98: Grow Slow, Win Big – The Truth About the Compounding Effect

Behind Their Success: Episode 98

Speaker: [00:00:00] Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. I'm Paden Squires, the host, and today we have on Rick Turoczy. Rick is a driving force behind

Portland startup scene. He is the co-founder of the Portland Incubated. Incubator experiment

and founder of the influential Silicon Florist blog. Rick's passion for building communities and

empowering entrepreneurs has shaped the region's innovation landscape.

Rick, welcome on the show. Thank you. It's good to be here. Thanks for making time. Yeah,

Rick. You know, so in my, in my time kind of researching a little bit, you are like the entrepreneur

guy. Portland or, or, or one of them, right? Yeah. I'm like the, I'm

Speaker 2: more like the bottleneck of entrepreneurs bottleneck.

Yeah. Like, I wish there were more people. It's like, if we can just get Rick

Speaker: outta the way.

Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: And I knew, just looking, looking at a little of your content out there and whatnot, I was

like, okay, this is gonna be a really great conversation. Uh, this guy, this guy loves business as

much as I do. And, um.

It's gonna [00:01:00] be, uh, really cool. so Rick, why don't you give the listeners just a little, you

know, rundown, who's Rick and Sure. Like what is he about and what does he do?

Speaker 2: Yeah, love to, I always feel bad. People are like, what are your hobbies? And I'm

like, hobbies. I just like work on startups all the time and, and really enjoy that.

So, uh, I'm in Portland, Oregon, west coast of the United States. Uh, I've been here about 30.

Years and the whole time I've been here, I've worked in venture funded tech startups, uh, for 12

years. I was like an early stage employee at those startups, and then I was like, oh, I've totally

learned enough to do companies on my own.

And then tried that a couple times. I was like, no. I'm not a founder and so, uh, wound up with

this opportunity to start pi, the Portland Incubator experiment, and it's been kind of an ongoing

experiment for about 15 years. We really work on trying to figure out how to engage more

established players like corporations or educational [00:02:00] institutions or government entities

with startup founders for mutual.

Benefit so that the startup community is stronger and and healthier. And then, you know, through

that work, I've wound up with the opportunity to work with people all over the world working on

like startup community stuff or working with founders and mentorship and that kind of thing. So I

would say, uh, if there's been one consistent thread looking backwards.

Through my life. It's like I'm one of those people who really enjoys helping other people become

the best version of themselves or kind of achieve what they want to achieve. And so that's

where I've kind of focused my career so far.

Speaker: Yeah, man, that's a, that's a, a good synopsis. So like, what, inspired you to.

Start building communities, you know, particularly entrepreneur type communities.

Speaker 2: Yeah, great question. I think, I think it was my experience in trying to be a founder

and coming to the realization [00:03:00] that even at that point in time, which was, you know,

practically last century, so a while ago, but, uh, it, dawned on me how much of what I.

Thought I understood about entrepreneurship was actually just mythology untrue. Like that is, it

wasn't really how it worked. Like it wasn't one of those situations where you come up with a

good idea, somebody writes you a couple checks for a couple million dollars and you're, you're

off to races, you go home.

Yeah, yeah. Like, like, that's not really how it works. And so, going through that experience, it,

kind of dawned on me that I had an opportunity to help. People realize what it was really like

and, and hopefully help them make a reasonable decision sooner than I was able to. So I kind of

fumbled my way through being a founder a couple different times, and it took me a really long

time to figure out that that wasn.[00:04:00]

That wasn't what I wanted to do, and so the motivation is really how can I help people get to that

go no go decision as quickly as possible.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. How to, you know, help them think through that and, see Yeah, I guess

what, path is best for 'em. Yep. Yep. you know, speak to why you think, I guess, communities are

so important?

I mean, other than, you know, I, I guess that one decision there, but why, why specifically do

you. Do, are you passionate about building the, the community?

Speaker 2: I guess, uh, I think, I think part of that mythology is the kind of like overnight

success, like brilliant idea makes it, you know, an amazing billion dollar company.

And when it comes right down to it, like people don't succeed without other people, they don.

Succeed without employees that help them achieve their vision. And the community is the

primary feeder for that. So not only the the people that are needed, but really the emotional.

Support or like the encouragement to [00:05:00] keep building or to, you know, go to people

who've solved a problem previously who can help you figure out where you should be going.

