Every scaling CEO eventually meets a cost structure that was never built to survive the conditions it's now facing. For David Salerno, founder of Solpak Packaging Solutions, that moment arrived through an exchange rate. The company bought its packaging materials in US dollars and sold in Canadian dollars — a workable model until the currency gap widened. Over eighteen months, Solpak's costs climbed 46%. At the low point, the company was net-losing roughly $30,000 a month, with hundreds of thousands in outstanding payables compounding the pressure.
The crisis wasn't a strategic misstep. It was a macroeconomic force entirely outside David's control, hitting a pricing model with no mechanism to absorb it. That distinction matters, because it clarifies what the real decision was. David couldn't raise prices 15% a quarter without losing clients who had their own budget constraints. The fix wasn't going to come from a single pricing lever. It was going to come from how he chose to lead through a threat he couldn't negotiate his way around alone.
Pricing models built during stable conditions tend to assume the variables that matter — supplier costs, exchange rates, input pricing — will move slowly enough to adjust around. Solpak's model worked for years on that assumption. When the assumption broke, the business didn't face a slow decline to manage; it faced a solvency threat measured in weeks. This is the pattern scaling CEOs should recognize: the risk isn't usually the shock itself, it's discovering how much of the business was quietly dependent on conditions holding steady.
David's own account of the period reflects that recognition. He described the situation as ultimately coming down to mindset, because the macroeconomic force was one he couldn't reverse no matter how the business responded operationally.
Facing a loss that exceeded his own payroll, David had a choice many CEOs face in some form during a crisis — manage the stress privately and project confidence, or lay out the real financial picture to the team. He chose the second path. As he put it, "I decided to go full transparent." That single decision shaped everything that followed.
It's worth being precise about what transparency actually required. It wasn't a one-time announcement. It meant explaining the plan, absorbing the discomfort of appearing less in control, and trusting the team to respond to honesty rather than panic over uncertainty. David framed the underlying logic as an obligation: "They trust you to show up day in, day out." That framing turns transparency from a communication tactic into an accountability structure — the team had extended trust over time, and the crisis was the moment that trust either got spent or reinforced.
Transparency alone didn't fix the balance sheet. Solpak's team moved to a four-day work week — a 20% pay reduction — for two pay periods. David and his manager renegotiated supplier terms. Pricing was adjusted. None of these actions were dramatic individually; together, they represented a coordinated response built on the credibility transparency had established. Without that trust, a pay cut paired with a vague explanation would likely have accelerated departures rather than prevented them.
The tradeoff David accepted was short-term exposure — telling his team the company was in real danger — against the alternative of carrying that weight alone and risking a slower, less trusted recovery. He'd already made an all-in bet on the business years earlier, telling his wife he was willing to risk bankruptcy to succeed. The currency crisis became the test of that commitment, arriving as an external event rather than a decision he'd made himself, which is precisely what made it disorienting.
The pressure of the crisis pushed David toward a distinction that outlasted the immediate emergency: seeing the business itself, not the packaging or the client relationships, as his actual product. "I think I saw really the business as my product, not my clients, there are clients," he said. That reframe created room between himself and the daily operation — not as a retreat from responsibility, but as a vantage point from which decisions could be made strategically rather than reactively.
He described the mental shift using a helicopter metaphor: rising above the constant motion of a city to observe it rather than being caught inside its traffic. Applied to leadership, that same distance let him separate the panic of the moment from the plan required to get through it. Detachment, in this sense, wasn't disengagement — it was the discipline of stepping outside the crisis long enough to lead it clearly.
The Solpak crisis is a useful case study precisely because the catalyst — a currency shock — is specific, but the decision structure is not. Any scaling CEO whose cost base depends on conditions they don't control will eventually face a version of this choice: absorb the pressure alone, or extend trust to the team before the team is asked to extend trust back. David's experience suggests the second path only works if trust was already being built before the crisis arrived — through consistent treatment, transparency as a norm rather than a one-time move, and a track record that gives hard news somewhere to land.
The lasting result wasn't just that Solpak survived. The crisis forced a clearer understanding of what David was actually building — a business designed to run without requiring his constant presence inside it, a distinction that later became the foundation for his second venture, Entrepreneur Sherpa.
David Salerno is Founder and President of Solpak Packaging Solutions, a distribution business he built over more than 20 years serving food-service, meals-on-wheels, and school-caterer clients across Canada. He is also the founder of Entrepreneur Sherpa and author of Built for Freedom. Connect with David on LinkedIn.
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Jeff Holman is a CEO advisor, legal strategist, and founder of Intellectual Strategies. With years of experience guiding leaders through complex business and legal challenges, Jeff equips CEOs to scale with confidence by blending legal expertise with strategic foresight. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Intellectual Strategies provides innovative legal solutions for CEOs and founders through its fractional legal team model. By offering proactive, integrated legal support at predictable costs, the firm helps leaders protect their businesses, manage risk, and focus on growth with confidence.
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The Breakout CEO podcast brings you inside the pivotal moments of scaling leaders. Each week, host Jeff Holman spotlights breakout stories of scaling CEOs—showing how resilience, insight, and strategy create pivotal inflection points and lasting growth.
Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform:
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Want to be a guest—or know a scaling CEO with a breakout story to share? Apply directly at go.intellectualstrategies.com.
TRANSCRIPT SUMMARY
00:00 - Meet David Salerno
04:22 - Building the Right Team
09:06 - Innovating Food Packaging
10:50 - Escaping the Founder Trap
16:26 - Solving Critical Client Problems
21:07 - Business as the Product
25:19 - Surviving a Financial Crisis
29:13 - Leading Through Transparency
35:10 - Business Lessons Beyond Business
39:18 - Finding Clarity Through Detachment
44:57 - Building a Business for Freedom
53:50 - The Entrepreneur’s Drive to Create
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
David Salerno (00:00)
We were losing maybe thirty K a month. And I said I would will be willing to go bankrupt to succeed. Forty six percent increase in our costs. If you take a helicopter and you're basically raising above, they trust you to show up day in, day out.
Jeff Holman (00:14)
Welcome back, everybody, to the Breakout CEO podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Holman, with Intellectual Strategies. As a as an attorney working with lots of scaling companies, I get to see a bunch of things that happen behind the scenes with CEOs and their leadership teams. And since I can't share all those confidential stories with with you all, I look for amazing people that come onto the podcast that are willing to share some of their growth stories as scaling CEOs. And today we've got the pleasure of having David Salerno with us. David
You're welcome to the show. Glad to have you.
David Salerno (00:47)
Thank you, Jeff. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here. Yeah.
Jeff Holman (00:50)
Glad to have you. I was gonna say you're with you you're with, but you actually started and CEO of SolPac and entrepreneur Sherpa and maybe some other things, written a book. You've done a lot of stuff. And man, if you look back on what you've done, what would you say you're most proud of?
