go down the wrong path, it ends quickly or you're scrambling. Right? And you're like and so that that's a balance you're gonna feel of, you know, sometimes you have an epiphany or you get lucky, I'm sure. But, like, you know, I know there's a pull off of, like, well, you know, I think this is right. I don't want to throw too much on the wall to see what sticks, but it's like, you you you got a balance between the right but once you find your niche services, I would I mean, would you agree that you just go repeat it and repeat it and repeat it and and don't try to go too far out of bounds too fast.
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Yeah. I think in the strategy I use is kind of go in your, the radius you're comfortable with, do as much as you can there. You don't have to knock on the door 10 times if if you pretty much see what the writing on the wall is. Go go and work with people that wanna work with you, build that radius, and get your reference projects done and some some good referrals, then you can shift that radius out another, you know, whatever more communities or more clients you might be able to deal with that you wouldn't have been able to touch from day 1 and then keep working that radius out a little bit, but then coming back at stages and and maybe reengaging with some of those clients where now you have more that you can demonstrate, for your value, and it reduces the risk for them to to interact with you or contract with you. So kinda deal with what you know. You don't have to be national from day 1. That's great if you could do that. You could probably do that, Thomas, but most of us can't. And, and then just keep working that kind of on the that ring system coming back.
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Well, you know, it's anyway, as you said it, so on Instantly Relevant, right, my marketing side, we started off with a global presence, and half of our revenue came globally and half came US. And and I actually withdrew from that a bit, though that's where that's where I wanted to be. But I found it was more difficult to work with the international teams just from the they everyone put things in their own local currency. And so I couldn't charge the same amount for the same work. And and then you're always you're just like the the it was just too much work to kind of just fight and people are leaving too fast. So when you see that where you're kind of like, hey, that's good revenue, I'm now going to chop off half and do a 100% and it'll have a little dip because you got to repurpose market brand. That was the right thing to do, though, because we focus on U. S. Companies now because that's just who we serve best. The values there, it's the same market. We don't really work with any foreign entities that come into the US even because it just it just got too difficult. And I think that focus what you described is right. And sometimes you have these conscious moments where you you know you might give up revenue that's available, but it's the the time for that revenue is more expensive than just focusing on the better use of per dollar hour, if you will, for something else. You know, you'll you'll get a dip. And then maybe you've experienced that as well. You're like, hey. I'm just trying to stay local in these other markets because I've known that's my brand. I got differentiators. It's just too expensive to go bigger.
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Yeah. For sure. And, of course, you don't wanna spread too thin and and provide poor or lesser customer service to your base. Right? And then so so that's always a balance too that entrepreneurs and smaller businesses have to deal with.
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Yeah. Absolutely. What are you doing for the future? You know, any books you're reading or writing or or anything you're you're working on right now to, you know, further your brand or further your knowledge of the world?
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Yeah. It's interesting. One of the things that that I have been wanting to do was putting a book out, when I saw what was happening in the marketplace or in the workforce that we talked about with this leadership changeover and the the generational elements. And so, on the public side, all those things that we talked about that you do in addition to the project work. You you have to do all the administrative overhead things, and I was able to free up some time to to work on that. And so in January of this year, I just released my first book. It's, called Managing for Meteors. And That's awesome. It's focused on local government, so preparing local government leaders before the impact. And it's metaphorical. Right? These meteors are not, actual meteors. And they don't need managing. They just do what they want. They're coming at it. So I because I had a book review, and somebody said I was trying to use this for my sci fi now or novel, and it it didn't hit. Well, they're metaphoric. Right? So the meteors, as I described them, are major disruptors to your organization that are large enough where you can't, do your regular job efficiently and have that thing happened happened to your to your group, to you, or your agency and still function at a at a high level or at a reasonable level. So, part of this is identifying what those meteors might be. It could be AI. It could be, people leaving the workforce. It could be virtual, environments. It could be funding. Whatever the meteor is that the point of the book is to get prepared and do things for your organization, now, because you might be planning for 1 meteor, metaphoric meteor, and something else might happen. You might get a new, you know, CEO or whatever. But if you're making your groups and your organization the most efficient and effective as you can, If that thing never comes, now you just have a better organization. Right? You're more fiscally solvent, things like that. In in the in the book, we go through all the different high level elements of a leader in in local governments, you know, organizational structures, procurements, capital planning, goal setting, some some politics, a little bit, just just basics, not anything, controversial. And the idea of that was to give new leaders a tool to be able to to use in addition to their, skill sets and their technical knowledge as they move up in government for the first time maybe or as they come to a government for the first time ever maybe,
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they know how to help somebody with their water meter issue. Right? Because they've set up I think it's a meteor for the lady that runs the water meteors is to get a request Yeah. For a water meteor. And she's like, I don't know what to do. I'm like, I don't know either. It's her job. So that's why I came to you.