Um, it's really the community that provides the foundation for all of that. So without a strong

community, it's really hard to have a strong kind of entrepreneurial, Bent to the town, and I've

just found that Portland tends to be very receptive to that from a cultural standpoint. It's very

much a kind of give first kind of community, kind of pay it forward kind of community, and I think

that's true of most startup and entrepreneurial communities,

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent agree with your, you know, your kind of assessment

there of, of the need of the community, right. something that I probably, well, I didn't probably

absolutely did stay out of community for too long. Like, I would say, you know, the first probably

6, 7, 8 years of my business, I kind of ran it in isolation or, you know, and, and, and a lot of that

was probably just me.

I didn't know what I was capable of. I didn't really know what I was building, all these different

things. But [00:06:00] it, it, once I got into community other, like, like-minded business owners

and, and, and particularly business owners that were doing things at a higher level than me, it

was game changing, right?

It was like, oh, these guys are doing this and doing that. And like, well, he is a normal guy like

me. I mean, I could do that same thing, right? Like, it just like normalizes everything, right.

community is powerful and it's like, you know, it's just human nature, right? Like you're, you're,

we're, we're all gonna be very similar to the people that we constantly surround ourselves with

also.

so back to growth mindset, Rick. Yep. how do you know when you work with a lot of different

startups in, in, in, in your work, obviously, how do you cultivate like a growth mindset and the

people you're, you're working with? It's

Speaker 2: really, I mean, it's really challenging.

It's a lot, like, I always kind of equate it to parenting. Like you can, you can tell a kid. Don't do

that. You're gonna get hurt. Don't do that. You're gonna get hurt until they fall over and get hurt.

Like they're not really ready to listen. Yeah. You don't, that story doesn't really hit home. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

And so, so like it, a lot of it is just [00:07:00] constant encouragement, constant feedback. But

the ideal, I think where we're trying to get with a founder is helping them understand that.

Everything is a data point. So I think we, I think we've been conditioned to think that only

positives are data points and, and nos or negatives are, are not.

Data points, but they're equally valuable. And so where I'm always working with founders is

trying through that growth mindset kind of concept, is to help them understand that you're just

trying to navigate a path between nos and yeses and hopefully arc toward more yeses

eventually. But especially in the earlier stages, like a fast no is often more important than a

maybe or a yes in the future kind of thing.

Speaker: my clients or even, you know, people in sales or whatever, it's like, yeah. I mean, no is

your second favorite answer. Right. You know, maybe it's like the worst. Yeah. Yeah. But, and,

you talk [00:08:00] about, growth mindset there. Like, dealing with failure or only, you know,

nobody wants to quote unquote fail.

I'm in a mastermind group and they were teaching, we, bring our kids to a bunch of stuff. Oh,

nice.

Speaker 2: Yeah,

Speaker: yeah. Teaching our kids a bunch of stuff, and they were talking about failure and how

failure is a good thing, right? Mm-hmm. we taught the kids that, you know, failure stands for first

attempt and learning, right?

Yes. Yeah. So it's, it's a data point, like you said, right? It's, it's a data point that tells you, okay,

not that direction, or maybe it's towards that direction or whatever, right? But like. You keep

getting all these data points until you f you know, you bump up against enough walls until you

find your way through, through the maze.

Right.

Speaker 2: Well, and I think it's super challenging, especially with kind of like the US

educational system you are taught for. Don't mess up 16 years, don't fail. Like it's gotta be an A,

if you, if you're willing to start last night, the worst thing you can do is make a mistake. Right?

Right. Exactly. And then immediately you get into an environment like entrepreneurship where

it's almost the polar [00:09:00] opposite.

It's almost like. Keep pushing things, figure out where the failure points are, and that's how

you're actually gonna learn. and I've always been kind of curious as to whether there's an

opportunity in the educational system to kind of further some of that. Thinking like, even if it's on

a very limited basis, like how can you introduce that concept to kids sooner rather than

Speaker: later?

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Speaker 6: Hey guys. Um, Paden Squires. We had some technical difficulties with Rick's

episode, so I'm kind of coming in and, and rounding out the episode and, and, and following up

a little bit on what, Rick was speaking to and, and giving some more of my own, advice and

experience around it. You know, really Rick's Rick's whole, thought process is really around

building authentic.

relationships really, and why connecting authentically matters. Um, [00:11:00] it's so easy today

in today's world to be kinda lost in the noise and, and whatnot. And there's so many different

marketing and sales tactics out there that, um, people are, people, you know, customers or

potential customers are pretty burnt out on just being spammed all the time, right?