David Salerno (01:07)
it's gonna be cliche, but I'll say family. starting a a business from scratch and bringing it twenty years later to to the level it's at and the maturity it's at and it's still growing. And then but but preserving a marriage, having kids that I'm pretty proud of them as they reach adulthood. So I I think combining the two is is a great achievement.
Jeff Holman (01:29)
Yeah, I I mean you called that cliche. I don't know if that is cliche given given that it's it's you know pretty common for for successful entrepreneurs to have disruptions, we'll call them, in their family. so maybe it's cliche, maybe it's not, but no that that is that is quite the achievement. So congratul congratulations on that. Yep.
David Salerno (01:51)
Thanks. Thanks.
Jeff Holman (01:51)
From a from a business standpoint, walk us through a few of the highlights that that have gotten you to this point.
David Salerno (01:58)
Yeah, so so I guess the the origin story is is I'm in the corporate world. as a teenager I'd been in in in the business, home service business painting, student painting, and I knew I would start my business one day, do the corporate thing, have an opportunity, start the business, struggle, struggle, struggle, and get to a point where it's an eight figure business that I run part time. So I think that's the the art story and a few
A few a few crisis moments in the in the tw those twenty years, business wise at least.
Jeff Holman (02:29)
Yeah. You know, I talked to a friend who he's younger than me and he was telling me his story about building a painting business as a college student with I think it was his cousin, if I remember right, and I and I'm like, I didn't know this about you. Like I know what you do today and and that's pretty amazing. He he eventually exited. I don't know what his exit was like, but I think he did fine. w what is it about painting the painting business that or or some of these things that draw that draw in students? To me, I look at that and I'm like, I've
Like I've painted a house before. It is tough work. It is i did you know what you were getting into when you started it?
David Salerno (03:06)
So my my mom, I mean I was 16 when when I decided that this was a thing I wanted to do. And in Canada, there there is was an organization called Student Painters or Student Works. and they were touring call college, well, pre-college. So in in Quebec would be in Canada it would be like just before you go to university, those two years prior. And I was graduating from high school and
I it it's a thing. Like across the country you had two competing organizations hiring college students to to manage these franchise franchises, I guess, and also to to be painters. So I I was interested in managing one. I I had no painting experience. It was a interesting very interesting summer.
Jeff Holman (03:48)
Okay. So so this so these are private businesses that are that are essentially on on campus or pre you know in in these in the circles of of your age groups and saying, Hey, come paint, come paint. So Okay.
David Salerno (03:59)
Exactly. Exactly.
Jeff Holman (04:01)
Got it. Interesting. yeah, having painted a house, I I that's I'll I'll do a lot of handiwork w when I have time, but I don't do painting anymore. I I'm not built for that. I don't have the I don't have the maybe patience for that or attention to detail. I'm not sure which, but
That's a that's a tough job. but you went from painting
David Salerno (04:22)
Yeah, I was just gonna tell you I discovered that summer that I o the description applies to me as well. But I remember I was good at selling, so I ended up selling contracts before I'd hired my my my painters. So I had to do the first job by myself. It was a disaster. I had some help after, but I I realized you don't have to be a pro at the business that you're operating. You have to be a pro at finding the right team and and and doing the right way. But yeah, painting is not my thing.
Jeff Holman (04:51)
Okay. Okay. So you so you turn that into into more of a sales position and building the business, growing the business, managing the business. Well that but that's that seems like that maybe has turned into a theme across your career. That's that that's what you have done and what you help other people do now, right?
David Salerno (05:09)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's funny. A friend of mine, a childhood friend, had said, You know, David, I think you're gonna succeed just because you're more interested in building a business that will thrive than the actual than what the actual what the business is actually doing. And I thought that was an interesting observation. it was more my product was the business, what I was building. I'm Salt Pack is in packaging. I I love I love what we do, we do a great job. But it could've I think it could have been anything at the end of the day and I
Think I would have done okay.
Jeff Holman (05:40)
Well tell us about Solpak. I wanna I wanna know what the business is, but but I do want to get into the into that aspect of of, you know, building the business more than maybe running the business. But tell us first what Solpak is so the audience knows kinda it has it has context for that.
David Salerno (05:55)
Sure. So SaltPack, more than 20 years ago, I found a solution that we actually imported from Michigan, which was pulp paper pulp paper meal trays that you could seal, film over with equipment. So we basically help our clients improve their meal packaging system. So our clients are doing the packaging, the food and everything. So there'll be food services, meals on wheels, school caterers that need to bring food.
to different locations. Let's say a kitchen will twelve schools and they'll bring the meals to the kids. So that's what our business does across Canada now.
Jeff Holman (06:29)
But you guys were actually making the packaging, the the for these other companies and selling it to them? We were
David Salerno (06:35)
Sourcing and and bundling it in a way where everything was included. So we had servicing, advisory, because there's different films, different trays and whatnot. So it's kind of an all in one distribution service.
Jeff Holman (06:49)
Okay. And so man, I hadn't thought of like an advisory service about, you know, for meals on wheels they they come d does the different type going into the engineering side of things for just a moment here, because I'm curious. Does the does the what would what would tell you when you needed to do different types of materials in the packaging? Was it the types of food that were being served or the the you know, types of storage conditions or the transportation like like what was it that said
You gotta use something different here than you used on the last one.
David Salerno (07:21)
That's a great question. And then and then food packaging, it happens a lot. So one one anecdote and and and the answer, once we're in a trade show and a lady comes to us, she says, But will it do curry? Will your packaging do curry? And we were like, Well, it's food packaging, of course. She's like, No, you don't understand. Will it do curry? It was early on in Salt Pack. So we actually tested it and thankfully it was doing curry. But what we had not realized is depending on which types of of ingredients you're using and mixing, it's chemistry, right? It will have the packaging react.
So plastic is the easiest, most versatile. So using the right material for the for the tray, but also for the film, if they're doing frozen versus hot meals, can't be the same films because they'll they'll just open up if there's in internal pressure because of the heat. So it's kind of a physical algorithm, if I could call it like this, where we design the right combos of
Jeff Holman (08:13)
Okay. Okay. That's like I mean, it's probably not too different from painting in a way. Like you go in, you're like, I'm gonna paint a house. Well, you gotta figure out what types of surface prep you're doing. You gotta figure out what types of paints and finishes you want and colors. It's not it's not just one paint, right? I hadn't thought about that in food packaging, but it makes sense. Different pHs, different acidity levels, perhaps, or whatever it is, different, I don't know, odors and odor protection. And yeah, it seems like there's so much in it.
