TC&MN #8 More Money & Control? Build Expertise Like This CEO Did

What it Looks Like to Build Skills to Expertise

Today, I will show you how to build your skills into expertise with a powerful case study of a tech executive who built and leveraged his skill for equity and is now building a business around them.

Expertise is a developed skill you can trade for large amounts of equity or build a brand and business around.

There is no better teaching than a use case. Examining the careers of others lets you see options and gives ideas of what you can do also. Let’s walk through this one togethr.

The use case will be the career of my friend and former colleage Bart Fanelli, who is now the Founder and CEO of Skillibrium.

Bart started of like many of us as an employee of a larger software company, however over his career he locked in to the skill set that he was passionate about and gave him leverage.

Why expertise matters

If you want to be in control of your career and own your time, you need to build skills to the level of expertise.

Building valuable skills gives you leverage to negotiate for autonomy and flexibility in your work. - Cal Newport author of “So Good They Can’t Ignore You.”

From Account Executive to CEO Case Study - Bart Fanelli

Bart started his career at BMC Software as an Account Executive. Like many of us he gravitated to a role that suited his skill set, and wanted to keep digging. Bart discovered he really enjoyed the business side of complex software transactions (legal, terms, etc).

Bart saw an opportunity to build skills in an area some thought were boring, but were essential to the business.

With his focus on the business side of selling, Bart stepped into a sales enablement role (training sales teams) to teach them how to engage the business proactively in the sales process. The results were larger $$ deals closed than expected and better growth at existing accounts. Bart diligently recorded his success and then went back to run a sales team to test his newfound skill.

The strategic process of investing time to build skills and then testing the skills by taking massive risks built something special.

When Bart took the role at Splunk in 2010 to lead Sales Enablement for a complex product that many didn’t know how to sell, he was ready. He was able to put his expertise to work and make an immediate impact. With his new leader he learned how to build a team and bring people to his mission to make a complex value selling process scalable.

The results speak for themselves: Splunk grew from $60M in sales to $1.5B+ during his 7 years there.

Bart was not finished. He partnered with others and wrote a book documenting his process and the results they delivered. Many wold have stopped here. Not Bart; he wanted to stress test his expertise again, taking a CRO role at Outsystems. This commitment to deliberate practice, refining and hardning a process paid off.

In 3 years, Outsystems went from $100M of revenue to $300M from applying these processes again.

Now Bart was ready to take what he had built and proven multiple times and build a business around it. He learned that by implementing his process multiple times, there was no software to support it in a way that streamlined the experience for the account executive and the business stakeholders.

Now he is building a business around a proven process with measurable results across multiple companies.

This case study demonstrates how to build a unique skills set, invest in it, take calculated risks, and it unlocks opportunities and the freedom to do what you want.

If you want to hear more from Bart and get into the details, Part 1 of our conversation went live today and you can watch it or listen to it below. 👇🏼👇🏼

Tech Equity and Money Talk is a weekly podcast showing you how to work for tech equity as a wealth-building strategy and meet your financial goals.

36 🎙️ Trading for Equity: A Case Study in Leveraging Skills for Success or Quantifiable Results

Trading for Equity: Investing in building skills to the level of expertise can set you apart in your career, leading to promotions and higher wages. 

Learn how Bart Fanelli created a skill set and made it so valuable he is building a company around it.

Every Mid-Career Tech Exec Needs to Make This Decision to Become Financially Independent.

The biggest financial mistake I see people making is outsourcing the ownership and results of their financial future.

As Tech Employees, we can make a lot of money, and it becomes complicated to manage. Your stock, cash, and assets need a plan and management to reach your destination. So who is in charge? Who is relentlessly focused on the mission and vision to get to the finish line?

You need to decide if you or someone else will be the CEO of your financial future, driving the mission and vision and keeping on plan.

No one is going to care for your financial future like you. Your paid advisors have many other clients, they are working hard for all of them, so you get a portion of their time for money, that is it. Your future and that of your family need to be owned by you. With you as the CEO, your family will have a leader to ensure it all stays on track.

Many struggle because they don’t want to make the hard decisions or they don’t know how

Where I see tech employees go wrong is they do one of two things

• Leverage a Financial Advisor as the CEO

• Rely on their stock positions in one or two companies to be their “retirement plan.”

Both of these decisions create a lot of risk. Turning all the decisions over to a single person or company inhibits change (leveling up or firing ) if your goals are not being reached. You get comfortable and don’t drive it like a business, putting demands on its performance. You are accepting someone else’s decisions. Relying on one or two large stock positions is a setup for failure. Diversification is the base of a strong financial fortress.

Make 2024 the year that you become the CEO of your Financial Future.

Here are three things to commit to as the CEO.

Set the direction and own the decisions: Review what you have in your financial plan or draft one, then work to finalize it. Make this your purpose. Fill in any education gaps to know enough to make decisions.

Build a strong team: Look at where you need to fill gaps or uplevel your team. Interview other professionals and understand their services, experience and results. Focus on results.

Drive Results and Accountability: What performance and results are you looking for? How do you get them? Executives drive their company performance, and it is no different here.

The first step towards financial independence is deciding that you will be the CEO. Being a CEO doesn’t mean that you do it all alone. It means that you are proactive and moving forward with the ability to change the team if you are not getting the desired results.

Take control of your financial future in 2024. Decide to be the CEO.

Here are some examples of CEO decisions on my financial future I made in 2023 and plans for 2024.

2023 Results: 

• Upleveled Tax Team from CPA we had for 11 years to Certified Tax Planners

• Upleveled Estate Planner to superior provider that meets our needs better

• Outsourced all Bookkeeping business and personnel - focusing our attention on growing wealth (high value), not doing the day-to-day minutia (low value) activities.

2024 Targets:

• Upgrade Financial Management Tech Stack - Investment Management and Virtual Doc Storage

• Update Credit Card Points and Usage to Maximize Travel / Lower Cost

• Research and Make One or Two Private Equity Investments to increase cash flow.

What questions do you have? What are your current challenges?

Hit reply with any questions or thoughts! I will reply to all messages.

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or career advice. Always consult with qualified professionals before making any decisions based on the information provided.