Welcome to the Everyday PM Podcast podcast where we discuss
project management principles for your everyday life.
My name is Anne Campia. I'm a certified project manager.
I currently work as the vice president of project management
operations at Trusense Marketing.
Today we're talking about leaving the corporate world and
how that transition works when you leave the corporate world
and start your own business. And so for that reason, I have a
very special guest on the podcast today.
Bruno, I'm so excited to welcome you to the podcast.
I know that we've been coordinating this for quite some
time, so it's a sincere pleasure to have you as my very special
guest to talk about this very topic.
So Bruno, before we get started, why don't you take a brief
moment to introduce yourself to our audience?
Yes, sure. So Anne, thank you again for
having me. And you know Anne, I used to
introduce myself with, I solve problems and deliver results.
And this is something that I have always done during my 20
plus years incorporate and I'm doing it right now with my own
business. If we go a little deeper, I can
say I have been managing projects for over 20 years.
And specifically in the last eight years, I have designed,
built and LED project and portfolio management offices.
So those known as the PM OS now in in the meantime, in parallel,
I have been a mentor and a coach and I have worked with more than
100 people. So it's a big chunk of of myself
and in fact, I I think this interesting mix of delivery,
getting things done, building trusting teams and inspiring
individuals, it is my sweet spot.
So I think you're, you're maybe giving us a little bit of what
the the conversation is going to be about, which I'm very, very
excited to talk to you about making that transition from
corporate to your own business. But there's one thing you didn't
mention that I've been stocking your LinkedIn on.
There's one thing you didn't mention about yourself that I'm
very curious about. You play the guitar.
No, no, never. Never started, but but there is
something very close, something about music that that that that
I'm going to tell you about in a few minutes, I'm sure.
Yes. And one of the things I really
love about the way that you're you've made, you've made this
transition is you've made things accessible for people.
So I just wanted to highlight that in terms of the way that
you post your messaging on LinkedIn, the way that you
outreach to folks, the way that you mentor you make we get very
tangible, practical, right everyday life type situations
that you can help kind of connect the dots between project
management, mentorship, all the things that you talked about as
part of your professional journey.
So why don't we dive into, you know, your journey from
corporate world to entrepreneurship.
What motivated you to make this change?
And there is a, there is a lot, a lot about that.
I and definitely I need to take you back with me a little bit in
time. It's and, and, and now you will
hear the story about the music because more than 20 years ago,
I already had my own thing. And the, together with the, at
that time and my best friend, we had our, our thing, we were
organizing concerts and we did it for five to six years.
And we started with nothing except a brilliant idea.
And, and, and we, we grew a lot in, across multiple cities in
Italy. And when we finished, we were
pretty known in, in Italy. So we finished for various
reasons and which, which I don't want to touch now because that
will be another podcast, I would say.
But but I can say that when we finished, I knew that one day I
was going to have my own thing again.
So Fast forward the roughly 20 years, I, I am incorporate, I
have a great role, I'm making good money.
But more and more and especially I would say in the last, in the
last two years, I could see a disconnection between what I was
actually doing, what I was, let's say allowed to do versus
what I actually wanted to do. And then and then last November,
there was the proverbial last drop.
I was speaking at the conference in Poland.
On the first day I had my, my speech, I delivered my, my talk.
On the second day, I facilitated the workshop.
It was a workshop on stakeholders engagement.
So at the end of the workshop, I was outside, you know, at the
coffee corner with the three project managers that that
attended my workshop and we were just chatting and, and talking
about the situation. So one of them at a certain
point, she told me, oh Bruno, your company is so lucky to have
you. You can inspire PMS, you can
guide them. You can have those talks and
workshops every week. So I started, I started laughing
and, and I spilled my coffee on the table and I told her, well,
they don't want me and, and not really me personally, but they
didn't want what I could offer. They, you know, they didn't want
to change the, to challenge the status quo.
They didn't want to do the effort that was needed to
actually improve. And that was for me the, the
moment it was when I said, OK, this is the type of impact that
I can have on the people. And they could see it not only
at that conference, but in every place, in every interaction that
I had. And I felt like I was somehow
not in a position to actually do it because of, of, of that role.
So this is when I said, OK, now it's time.
It's time for me to go out there and open my own thing and and
find a way to support organizations and individuals
that are actually looking to change and that they want to
improve. Wow.
Well, how did that moment feel
for you when when it clicked that this was what you're meant
to do next? It, it was, it was a
realization. It was really like, like you
would imagine the famous, the, the famous last drop.
It was like, OK, I'm I'm done. Like I knew what was going on on
the other side and, and it was like this the technically, I
would say the realization took place a few hours later when I
was at the airport waiting for boarding for my flight back to
Berlin. And that was when I said, OK,
that's it. That's incredible.