I love that because t aga again, just as a side note, that's where the innovation happens, right? We we we look at something we're like, this is packaging and you put food in this thing and it contains it and you know, it's pretty straightforward. But when you get into the details of it, you start saying, wait, there are actually a lot of issues here that need to be addressed and when we address those issues, we're probably gonna start inventing new things and then we have, you know, new brand opportunities and I I don't know, it's it's kind of exciting that way.
David Salerno (09:06)
It it's funny 'cause not not that I know of your engineering background but interest and patent at the same time. Yeah we're we've been working for three three, four years on a pulp that would not require a lining that's made of of crystallized polyethylene, a type of plastic, if you will, because that's such an easy solution to what we were discussing. And we're we're at the cusp of having designed and invented that pulp that will not require a liner, that will have the same per
propriety. So we're very excited about this. So maybe maybe Jeff we'll have a off offline conversation about patents because we're we're approaching that point.
Jeff Holman (09:43)
Well, that's exciting. I mean, to to be able to pull an i essentially an ingredient out of the process all in and of itself. And and maybe that I I don't know, maybe that makes it more makes it more sustainable and all those other things, right? That's that's pretty cool. So that's awesome. Well, I'm excited to hear more at some point. So well, so as you've been building this business, you know, you as you said before, you you could be the one just running the business and just being, you know, diving all in, but you have kind of a
Maybe an interest, maybe an aptitude towards building the business itself as much or more than doing the business. Tell me more about that. Just a quick note about our guests. I host the Breakout CEO podcast to share behind the scenes insights from scaling businesses. As an attorney, I see the real challenges leaders face long before success becomes public. But clients' stories have to stay confidential. So we invite guest CEOs to share their own moments of struggle.
and success. I'm so grateful to our guests and my team at Intellectual Strategies for making this show possible. Now let's get back to the show.
David Salerno (10:50)
Yeah, so so like like any good old entrepreneur, at some point you know, I wanna be my own boss, so I I leave the corporate world like many and then and then I start my business and then I do it my way, so I'm I'm you know, I'm k king of the mountain, king of the hill. And and to realize at some point with growth and now have a team around you and whatnot, you feel like it should be easier. You have people around you now. But it it looks like it's more work. So it really I came to a point where it's like this is
Like d I was better paid in the corporate world. That was, I don't know, let's say 17 years ago. I'm like, I was better paid in the corporate world. I could delegate to people. I could I had like departments that I could throw my questions and issues. And now it's all on me. And if it's not going well, there's nobody else above me to to blame. I can't blame the boss. I'm the boss, right? Yeah.
Jeff Holman (11:40)
And you can't ignore those problems. They they don't go away when you ignore Like they they get worse if you're when you're the boss.
David Salerno (11:47)
Exactly. So so I came to a point where where where it wasn't gonna work for me, but I wasn't gonna accept defeat. I had I friends in the in the I was from the telecom industry calling me saying, Hey, how's your little company doing? 'Cause like they wanted me back, basically. Yeah. Yeah. And and I had interesting offers on the table. I was like, No, if I if I don't go full monty on this, and I remember telling my wife,
Look, art if you're in, I'm willing to go all the way to bankruptcy of the company, it to suc or or I succeed, because I know, I know, I know it's it's a challenge I need to to achieve in my lifetime because I'm not gonna go back if I go back to corporate world. So that's kind of how it started. Then the messy middle, and then I was like, No, there's a way to figure it out. There are companies out there that have been in business for generations. The founder is not still like
No, running around trying to do everything. Right. He's delegated and created longevity and parent of the business. So that was my obsession. How do I do that? That it will not depend on me and can outlive this generation.
Jeff Holman (12:53)
I have to pause here for a minute because that w that didn't sound like the normal sales pitch to give your spouse. Hey, I'm committed even to bankruptcy. my wife would be like, Wait, what?
David Salerno (13:09)
Yeah, it was counterintuitive. She was good. She was good 'cause she saw not miserable, but I found it tough in the corporate world because I had such strong ideas on how things should be done and whatnot. And she saw the potential and she believed in me. So I'm I'm thankful to her to this day.
Jeff Holman (13:24)
Yeah. Now you mentioned before that one of the things you're most proud of is your family. And so that there's probably probably coming back to the same theme there in in a way. So it sounds like it sounds like a good partnership going on behind the scenes too. well so okay, so so you're building the business and you realize, hey, I wanna I wanna actually grow the business. I wanna I wanna be able to build this. You're right. I you know, as a as a lawyer, we deal with the same thing. People you know, people hire lawyers or
Some people hire law firms, but for the most part they hire lawyers and which which also translates into the lawyer has to usually be the one doing it or has to have a really good pulse on what's going on and be quite involved. It's it's hard for lawyers i in a lot of ways, I think, to step out and say, Hey, I'm actually a business owner. I'm not I'm not the one doing it, you know, but but I've got a team who's doing it. Whereas maybe in a painting or, you know, an agency or
you know, a manufacturer, that that seems a lot more more likely. for you, you your business was manufacturing or packaging, right? And so w was it an easy thing to tell your team or to just take the role and say, Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna just I'm gonna be the business guy. I'm not gonna be the you know, I'm gonna build the team and have the business. Is it was it pretty easy to take that role?
David Salerno (14:49)
I'm I'm gonna say yes, except for the IT role. 'Cause I I I was the I was the whiz kid, the guy who could figure out any technical issue with any software or whatnot. I would at night I would code so that we could connect to the FedEx server to have all the labeling done and that like I just love that stuff. And I'm and I'm saying this in jest 'cause one day I sent an email to the whole team saying I resigned from my IT position.
We are higher and I was the CEO, right? I was like, we're hiring an IT firm that will take care of all of this. Like don't act don't come to me. Because that was the last, I guess the last pit stop of of my business freedom. but but but that being said, no, it was it was I mean I I kept on describing a vision to the team of where this t where our business was gonna be, where everything was well oiled, it was fine-tuned, and it was gonna be going smooth, the clients are gonna be happy.
I told them their happiness was as important to me. So I think I think it was in a way an easy thing once I I got it that that was gonna be my focus and to this day it is still is the case where I would help the team become the best version of themselves, I guess, with our systems and and whatnot.
Jeff Holman (16:03)
Yeah. that makes sense. A as you're as you're growing the business, were there were there obstacles that you did run into along the way? I mean w w what are the what are the tough points where you had to, you know, stop and maybe get your hands dirty or or give more thought to how to get through it? I I don't know what those would have been for your business, but I'm curious if you ran into some of those.
David Salerno (16:26)
Yeah, there were times where we we would have technical issues. I don't I remember once a client would call us and say, Hey, your film is flaking. And and I had technical service advisors, I had advisor sales salespeople, I had a manager, all of this, and it kept on like we couldn't resolve it. So so I was like, Okay, let me let me get into the mix on this one because it was a large client and we just couldn't figure out
so that's an example where I I I wouldn't be shy to get involved and and apply my my my own understanding of of physics and our product lines and whatnot. And to figure out in that case, we were gonna lose the account because they're like, look, we can't trust your film, it's flaking, it's it's like peeling off or something in the oven. All that to know that they had just moved in a new facility and they had hard water. So in their oven with with with the fans, their convection combi oven oven. And
It w it would just dry the the the the minerals in the water.