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So, you know, figuring out what how you can improve that structure, right, that helps. Because in that case, not to just keep beating on the water meter issue, but if you have a new development go in and you've got a 100 new homes that all need those meteors, right, you better be or those water meters, you better be very efficient in how you're doing your operations to then deal with the, surges, right, in valleys.
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I mean, all I need is an email. This is submit forms. This one here. It's one link down on your site, and I'll get to it when I get to it. That would be a start. Talking to you, Fulton County. Fulton County Public Works Georgia, you've been called to the mat.
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Well, it's interesting. I was lucky enough to work on a on a major initiative at Orange County, which was implementation of a 247 customer service online virtual interface. So you didn't even have to work necessarily with the person. You would just work online, self serve, a lot of those things. There was people on the back end that would help, but that was all virtual. And it was, kind of not one of a kind, but one of a few. At the time we did that in 2018. All went live, multiple phases went in, finally done in 2019. And it was great service, but then in 2020 right, Thomas, what happened? Right? The world ends, pandemic, everybody goes virtual. So so that was one of the only departments that was up and running, like, the next week because it was already set up as virtual. So then all these other agencies were trying to catch up and figure out how to do that, but this was just an example of that meteor was there. We we didn't know about it, the metaphor of meteor of the pandemic, but we were preparing just to do things more effectively and efficiently. And then that thing ended up happening, and it worked out right. I feel like government's held on to that media a little longer than the rest of the world. Well, they're feeling the impacts the impacts for sure. We talked about the the workforce issue, you know, the huge shift in the workforce. It you know, tough to get people right
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now. It is. I could do a whole episode just because of some of the services. We you know, it's funny. What it did reveal, I will say, is the COVID nineteen we're referring to in the metaphor sense of the meter. Meter, not meter, not the water meter that I can't get from Fulton County here in Georgia. Yeah. I said it again. I'm calling you out public works. Is that is definitely a first world problem, by the way. I'm just gonna throw that out there. So oh, you have two forms of water you can get to your house that's clean. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway You have water. That's good. Back on track, is that it revealed the inefficiencies and how poorly run some counties were. So in in ours, like, you know, I I will leave the counties down, but we we moved from one county to another because the one county we were in was very bad at getting kids back in school or or or administering. It was un it was so bad that we actually sold a home that we had completely redone just so we can go to school that was more efficient to getting kids back in classes and, you know, when they were online more. I mean, it was that's how bad it was. Alright? So I well, you know, I wish you were talking to that county prior and so that would have been a little more effective and we didn't have to incur a move. But but then I would have this beautiful studio I built in my house. So I maybe I shouldn't complain. I don't know. But I had I had an irrigation meter at the other house. I'll just leave it at that. So I did get that in. Yeah. Yeah. Every path leads to it. Right.
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Go pull that one over. But but your point is valid in that not only do these metaphor meteors impact your organization in many different ways as major disruptors disruptors, it reveals the level of preparedness, right, of your organization. And that's not just a government issue. That's all companies. You know? You you some of it's like spinning plates. There are some risks in some areas and you think, well, boy. Oh, I hope that doesn't happen, or maybe it's something that might happen that you don't even know. And so that that's what this is all about. It's just trying to be efficient, effective, prepared, do the best you can today because you don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow.
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Shay, who who should get ahold of you, and and how should they do that? Yeah. That's, thanks, Thomas, and I appreciate your time today. So,
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people that I help are normally, you know, local government cities and counties or those wanting to work with, governments. It could be private sector companies. It could be residents that that have a significant issue. And they can get to me through LinkedIn as an easy way, Shane Silsby, and or you can go to my website, silsby-sa.com/. You can learn more about the book and order that in all the formats, hardcover, paperback, audio, digital at Amazon. Just put in managing for meteors or you can go to managing for meteors.com, take you to my website, and you can do that stuff. So depending on what you wanna do, that that that depends who might wanna interact with me. But, basically, it's initiative focused, it's strategic planning, it's infrastructure focused, organizational focused, kind of around,
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major initiatives or or things that governments are trying to do. Great. And and manager meters, thank you for, you know, sharing that, for the book. And, it's nice too to, you know, from a to get those thoughts out. It helps your brand as a differentiator as well with it. And, you know, and somebody who's writing a book and as you know, maybe you don't know because you sound a little more organized than 90% of book writing is procrastination. So that's that's the, that's the longest.