Wow. And, and, and, you know, it was
something that, as I said, I wanted to do since quite a
while. And I knew that was, in my
particular situation, the right moment.
And if I would not have done it in that moment, So basically
right now, probably I would not have done it in future.
And I had the I was afraid that potentially was going to regret
it for the rest of my life. That's why I said, OK, it is the
time. Yeah.
Wow. That's such a big moment.
So we when we started engaging about what was happening in your
professional journey, this was a few months ago and I know that
you were just starting to get legs under this concept of
starting your own business, leaving the corporate world,
building, whatever it is now that your vision is today.
So tell me about the challenges, right, Opening a business in
general, just for anybody entrepreneur, you know, folks
that want to start a restaurant or something.
There's just a lot of things that go into it, not just
financial, but you know, time, the efforts, the thinking around
the vision, how it how you execute it.
It's just like it's own project. So let's talk about the
opportunities and challenges that have come up in starting
your own business. Yeah, For me the there were a
lot of challenges of course, as you, as you mentioned and as
everyone can imagine, I would say probably I would put them
into three areas. I would call them Freedom
administration and marketing and sales.
These for me were are still today the biggest, the biggest
challenges. I'll tell you something about
that. Freedom is the one I was not
expecting, but after actually having been for 20 years in
corporate incorporate in different companies, but always
incorporate, you suddenly find yourself in a position in which
you have the complete freedom about everything starting with
you know which IIT set up do I want to have which tool do I
want to use for these. I don't know for setting up a
video call or for tracking my activities, for doing my emails,
even these basic things, they, they like the risk is to spend
so much time into that stuff, which is not actually doing your
business. It is, you know, spending time
around it. And, and this is something that
again, it, it's what I was not expecting because I, I, I
simply, you know, I was used to, well, this is it, this is your,
your stuff. You have to follow the
processes. You know, corporate is giving
you guardrails every time and, and yeah, you don't have them,
so you have to give them to yourself.
The other one, administration. Administration is what everyone
can imagine. It's, you know, from and of
course it can be different between depending on the country
in which you are and where you are opening the company.
But of course you need to go through a process of changing
your status from employee to company owner.
And then you need to do all the stuff and preparing for the
accounting and the invoicing and setting up a bank account, like
it's a mix of things. You definitely need help with
that. So you need to have someone that
is supporting you with that. If you do it only on your own,
it's overwhelming. Absolutely.
And the last one, marketing and sales.
Marketing and sales is something that most of the people that are
incorporated they don't do because you have already your
unless you work in marketing or sales, you don't do it.
So if you are, let's say, a project manager of your leading
your APMO like I have been for the last 20 years, you, you have
your stakeholders, they are predefined.
They are giving you work. They like you don't like, you
don't need to go out there and, and look for it.
And, and this is going to be a big, a big shift, a big shift
for everyone. The fact that, well, you need to
be able to go out there, make yourself visible, be clear about
who you are and what you want. And then of course, you need to,
to, to drive, to drive also some, some sales, you need them.
And, and it is funny because when I was discussing with a,
with a couple of of friends which have been into this
journey years ago, they told me that actually this last bit of
marketing and sales, it is always constantly one of the
biggest, biggest challenges in, in business.
So it's not just at the beginning.
Yeah, yeah. You know, I always like to think
as a project manager and you have many, many years of
experience in, in the project management spaces.
We run our little businesses. You know, sometimes running a
portfolio, running a program is like running a small little
business within a corporate setting.
I'm curious about how much of I know that you said the some of
the struggles was around sales, marketing, like the areas that
we typically don't touch on a day-to-day basis and our roles
in PM. How did that come to fruition
for you in terms of did you find somebody who was experienced and
kind of they share their best practice with practices with you
For somebody who doesn't have a business administration type
background, how, how I know you talked about the challenges, but
how did you overcome them? You, you, you need to find what
I have done and I think it is the right, the right approach
for everyone in this situation. It is to find someone that can
help you with it. Again, that might be
overwhelming because if you go online and search for people
that can help you with that, you find everything and you'll find
so many out there telling you I'm the best with me.
I'm the one and that's the problem.
So it's about trying to understand more than what they
say, who they are and potentially what if that
resonates with you and then you definitely find someone that
that can help you with. You might have some contacts
that are particularly good at that.
And so of course, 1st I started with my internal network before
going out there. But it is, it is something that
I'm still it, it's still, I'm still working on it.
I'm still like, I don't, don't take it as OK, Bruno, figure it
out. Not really.
Yeah, it takes some time, yeah. I think even with all the
educational backing, I've heard folks that have started and are
successful in their businesses say the same thing.