Jeff Holman (17:29)
Yeah. So what they were seeing was not your was not flaking of your film, it was the it was the minerals of their water. But you have the
David Salerno (17:37)
Yeah.
Jeff Holman (17:38)
wow, that's that's interesting. How b how big was your team at this point and how did I mean what what did that account look like when you when you ran into that?
David Salerno (17:46)
Well, maybe we're team of twelve, maybe we had I don't know, I'm I'm gonna say maybe three hundred and fifty clients. That must have been in the top five percent of our clients. So yeah, it was it was pretty important for us and it was in the school catering business and and there's to this day there's consolidation. So we knew that if we lost that account for that reason, it was it was gonna propagate in the school caterers that don't touch that product, it's it's flaky.
Jeff Holman (18:13)
Yeah, cool. Where w in the end, I mean nobody nobody it's good for you, right? That you're like, hey, it wasn't us and we helped you solve your problem. But but like did that did that change their perception of you from 'cause I know some people, right? They some people are just suppliers. Some people just provide product or information or whatever it is they do. And other people are really partners in in the business. I mean, did that did you already have the perception in the industry that hey
were a real partner or did th did things like this help you establish that perception?
David Salerno (18:45)
Yeah, it's a it's a great question. I I I have to give kudos to back in the days even the VP of our supplier came flew in to Montreal to try to figure it out. So kudos to Chad. wow. Yeah, and cause cause he basically we we brainstormed and it was ridiculous. Like we couldn't believe that it would be the film. It it it didn't make sense, and that's when I saw a real partner because that that client grew by leaps and bounds, is I think triple the size today.
So just that client. So having lost a client was more than loss of a client. It was loss of significant growth. So partnership was key in that example. Absolutely.
Jeff Holman (19:24)
As you've as you've grown this business, what what are the other like what are the ways that you've grown as a as a leader? Because I think that having looked at your business, and I don't I think everybody says they do this, right? Like, I you know, it what's what's the book, E Myth, where it's like, Yes, you know, are you are you a technician or a manager or I don't even remember what they call it. What's the other one?
David Salerno (19:50)
Entrepreneur.
Jeff Holman (19:53)
Which one are you? And everybody's like, I'm an entrepreneur, but in reality, you know, how much of your time do you really spend on the technician or maybe manager things? so everybody says they're an entrepreneur, but what what do you what would you say was the the description of kind of the progression of your of yourself as a leader? If ca because if you had this mindset, I don't know why I asked a question then I and then I t give you more commentary, but well, as I asked this question, I'm like
What's that?
David Salerno (20:23)
Keep going, you're giving me the answer sheet.
Jeff Holman (20:25)
I'm giving you time to come up with an answer. That's right. Yeah.
David Salerno (20:27)
Yeah, that's really exactly.
Jeff Holman (20:29)
No, but I but I I think about it, you know, and I work with a lot of people and I hear a lot of people who are who say that they're working on their business, not in their business. And and in reality, I think a lot of people are really working in their business because that's what is demanded of them. So when I run into somebody who is is truly working on their business, I think it stands out. And I think that it
It's something that other people can see. They're like, How is this guy, you know, how is David doing this to grow his business while I'm sitting here working just as hard, but my business doesn't grow the same way? Do you do you know what I mean?
David Salerno (21:07)
It's true. And and that's why I I stay away from saying working on the business versus in the business, because it's been used and overused. And I I I'm with you on that one. it's funny because the the entrepreneur Sherpa logo, if if you look at it, it's it's a blue circle. and there's a little section that's like kind of lifting up from the circle, and it's basically the metaphor of the entrepreneur detaching from their business. So they're part of their business, but they're not in
So it was kind of the metaphor I I was I was going on. So to answer your question, I feel I'm part of the business to some extent. I see things in the business that stem from the leader, good or or not so good, right? I can have multiple projects at the same time, and then I see our team a little bit entropy. We talked about it, right? A little bit too dis and I'm like, okay, this is this is classic Salerno move. let me let me help the team.
be mindful about this. But but to answer your question is I think it was my mantra that I my my product, my personal product as a founder was the business. And then the business itself was was going to be run by the team and the systems we put in place and whatnot. So I think I saw really the business as my product, not my clients. There are clients. yeah. So I think I think that helped me keep a little bit of distance to to the whole affair yeah
Jeff Holman (22:36)
Interesting. That that seems like it could complicate the I mean, business is is in and of itself difficult, but to say, okay, now I'm because I I actually talked to a lot of people who are say, you know, one entrepreneur has a little bit of success and all of a sudden what they're doing is they're they're bolting on another product or another service or and I'm like, hey, I mean I'm not your I'm not your business coach necessarily, but you know you're starting a second business. They're like, no, it's just I'm just adding another service. I'm like, no, because you're you're you've got a market
A separate new service that nobody knows about to a different a you know a different audience and the pricing's different and your your delivery team is different. Like you're you're essentially starting two businesses, they just happen to be under the same business name and and so you think they're the same. And so when you mention that you think of your business as as your product, like that to me almost feels a similar in a way. You're building a business that runs and serves customers.
But you're also saying, okay, if I detach a little bit here, I I can now also see myself building my own product, which is the business, and that business then sort of so d does it feel like two separate things to you or is it just an extension of of one thing?
David Salerno (23:53)
I think you're right on. It's I don't know if it the Schrdinger's what what's Schrdinger's cat paradox where like is the cat alive or dead? But like am I in the business and and I'm helping close an account or am I outside the business looking at it and saying, Okay, f strategically we need to 10x in the next ten years, let's say. Yeah. we need to rethink the way we we are hiring and and what accounts we're going after, right? So that's like a a detachment.
or the dynamic needs to change. so so I I it's funny because I feel it's a bit when you meditate, I don't know if if meditation is a thing on your end, but I've at some point I had big crisis at SOP. I almost lost everything. And maybe maybe we could talk about that today. Yeah. But I I started meditation. I knew of meditation but never really did it. But it was almost like a must. And I realize it's that distance
when you're you're detaching from all thoughts and whatnot and you're basically it's almost I don't know if they call it a third eye or whatnot, but you're you're looking at yourself. It's a bit the same thing, you and the business. So you're not you're not you are not the business. You're the one looking at the business. And I felt in meditation I had a bit of that same feel, especially in that moment of crisis.
Jeff Holman (25:11)
Well, I I've I feel I've gotta ask now. Tell me more about tell me more about this about this moment. What what led into it?