Like, so it's, you know, we're, we're all distracted by millions of different advertisements every

day. And, and the stuff that comes through that, that. To break through that noise as an

entrepreneur, I mean, you need to be authentic. You need to be real, be yourself. when you're

trying to just sell something to somebody, people can feel that, right?

But if you, you in turn as an entrepreneur or generally, you know, genuinely interested in the

prospect and interested in helping the prospect, that really comes through in the conversation,

and I think that's really where many people fail. Is that they are looking for sales tactics and not

necessarily looking at the customer or client as a person [00:12:00] to serve and to take care of.

And it's amazing when you actually understand that and start implementing that, how much

people actually wanna work with you because they can feel it. I mean, it's, it's very palable

something else to follow up on it. It's not just who you know. Right. It's getting into relationships

that you are generally curious about trying to come in and add value, well, really the, the idea is

adding value to relationships in your network without necessarily expecting anything return.

Um, when you do that, you really are planting seeds, um, for the long term. You're planting

seeds that, you know, while you continue to add value, continue, you know, like, like kind of

what I do is post a lot of content with a lot of different value and, and hopefully giving people tips

around, you know, taxes, money, um, mindset, entrepreneurship and all that stuff.

and I do all that. And yes, it's, helpful for, my business, right? Like it's helpful as a marketing

funnel. To, you know, stay top of mind to [00:13:00] potential clients and, and being out there all

the time and, and connecting with people. but it's really doing that without necessarily expecting

anything in return.

And, and, and it's amazing when you actually do that. It's amazing how much value you actually

do get in return, when you're not necessarily expecting it or trying to, you know, manipulate a

situation. to have it work out in your favor and you, you get value from it, right? So it's, it's just

stepping into that and being a, a person that is constantly adding value.

you know, the awesome thing about today's world and, and running a business in today's world

is you're certainly not limited by geography and, and who you can connect with. With, all the

different social media platforms and, and everything that's out there allows you to connect with

potential clients, potential, customers in a, in a very, um, non-threatening fashion, right?

by branding and putting yourself out there constantly. You're gonna build a lot of goodwill and

adding value to people's lives. And, and it's amazing. You can't [00:14:00] see that compounding

effect of how that all works out in the beginning, but do that for, you know, three, four or five plus

years. And it's amazing, you know, the following and, and the support and the ability to attract

clients online can be, um, but it's not a quick process, right?

It's, it's, consistency. It's patience. There is no such thing as overnight success. like great

examples is podcast, right? Like, you know, we're pushing a hundred episodes. And, the

compounding effect, the growth out of that, like, it's a very slow process. podcasts don't get big,

um, quickly, generally, right?

you have to build a consistent listenership can be consistent in putting out content, and that's

where you get that compounding growth and that, and that's really in all areas of your life.

consistency, discipline, the constant of, you know, every day I'm gonna move this, you know,

move the football one more yard down the field and.

That is where the growth happens. You can't see it day to day generally, right. Or you might get

a little wind [00:15:00] here and there and you recognize those winds, but you can't really see,

you know, humans are very bad at understanding compounding, just in our, our brains aren't

necessarily. designed to understand that just kind of naturally very, very well.

We're very linear thinker. You know, we're very good at adding. We're not very good at like,

exponential growth it's not easy for us to calculate that. but it is, it like, like all things they

accumulate and it's all the million different little things that add up to some amazing, content or

amazing growth in your business, but it really is, just the daily activities, doing it day after day

after day and letting that accumulate and add up and stack up. And when that stuff all stacks up,

it's amazing when you turn around and see how far that has gone. And, you know, it's something

I've dove into, seriously over the last few years and really in personal branding and, and, and.

You know, marketing myself is putting myself out there and, you know, in the beginning it was a

[00:16:00] whole lot more scary than it is today. You know, often we will, we're too afraid to make

that jump and, you know, put ourselves out there because we're afraid of, you know, what

people might think. Quite honestly, it has really nothing to do with, you know, most people aren't

afraid to fail.