So I wouldn't, I wouldn't put you behind the, the, the curve
there, Bruno, in terms of the business itself, I know that we
alluded to you left corporate, you transitioned, started this.
Let's talk about the business, the actual business, where it's
at today. What, what are the services you
offer? Let's let the audience know what
it is. Yeah.
So there is, there is, there is quite a while then.
Well the company is is existing, it is registered and it is
active. Our website is not yet ready but
but we are getting there. So what do we do?
We essentially we provide the services to both organizations
and individuals and, and this is, these are different things,
but you see that you, you will see now that there is a lot of
connection about them. So to organisations we support
them definitely in improving their project delivery.
So most of the organisations are struggling with their projects.
Either they are not happening or they there are, you know,
multiple reasons why they don't, they don't take place or they
are not successful, whatever definition of success they might
have. So definitely that's one of the
thing that that I do. And but I do more with
organizations because it's not just about, OK, your projects
are not working, I'm coming and and they tell you what to do or
I do it. Then for you, it is about
actually helping them shaping their teams, mostly the project
teams into a way that they will be successful.
So there is a lot of work into inspiring these teams, bringing
them, you know, starting helping them to start this journey off
getting to a point in which they are actually they start to trust
each other, work together. And this is something that I
have done so much over the past few years and, and I love it
because I, I know that that is the real reason why in the end,
a project or whatever the company wants to it is actually
going to be successful or not. So there is a lot to into the
company culture that's for organization.
And again, it's a lot now for individuals.
I have been doing coaching and mentoring, offering a coaching
and mentoring since many years and they definitely want to
continue. So I'm continuing with that.
It might be limited because of course a lot of the of of my
time now is going to be on other things, but they definitely keep
coaching and mentoring as as services that we offer to
individuals. And then here individuals are of
any type. Like definitely I have a big
chunk which are project managers that are either struggling with
their projects or in their career and they are looking for
the next steps. But I also support the
university students which are almost ready to go out of
university and they have no idea what is expecting them, and also
professionals that are potentially changing a career.
So I have a lot that are trying to enter in project management,
but not yet, not yet there. So transitioning from other
roles into project management. And in the end, of course,
you'll find me out there also speaking at conferences and
organizations that are calling me to either run workshops or to
give talks and inspire their teams.
And it is again, there is always a component of project
management into it. But it is not necessarily that
like the last workshop that I have that I have run for a for a
client. It was about really supporting
that teams roughly 60 people into to to kick start their
journey of learning and getting better, improving everyday to,
you know, to start this habit. It's not so much close to
project management as you can see, but it is very close to my
heart. It is actually one of the topics
that that I love that I love particularly.
So it was. It was a great workshop.
And that that's actually the topic that connected us on
LinkedIn is I believe you posted something around consider.
I'm sorry if I'm butchering it, but you, you made me think about
consider project management as something that you have to
practice everyday, you know, just like picking up an
instrument, just like playing a sport, something where every day
you can practice and get better and better.
And I think that was kind of holistically what you were
trying to say in your post. And that really was attractive
to me because in the way that you describe your business
model, it's beautiful. You know, something about
project management and our profession and the way that we
experience everything. And then we want to pay it
forward and help others understand how not just how to
break into the industry, but how to be successful, how to build
teams in your organization, all of that.
I'm very, very excited for this vision.
And it just all makes sense to me as you're describing it.
So Bruno, tell me about because your business encompasses all of
these different facets of services, have you thought about
how you yourself are going to play all that or wear all the
different hats, all the different roles that you're
going to have to play as part of running your own business?
Yeah, yes, that's, that's one of the challenges that I'm facing
right now because of course there is so much potentially
that you can do and the and the and it is about trying to stay
focused on what you want to achieve.
So I know who I am and I know what I want and especially I
know why I want to do it. Everything that is potentially
out there available, it needs to resonate with that.
And if I see that for whatever reason, it's not the right
thing, it might be get parked while I work on something else.
But then let me tell you in general, when you look at all
those things, they are all related.
And this is the, this is what actually makes, at least to me
from, from my insider point of view, I can see the connection
of all of that. It's all about like, if I have
to summarize it, I, I see it as, you know, the concept of doing
the right things and doing them right.
So it's always about the same. It could be for organization,
helping them, identifying what are the right things for them.
Or it could be for individuals, where do you want to go?
And then identifying what are the actions that actually are
going to help you to potentially get there and then support them
on this journey. So this is what, what they see
and having that, it definitely helps me.
But of course. We all have limited amount of
time and, and at the moment I am, I am alone.
I don't want, I don't plan to be alone.
But at the beginning I I had to start on my own and and it's
important to stay focused and know what you want to achieve.
Yeah, I can just imagine that there's so many ideas that
you've had kind of locked in your mind and now that you're in
this environment where you can just let it all out and look at
it. The, the the vision is there.