David Salerno (25:19)
So so in in two thousand fifteen, so we're in Canada, we're importing most of our solutions from from from America. Uh-huh. So we're buying in US and we're selling Canadian, and there was a crash of the K in dollars. Over 18 months, the the from parity we went to a dollar forty six. So forty-six percent increase in our costs within eighteen months, plus whatever outstanding payables we had, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I don't think it had touched a million yet. was increasing also by five, six percent a month. So it just was compounding in terms of our business model didn't work anymore, basically. And we couldn't just increase our pricing by by fifteen percent every quarter or every every semester. So that was a crisis and I was losing more money at that stage than I had on my payroll. So that was kind of a small, small crisis to to deal with.
Jeff Holman (26:17)
No, that's I I've never thought about that before. Where so so your accounts payables, because they were cross border and negatively impacted by the exchange rate, they automatically jumped I mean effectively just increased by almost fifty percent during that time period for you?
David Salerno (26:38)
Within a year, year and a half, exactly. Yeah. On on what was already purchased prior and on any new sale.
Jeff Holman (26:43)
Right. Basically.
And and c and and committed and committed essentially at some sale price that was fixed on your end in the Canadian dollar. That's a I I guess there are probably a lot of companies that that deal with that where you're purchasing across borders and economic pricing changes and shifts on you. That's what was the I mean, you said before that you you felt like you were
almost gonna lose the business, I think. how would you describe the magnitude of that? Just i was it was it like everything, like all of your like did it eat into your entire, you know, profit margin or how did it how did it impact you?
David Salerno (27:30)
So so so the business, I like like most entrepreneurs, most of my my assets were in the business, right? So I'd come from the corporate world with a great pension plan and funds and whatnot, and I had to use those to s to launch the business and and whatnot. So most were in the business and I was all in if that made sense because I had very ambitious aggressive
Jeff Holman (27:53)
Your
wife is on board, we already established that.
David Salerno (27:56)
That's right. We're gonna go bankrupt if not. So it's all good. No, no, you know, how can you fail after that? And so that being said, I in the worst month, we were losing and that's what 10 10 years ago. We were losing maybe 30k a month, losing like net, net loss of 30k a month. and we we couldn't make we couldn't make our our payables, we had to negotiate. There's a lot that was going on at the same time. And
It was macroeconomics, but at the end of the day it was all mindset. Because somehow I had accepted that there we go. I put I went all in. I said I would will be willing to go bankrupt to succeed. And some out of my reach event macroeconomic that I I can't control. Even even if you add your dollar, you can't can't you can't do forty six percent in a year, year and a half. And so I think it it played with my mind where I was, hmm, okay, I think I think that's the lesson I'm learning from now on.
The corporate world seemed interesting again for for a few nights.
Jeff Holman (28:58)
How did your team feel? I mean, what did you what did your team notice as you were going through this? Surely some of them knew the pricing was a a huge problem. Maybe some of them were impacted by the by the, you know, your ability to pay or whatever it might have been.
David Salerno (29:13)
So I I think well so some of them were were not fully understanding the the impact, but they saw that there was a lot of stress going on with me and my manager at the time. And I decided to go full transparent. I basically laid it all out, tell told in the plan and I've I felt as a leader you have an accountability towards your team. They trust you to show up day in, day out.
they come in for a paycheck, but they trust you for the mission that you've spelled out and the vision of this strategic plan and everything, the culture and everything you do. And they trust you. And I felt that I'd had to honor that. That's probably what saved me from just abandoning everything. I just I I owed it to the team. So they some of them felt the pressure. We had to ask the team to take a d a day off. So they were on a four day a week schedule. So we did it by twenty percent. It lasted two paychecks finally. I mean we
We turned it around, we increased pricing, we negotiated better deals with our suppliers, good partners. but but the feel I think was one of trust. At the end of the day, yes, they were scared, but they trusted we it was gonna it was gonna be okay.
Jeff Holman (30:24)
What did what do you think you had done up to that point with your team to establish that trust?
David Salerno (30:30)
It's a great question. I I I've always thought that People First was always my mentor. maybe I would have been a richer man by then, had I not been more generous. I've I've been told by managers later on, you're too generous, David. Like, but that's the culture of the business. That that's why I can claim freedom also, because we've always made sure to pay our people ten percent above the average for the industry for a company our size.
we had a profit sharing plan. We had all these bells and whistles and and more vacation than anywhere else. So people knew that at the end of the day we we we had a benevolent culture and and I think they were just returning the favor and they also trusted the the the plans because we were always growing, double digits, always growing. So they were trusting that we we would figure it out. It was just a temporary bump in the road.
Jeff Holman (31:24)
Yeah, sounds like they were both some internal things and some maybe some long term cultural, you know, or call them business fundamentals that were working, at least when the when when the economy, the broader economy wasn't impacting it, the the business was working, so they they could trust in that. It's very interesting. W what's led you what's led you to to because you're you're kind of building soul pack around this concept of
You know, can I build a business without being, you know, in the business every day or or, you know, being the person doing doing the business, being able to detach in a sense. What has led you to want to start another business on top of that with entrepreneur Sherpa?
David Salerno (32:09)
parenthesis I tried to do exactly what you had mentioned before. We started we wanted to start selling trucks for food catering. So we did that within Solpak. We we did a brand so we started
Jeff Holman (32:19)
Second
b yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
David Salerno (32:23)
In a lot of marketing dollars, and turns out that people don't like big pickups in Montreal. They want smaller transit like so the solution wasn't a good fit. But so I tried you know to branch off. We we did acquire a local eco-friendly distributor and all that jazz. But for entrepreneur Sherpa, it was really the vision because I I've been in business groups. I highly recommend any any business person should be in a business group. Like it's the best, and maybe you'll evolve and change groups over the over the years, but
What a what a great way to see others, how they're figuring out their own challenges, realizing we all have pretty much the same challenges. So Sherpa is really born from the desire to to spread the good word, I guess, of of there is a there is there are recipes out there and they work. so that an entrepreneur can can build a great business and be happy and profitable and and have more freedom and not be stuck like in the trap. So I think it was more that that desire to to just
Give back, I guess.
Jeff Holman (33:23)
Yeah. Interesting. I well I wanna ask more about that, but it it kind of reminds me anytime somebody talks about the about the word Sherpa, I remember, you know, three years ago I went to Nepal and I did Ever Space Camp and of course we had a a Sherpa guide with us and porters and a great group of people that we went w that we went with. but you know, I do feel like there's this sense that Sherpa's in addition to just being a guide, right, into a a rigorous or unfamiliar place.