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You're checking that box on the procrastination. Yeah. Yeah.
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Right. Oh, no. I I've I've gone to You're overachieving in that? Ghostwriter, can you please help me close off the last few things my publishers asked me to do? Because I cannot find the time or head space to do it. So sometimes you gotta outsource parts of it you didn't want to. That's what I'm gonna go with. Hey. But thank you, Shane Shane Silsby. Check him out on LinkedIn. I'm gonna I'm gonna end this one question. Is, you know, what's the maybe the one question that I should have asked you that I didn't? Yeah.
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I'm I'm gonna be a little self serving in this one. The question you asked me is what's a fractional government executive? And and because that's what I do. Right? Yeah. So I didn't know that existed. I thought that was every exec gov government existed. It it was fractionally there. Like, they're just somewhere else in their mind because they don't get anything done like water meters. So Maybe you can In the industry, in the private sector, it's common to hear about fractional executives. Right? You have a chief marketing officer, which helps 10 companies, or CFO, which helps 10 smaller companies, and they're a fraction, right, of an executive for each of those companies. But on the government side, you can't, really go in and take over and have a leadership role, as a fractional executive. So the differentiator I have is for fractional government executive is for somebody that comes in and addresses these efficiency elements, strategies, big projects, METEOR prep, or or, something that's highly political or high profile, to take it off the plate of the government executive that they have things that only they can do. Right? They have to work with constituents. They work with the elected officials. They control the budget. They have to get all the staff organized. So give that thing that, sure, that government executive could do, but if they did that, they wouldn't be able to do their job, to the best of their ability. So work with a fractional government executive, which basically is what I do, to come in and take that thing off your plate and deal with that issue, and then you can get back to business, up running your city. That's great.
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Yeah. And and and, and I know this exists even sometimes when judges, right, in the public center. They have, like, private judges sit in as a judge. And so it does exist, you know, from a a piece, but I think that's a great answer to the workforce problem of leadership is you bring in industry leaders to set tones to be that person whose whole dual roles and then a management group that kinda executes and and the executive kind of keeps them. And and I think what you're describing is is actually a solving problem too because the government can afford the fractional time of that person who's got great experience, man, you know, brainpower that put an act of very systemized functional piece together. I think that is the answer, honestly, until, you know, it's like the teacher problem. If you pay them more, you get better teachers. You'd have better education because you'd have better individuals potentially in there. Not that there's not great teachers or not great people at work. But
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if someone's like, hey. I can make 30,000 a year or go make a 130,000 a year doing the exact same job, you're gonna lose to the 130, like, 99 out of a 100 times. Yeah. Well, I think the benefit of of the strategy in because I've been on both sides is that you can be laser focused on that initiative. Right? You can dedicate the time necessary to push that thing forward. Whereas when you're a leader in the government side, you have a 100 different things you have to deal with. And those, primary strategic initiatives sometimes don't get moved forward in a in a way that they could have if you didn't embrace the private sector. And, frankly, we talked about the the vacancy factors or the vacancies of 20% of your staff not being there. So you have some budgetary flexibility already because you've got positions that aren't getting paid for because you can't find people. So the money is generally available. It's just the will and, the the small risk taking to to let somebody in to to your door to try to help you out. Actually, it's good for the people who are elected because they're like, that guy doesn't want my job.
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So Right. There you go. Well, Shane, thank you so much for being a guest today. I appreciate the time, and, and I love your journey and the fact that you're new in it, and then it doesn't look like you're gonna be stopped anytime soon. So thank you for coming today and sharing your story with us. Thank you, Thomas, and good luck with your efforts in Georgia. I wish you all the best. I'm gonna solve it. I'll get my water meter and do a post about it. For anyone who's made it to this point, in the show, thank you very much. If this was your first time, I hope you come back and, make it make it many times and and get something learned from, you know, from our guests of of, you know, either be public, private sector, writing a book. The fact being that there's some really good nuggets to take away from today, and that's what I want you to do is to just try to learn one thing from each episode. But, you you know, if like, and if you've been here before, thank you. I hope you're doing what you can to help mentor other entrepreneurs if you're an entrepreneur. And anybody out there who is, thinking if they wanna tell their story, just, you know, get in touch with us at neverbeenpromoted.com, and let's see if we can get you on the show as well. Appreciate everyone who's on the YouTube channel of, youtube.com@neverbeenpromoted. But until we meet again, this is Thomas Selfridge, your host. Get out there. Go unleash your entrepreneur. Thanks for listening.