It's just keeping yourself grounded, focused.
I, I, I understand that that perspective.
So you know, works back. To the back to the point about
the freedom, you have, the freedom of potentially doing
everything, but that's not the point.
The point is, what is actually that is important for you?
Isn't that interesting? The one thing, the barrier that
typically, I don't know if you call it barrier because I'm
currently in the corporate world still, but the one challenge
that you sometimes have is those constraints that a corporate
setting will provide to you. But at the same time, it's also
an opportunity because it keeps you, like you said, focus kind
of very linear in some respect in terms of how you execute the
work. So it's really interesting kind
of what you sacrifice to start your own business and what you
transition from some of the things that were often
constraining you are now things that you're trying to look for
and build for yourself within your new business.
It almost sounds like you need to.
Build your own guardrails. Yes, yes.
Absolutely. So we're catching you at a very
interesting point in time because the original time that
we were supposed to have our conversation, you just started
thinking about it, right, putting together the plans and
everything where a few months from when we originally thought
we would be chatting. But you're still very much in
that infancy stage of building this business and putting your
vision out to the world. So looking ahead, what is your
future vision? You know what, what are your
goals for the business and what what does that look like in
2025? I.
I think 2025 is going to be, well, technically it's going to
be my first full year and it is going to be still.
I see it as as a transition, as a transition year.
But yet, as I briefly mentioned a moment ago, I don't want to be
alone. I know, I know right now I am
alone. But as soon as I I see that
there is the opportunity to grow.
I would love to have other people joining me on this
journey. I in the past as a head of PMO
in different companies, I have built a great teams.
One of them, I still call it my dream team.
It is, it is it is a piece of of one of my keynote as well that
beautiful story. And definitely I want to build
my dream team right now, but I need to be in a position for for
doing that right. So it, it take, it takes some
time, but clearly I, I see the organization growing in
different, in different, different areas.
There are different, different things that we, that I want to
do and that I know we will be good at.
So having different people working on these different
streams is, is what is what I have in mind.
Yeah. Absolutely can not do this
alone, but I think just from the get go, this is your vision and
it's very, very exciting to see it coming together.
So for future entrepreneurs and to wrap up our conversation, do
you have any other best practices, lessons learned,
advice that you would like to to give to folks who are looking to
leave the corporate setting and start their own venture?
Yes, yes, definitely what what what I would say is especially
if you are in in a situation like my one like you are
potentially incorporate and thinking about going into that
direction. I would say start with why,
which which we all know it like ask yourself why do you want to
do it? What is that you want to achieve
into into that and you need to be very clear about that.
It's just not just about yeah, OK, I, I I want to try it.
There must be something more identify then once you have I
understood what is why, why, what is that you want?
Why is the reason? Identify what are your
distinctive factors like what you would consider your added
value later on versus everyone else?
Why you and then of course, you can look at the what are the
possibilities out there? And, and, and that will help you
to potentially start the designing your idea and and
planning planning because everything takes longer than
expected. Yeah.
That's the reason why we are speaking in December and
everything takes longer than expected.
It's it, it. So ensure that you plan it
properly and and that you, and you know that you keep that in
mind. Also what is important is, and
that's very personal. It's different from person to
person, but you need to ensure that you have enough, let's say,
bandwidth for yourself to live well.
A way that I'd like to say it is both you and your business need
fuel. So I'm sure you have enough fuel
before you start your journey. That's my summary of a piece of
advice that I would give. It's beautiful, Bruno, I, I
appreciate you taking the time. I know it's like evening time
for you, I think where you're situated.
So I really appreciate you taking your evening to to chat
with us and catch us up essentially on where you're
where you were and where you're going and where you're going to
be in 2025. So if folks want to continue the
conversation and learn more about the business, where can
they find you online? Right now the best place to
start is my website, which is Bruno morgante.com and this is
where you can find how I can help you, the services that
Ioffer and also what others say about me.
So there are a lot of testimonials both from people
that had me at their conferences so they heard me speaking, or my
coaches and mentees and companies that that I have
supported. That's the best way to get in
touch with me. Then of course, I am also on
LinkedIn, so you can reach out to me also there.
But at the moment I would say Bruno morganta.com is right
place. Wonderful.
I'll make sure all of the relevant links to be in touch
with you are posted alongside this video and audio versions of
this episode. Bruno, thank you so much again
for taking your evening to chat with us about your journey.
For folks that want to continue the conversation with me, you
can find me at the everydaypm.com as well as on
LinkedIn. I'll make sure those links are
available too. So that will do it for this
installment of the Everyday PM podcast.
Thank you everybody for joining us.
And until next time, take care. Bye bye.