Like I feel like the Sherpa's d Dal or D B that we called him R. Sherpa, you know, he he would teach us things as we were going that weren't necessarily related to the trail. We were he was talking about the for example, the prayer flags. You see every you know, you think of Nepal or or or Everest and you think of all these prayer flags everywhere. Well, they are everywhere and it's it's pretty cool. But the prayer flags have certain things on them. They and they say certain things kind of like mantras. at least that's that's my
That's my fairly ignorant interpretation of what he said, which was probably much deeper and more meaningful, but but have these mantras on them about what to do and and or how to be and stuff like that. And and so I felt like, you know, there's this aspect of a sherpa that yeah, you you're a guiding somebody, but there's also this aspect of sharpa where you are you are kind of teaching these more f foundational, you know, even internal or I don't know if you want to call spiritual or
just you know, human level things that that's more than just, hey, follow me, I'm gonna show you, you know, how to walk down this trail. And is there is there is part of what you're doing with entrepreneur Sherpa, is it driven by those kind of deeper values?
David Salerno (35:10)
As I said earlier in our conversation, I'm I'm interested to look outside of the sandbox of of anything. and I and I believe there's there's there's fundamental rules that apply in different spaces, whether it's physics or philosophy or or or social dynamics or or business. So to answer your question in in when I do mentor, not necessarily with my Sherpa hat, I I've I've done also mentoring pure
pure mentoring in the pure sense of of the term. We always end up having conversations that are basically not business focused. Because at the end of the day, we're humans trying to achieve an objective and we have a vision and we face struggles, often fueled by inner struggles, not really the struggles out there. So so so it's funny because I I wrote the book Built for Freedom and it's a very very recipe like
like structured and there's like a three of three of threes and whatnot. And when I finished it, I was like, I I think that's not the book I I think I want to write another book right away because there's the other segment, the mindset part and the and all these links with physics and it takes energy to accelerate. It takes more energy to accelerate than to maintain inertia. Right, for example. Right, right. So with your example of starting a new product, that's what we don't realize. But if we had a bit of a physicist view, we'd say, okay, hold on, I'm trying to laun launch a rocket now. I'm not just trying to add
an element to my plane that's just gonna follow. It's literally a new rocket and that takes energy and and design and it can fail much more easier. So to go back to go back to your question, I love that I didn't know that about the Shopas being also kind of sharing on their philosophy of of life to some extent and
Jeff Holman (36:57)
Yeah, I enjoyed that I wasn't expecting that. I I really enjoyed that.
David Salerno (36:59)
That's amazing. That's amazing. So
Jeff Holman (37:03)
well maybe this takes us back 'cause 'cause you mentioned meditating before and how that's become a kind of a a practice. Wha wh where did you pick that up? What was the I mean, you were going through crisis and you started meditating, but but where did you turn to wh where did you get the insight to say, you know what, maybe meditation is what I need right now?
David Salerno (37:21)
So when when I grew up my mom was very interested in in I'm gonna say oriental philosophies or so she dabbled in in yoga and and and meditation a bit and whatnot. So I'd traditional Chinese medicine and and and Ayurveda and she talked to me about all these things. So I grew up with a mom that kind of opened my eyes to there's other ways of looking at the body, the mind and and and health and and whatnot.
So when I when I when I was
Jeff Holman (37:51)
She
was dabbling in other sandboxes, it sounds like
David Salerno (37:56)
We
have a yeah, we have a lead to the origin story. yes, no exactly. So so when when the crisis happened and and I and I saw myself physically and and I couldn't sleep at night and whatnot, and I'd done meditation before but not really practiced it. So that's when I decided this is what I'm not gonna go on I don't even know. I don't take medication, whatever medication makes you more relaxed. Okay. I was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not even though it would help, alcohol is certainly not gonna help. So
That's when so I knew of it, I had done it a bit, but I practiced it it was like two or three hours a night, literally. Well and and maybe it helped also in finding solutions, I think, 'cause I got that detachment where I was like, Okay, this is not complicated. Now I say it with ease, but throughout those weeks the game plan kind of arose also.
Jeff Holman (38:45)
So the so this really was a search for a solution to something. This was not just a casual dabbling that grew into a routine that now is a practice that you do. This was this was in the moment. I need I mean it it's inter because it's interesting, I think, that you that you kind of contrast the the meditation solution with maybe the alcohol solution or the the medicine solution. So you were actually looking
specifically for some some way to cope or deal with the stress of the job. The stress
David Salerno (39:18)
No, exactly. Exactly. And and it it I talk about clarity about like at the end of the day, and that applies not just to business, but I I realized I was there was so much going on, plus the stress levels, the cortisol, like we could look at it from different angles, right? But at the end of the day, I just couldn't focus to get this done. And I needed to be centered, grounded and
to be able to make the best solutions, lead my people in a way that would be productive and get us out of that pretty tough predicament. So I think yeah, it was it was a solution. I thought that was the best medium for that for that clarity to come.
Jeff Holman (40:01)
If if if there were somebody listening to this episode today or in the future that that says, you know what, I've been looking for a solution, w w would you recommend that they t that they consider something similar to what you've done?
David Salerno (40:15)
Maybe it is, maybe it's prayer, depending on your faith. But it but at the end of the day, I think it's to find that detachment from the physical and the present into a reflection where you detach yourself, literally leave the business, go go go in a coffee shop, go go go two days in a in a cabin somewhere up north, or on a boat, but but detach yourself.
So that you can get clarity on what's going on. If it's paper, just write, write, write. If it's if if it's verbal, now you have AI, talk to AI, maybe. I don't know. Yeah. but but it's that detachment so that you can have clarity on your main challenge of the moment.
Jeff Holman (40:55)
I'm curious if because when you describe it that way, I think, okay, I I I'm not doing a lot of running these days, but I've done a lot of running in the past and it always seemed like no matter what my problems were, when I got to about mile four, five or six, my body would not let my mind keep thinking about those problems. I would outrun the problems at least for a moment, right? And and get some detachment. I I I I don't think I ever called it that, but I think that's what you're describing is get that detachment from the issues that are, you know.
in front of you in the workplace setting. what is there is there kind of a mo I'm what just curious because I haven't done a lot of extensive meditating before. is there a moment when you're meditating when when you kind of feel that transition from okay, I'm battling, battling, battling and like now it's gone. Now it melts away. Does it do you experience that when you're meditating too?
David Salerno (41:51)
Yeah, so so I I I there were periods during the crisis and then there are periods where I did it every morning and some time like I haven't done it in a few weeks, to be frank. But what I've I've noticed, so maybe I do use it as as a as a solution when I'm knee deep into it, but there comes a point where you have to and maybe it's the same for running. Maybe it has to do also f with the physiology of the thing, but I get to a point where I'm like, everything's gonna be okay. this you can figure this out, w you'll be fine.
And it and it's kind of that and and you get recentered and and then sometimes ideas still are running around. I like the analogy of saying when you meditate, imagine you're in a helicopter, the city doesn't never stops, right? Imagine you're downtown New York, and this is your brain, like hyperactive. If you have problems, even worse. There's traffic and the people are honking, like it's it's a mess. And then it's like you take a helicopter and you're basically raising above and you're just observing the city, and that's
That's what to me works as a metaphor for meditation. So it's the same with business problems.
Jeff Holman (42:54)
That as you describe that, it it reminds me of how you described your entrepreneur Shopra logo with the kind of the detaching coming out of it. where do you think you learned this I I'll call it a skill, but the the concept of of detaching in order to gain clarity?
David Salerno (43:15)
I it's a great question. I mean meditation teaches to be able to detach from your your ideas, I guess. I I I like the idea. I don't know if it's in psychology, I c I couldn't name the theory, but but there's the idea where you have an action and then you have a reaction and it's to create a space between the two and and that's that's how we get in trouble when we're reactive, right? We we trigger trigger is such a a common word, right? So So I think it's just
A melting pot of me seeing the trend throughout these different ways of looking at the world or at at at ourselves. and it's not easy to do, like when you're the moment. it's not an easy thing. But but in business, if you're able to to to create that detachment, it's the same thing in sales. I admire those are staunch salespeople. They just don't budge and they'll have a conversation and that you know they have objections. That's the recipe. But at the end of the day, they're able to not take it personal.
They're detached in a way. It's not them. It's the process. I feel I feel it maybe I should write a book on this. I I th I feel it it applies in so many ways.
Jeff Holman (44:25)
Well yeah, I was just I was just thinking the same thing. I'm like I was gonna ask you, have you have you contemplated writing a book? It it seems like there's different layers of of detachment and different probably different consequences and different, you know, benefits to being able to to do those different types of detachment. So very very interesting.
David Salerno (44:44)
Yeah.
Jeff Holman (44:46)
You're
doing d d I don't know if we've if we've got a clear description yet of entrepreneur Sherpa. give us a description so the audience knows what entrepreneur Sherpa is.
David Salerno (44:57)
Yeah, so Entrepreneur Sherpa, the the promise of transformation to use a a Sherpa esque term, the promise of transformation is that entrepreneur Sherpa will help you gain clarity on your business so that you can build it in a way that will give you freedom, basically. So you're so that you as the entrepreneur are built for freedom and your business is, but to some extent your team members as well, because
if there's clarity in in in what the vision is, in what systems are in place, and what roles, your team members are also gonna feel more more freedom because they're gonna have more agency over what they're in charge of. Because that's part of part of the deal is that the entrepreneur has more freedom. That means he has trusted his team. So Sherpa's really there to help whether it's through the framework that's in the book, some online products,
I I've personally done some consulting and coaching workshops and whatnot. but that's basically the premise of the of the promise.
Jeff Holman (45:59)
I don't think I've heard a business owner before emphasize the the the freedom of the employees. Because I've heard a lot of business owners I say I want freedom or I want or I felt like I, you know, achieved freedom from my business or or I exited my business and I felt free and but I but I'm not sure I've heard many people emphasize freedom is a freedom is actually a you didn't say this, but I th I'm I'm interpreting it.
Freedom is a cultural tool. It's like if I can if I can build freedom for me and I can build freedom for my employees, like if I want to be happier with freedom, my employee and my employees probably will too. Why why wouldn't you do that? That seems you i I I guess you made it sound so natural that it kinda hit me that I haven't heard people say that before.
David Salerno (46:44)
Yeah, so so the good news is sometimes I have to do reality check and we we've measured the engagement of our team since I it must be eight years now. A cool tool appeared on the on on the market called Office Vibe years ago. Actually made in Montreal, a software, and and it's basically an ongoing thing where you get a few questions and it and it's cute the way it's designed, like the the user experience is is really cool. And
Over the years we've brought it to a level I I think the score is like nine point one on ten. But but nine point one is like being in the top ninety five percentile of engagement across eighty thousand businesses now, I think they have as clients. So I I'm I'm happy to report that that it it works. It it really works, this this philosophy.
Jeff Holman (47:35)
So this is this sounds like a like a net promoter score or something like that, but for an internal team, not for your customers. Correct. What was the what was the company called again?
David Salerno (47:44)
Office vibe. Office vibe. Yeah, by G G Soft. Yeah. I think G Soft changed our name and to work leap. Yeah, our are they actually measure also ENPS at the same time. I think we're at seventy five or something, seventy eight, it's it's from minus hundred to a plus a hundred, yeah.
Jeff Holman (48:03)
They they measure NPS also, you said?
David Salerno (48:06)
Yeah. ENP, yeah, ENPS, yeah.
Jeff Holman (48:09)
Well, interesting. That that I I mean, those are the things that I think some just these offhand comments about, hey, you know, we've got this tool and it's measuring this thing. I think I think it would strike some of our audience members as, I had never thought to measure, you know, employee satisfaction rates. Although I say it now and it's like, yeah, if you've got an HR department, maybe that's what you're doing already. I don't know. But but I I I I appreciate that you that you mentioned that. What would you say would be
if if you were either helping somebody through this entrepreneur Sherpa program and the coaching that that you've done, or if you were, you know, sitting around, you know, a a a round table with with other business owners, what what do you think your contribution is in those types of settings?
David Salerno (49:00)
So the contribution mainly's through having the right questions asked. 'cause 'cause the the answers, the answers are are not far within any entrepreneur. If if you think of it, smart people, willing to work hard, usually good background, good experience. at the end of the day it's often because we don't have the right questions. and and and and
We don't focus on the right things, right? So example, you may have good growth or great growth or amazing growth, hyper growth, and and then you have all kinds of headaches because there's no structure in your business. So so so what is the focus here? What what's the issue? you don't have the right numbers, you don't have the right systems in place. Maybe there's one system that's gonna solve it all. Which system is it? So it's asking these questions, and and and realizing that you focus on your top frustrations usually as an entrepreneur, as a business owner.
You're probably gonna you're probably gonna resolve a lot of your present moment i issues.
Jeff Holman (50:05)
Is that what you mean? 'Cause you I think you mentioned before or I got off your website or something. You you mentioned something about it's not really effort, it's it's clarity. Is this what you mean by clarity?
David Salerno (50:14)
Correct, exactly. Exactly. It's funny because when I wrote the book and and I'm and I'm consulting, you know, experts, like how should I name the book and whatnot? And I almost named it twenty-seven questions to business freedom. And somebody was like, Are you crazy? You you can't don't put twenty-seven questions. People are gonna say that's too much work. But at at the end of the day, it you don't need to ask twenty-seven questions. You need to ask like one question: Do I have a growth problem right now? Is it is my business
business not sustainable without me? Or or do we have a service problem, meaning serving our our community, our clients, but also our people. If our people are not happy, you're not serving them. That means your business is is not doing is not doing it right. So once you figure that out, and let's say it's a service, well then okay, within the service, being a or sustainability, what's my issue? Is it because I my numbers don't work, I'm I'm not profitable, like I have no idea if I'm doing well or not. This is a numbers issue. Or is it a systems like
People are happy. I c I kinda know my numbers, but but it we seem to have a error I don't know. Our retention rate is is sucks. Okay, maybe that's a process issue, what's going on? So it's really to hone in on which question you need to work on. So that I guess is where we get clarity.
Jeff Holman (51:29)
Okay. Okay. So you've got I'm picturing a like a binary tree where you just say it's it's not twenty seven it's it's one question at a time, right? Yeah. So I I love it. I love it. And the book is called Built for Freedom, right? Is that is that where the is that where this came from?
David Salerno (51:47)
yeah, so the freedom was my obsession. because I I wanted to be free in the corporate world because I thought I was in a a golden cage, although I learned a lot and I'm grateful to have been in that journey. but but I thought it was a cage, so I wanted freedom, and then and then you start a business and you're like, I wait a minute, I created another type of of cage because I was not building it the way that worked. And then true freedom is really building a business that just serves you in the way that.
Allows you for that freedom.
Jeff Holman (52:18)
Where where where do you think that Solpak and entrepr entrepreneur Sherpa go from here?
David Salerno (52:24)
So on the SALPA side, we have the outlier invention that we're working on that that could really revolutionize the the packaging pulp industry because of the invention we're working on, with amazing scientists. but short of that is just to grow salt pack to next level. And and my my pleasure is to lead a team a team of leaders that will bring the SALPAC to the next level. so that's that's one thing.
And for Sherpa is just to spread the good word and and figure out a way for me to to make sure that Sherpa helps as many entrepreneurs as possible while I'm protecting my own freedom.
Jeff Holman (53:03)
And and I in our aud in our icebreaker segment, that some of the audience will listen to before hearing this, we asked a a question about your family. What would they ask if they were with us today? And I think I think it was a your your answer was a version of of the question that a lot of a lot of people have actually shared with me, and that is, why are you still doing this? Like what like what is it that's which I take it to mean
What is that passion, that un that internal drive that pushes you to keep working so hard and keep not just working hard to build money, but oftentimes keep working hard to give back? Like like why what's your why in this all, David?
David Salerno (53:50)
Yeah, it's it it's a great question. I I you know what I think it comes to the desire the the strong desire to create, create something out of nothing. So the Sawpak today is an eight figure business. I exited partially, I the the next exit, it's gonna be in a few years, and and I could just wait for that. But but it's to create that into that something else, right? So Sherpa
was how do I encapsulate what I've learned, what I've what I've done, so that I can help others. So you c you cr you create something out of nothing. So I think it's the desire to create. and I think I I wouldn't be surprised most entrepreneurs are are of of that mind. Like, why did you create a podcast? It's it's a lot of work to create a podcast. It's it's
Jeff Holman (54:39)
It's fair amount, yes. It's a fairly not as much as a packaging company inventing new new types of innovative packaging, but it's it's got its own level of workload, yeah.
David Salerno (54:49)
Look at all the yeah, look at all the amazing interviews you've done and some were highlights, some were fine, and and you created this ecosystem of of conversation. So so I th I think for the same reason, just create.
Jeff Holman (55:02)
I I love I love when people not everybody answers with that question, but I get it once in a that that type of answer once in a while. And it's always a reminder for me because i it's something that resonates with me quite a bit. The you know, I I think it's why, you know, people ask me why did I go into engineering if I wasn't gonna be an engineer. I'm like, I don't even know. I just I just felt like that would be a good background for what I wanted to do, which was to go and build something and and said differently, cr create. I I f I personally am in
full alignment with what you just said that I think we as humans are here because we want to create, not just procreate, but create. We want to build things and and seeing the spark of something, whether that's a an invention or a business or a product, whatever it is come to to life out of nothing, it's pretty
Pretty amazing, which is which is why I love working with these smaller companies because you see that up close, you know, in the messiness of the process itself, not just not just the result of it on the shelf. You're like, no, I watched that thing come to life and it was it was wild and almost didn't make it, but it's here now. So I I I don't know. I'm just I guess I'm just emphasizing that I I love I love the answer and it resonates with me quite a bit.
David Salerno (56:25)
It's funny, well well like minded individuals appreciate each other, right? So but but at the end of the day, isn't it battling entropy? We're trying to turn chaos or inert elements and make it something that's structured and designed and and that becomes valuable for somebody.
Jeff Holman (56:43)
You're bringing this full circle and you might be right. I I'm gonna have to think about that. are we are we taming are we taming the inevitable chaos or or is that what creation is? Or 'cause I sometimes wonder with the startups I work with, are w are they are they accelerating the entropy? Are they accelerating the chaos? So but maybe to a to an end though, right? To to to some end to ultimately tame it. But
David Salerno (57:09)
Yeah, it's the greatest battle, probably.
Jeff Holman (57:10)
Yeah.
I love it. Well, David, thank you so much for joining me today. I I I've I've thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Loved hearing about Solpac Entrepreneur Sherpa, your journey and insights. it really I'm really grateful that you've that you come and shared some time and and wisdom with us. what can the audience do for you or or how can they get a hold of you if they want to connect and talk about some of these things further?
David Salerno (57:35)
Sure. First, I want to say, Jeff, I really appreciate the conversation we had. We went off the beaten path. So this is I find it amazing because I I don't have the chance to have these conversations and get off that much the the beaten path when you talk business and strategies and whatnot. So I I'm very grateful to have had that conversation. and and and for the audience, people can find I guess on my site David Salerno.com, D-A-V-I-D, S A-L-E-R-N O.com.
they could go on entrepreneurshirepa dot co. and then if they're curious about the book, I I give the free the first chapter for free. So people can just, you know, take a look at it. There are anecdotes in there and whatnot. And that's how people can join. And if not, I'm on LinkedIn. So I hang out on LinkedIn. So I'm I'll I'll be there.
Jeff Holman (58:21)
Lots of opportunities to connect. Well, I'm so glad we connected and appreciate your time and just want to say thank you for coming onto the show.
David Salerno (58:29)
Perfect, thank you. It was a pleasure.
Jeff Holman (58:31)
And to our audience who joined us, thanks for joining us on another episode of the Breakout CEO. Be sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And if you enjoy the show, a rating or a review goes a long way. Our mission is to promote the stories of breakout CEOs in scaling SaaS, e-commerce, and tech companies to equip peer CEOs with valuable perspectives and confidence.
Thanks again for joining us on this episode of the Breakout CEO. I'm Jeff Holman, and I'll see you next time.