They're afraid to have other people see them fail. So, you know, I, I encourage any of the

listeners here that, you know, if you're sitting on the sidelines thinking about, you know, making

content for your business or putting yourself out there as a personal brand and, and building

authority and, and expertise.

You just gotta do it, you know? And your, your first video is gonna suck. Your first podcast is

gonna suck. you know, mine don't suck as much as they used to. and they don't. Right. I've

gotten better. And it's not, it's not a comparison thing. It's, it's a comparison to yourself that

allows, that growth, right?

You wanna get 1% better every day or, or whatever that goal is. It's, it's a constant growth and,

and, and moving forward. So, you know, ality is amazing, you know, to be able to drive leads

and, and, and drive curiosity [00:17:00] about what you have going on in your business. And, it's

a great way to grow and, and attract, you know, speak.

Getting your messaging down allows you to speak, to your ideal client. And it's amazing when

you get that messaging down how you're. Ideal clients begin to self-select, right? If you're hitting

them with messaging and they're like, oh, well that, that hits my situation. This guy understands

me, he relates to me.

And the amazing thing about personal branding is, you know, what's the first thing people are

gonna do, right? If they don't know you, um, online, they're gonna Google you, right? Like, who

is, who is this picking guy? Right? Like he's, I don't know who he is. and that's where, you know,

all the consistent content you put out there, provides a history for them to see, you know, it

provides a history for them to see, okay, you know, Paden not this crazy scam artist on the

internet, right?

you know, he's a genuine guy. It gives them plenty of content to be able to connect with me, get

to know me a little bit and see if that is, you know, I'm, I'm the type of person that they, you

know, they ultimately wanna work with. Um, you know, and, and, and my [00:18:00] expertise,

right? So, personal branding, putting yourself out there while it's scary and it's really hard, the

hardest video you're gonna do is the first one, because you're gonna sit there and think about it.

You're gonna be so nervous to even hit the record button. Um, but once you do it, like it's, it's

just like anything else. It's not that big of a deal. everything in your life that you're like afraid of is

because you haven't experienced it yet. And once you step into it and experience it and get

used to it, becomes a whole lot easier over time.

So, you know, talking about dealing with your insecurities and putting yourself out there, you

know, in a personal branding type situation you really need to do the internal work and, to be

able to own actually step into your story and own your story. You know, I share, I share a lot

about my background and kind of what I went through, um, as a kid, you know, like I wasn't.

Speaker 8: It wasn't some traumatic necessarily experience, but I I, I certainly experienced quite

a, quite a bit of chaos in, in, in my childhood and the ability, you know, as a kid, right, like that

was something I was ashamed of, or, or [00:19:00] I say, you know, to a degree ashamed of,

and something I didn't wanna talk about right at all.

And, and, and it probably took me into my late, you know, late twenties, early thirties before I

began actually stepping into that. Situation and working on myself to be able to own that, right?

Like, so it's, it's so amazing that the people that have like the biggest, most chaotic past and

traumatic events and, and whatnot, they have every reason not to, or I'd say every reason,

every excuse not to put themselves out there or, you know, or not to go after what they want

because they have this.

Hey, here's a huge reason why I can't do, you know, whatever it is I want to do. You know, I have

this crazy childhood, I have all these issues and, you know, uh, maybe family problems or, or

whatever, but it's the ability to. Own that and step into it. And once you step into that chaos and

be able to share that with other people, it's amazing.

The [00:20:00] worst, your history is the, the most crazy things you went through is it actually

increases your influence. Right. everybody loves a comeback, right? So every, everybody loves

the underdog. and the person that's been through the most crap and has still succeeded and is

still, puts themselves out there and talks about, you know, they don't just talk about all the wins,

they talk about all the crap they dealt with in the past.

And that is an amazing, influential thing to do, because it allows other people who have had

similar experiences to see and, and, and to understand that their excuses. Which aren't

necessarily what's holding the back, right? you know, everything they went through is very real.

Um, and, and not diminishing that, but you have to be able to take responsibility for it and move

forward.

And then it's amazing when you use your testimony and your story of all the crazy crap you went

through, how influential and how impactful that can be on other people.

So, really to put yourself out there, start doing this personal branding, you know, building

[00:21:00] these authentic relationships online. You just gotta set down the ego, right? Um, you

gotta set down the ego. Be willing to suck, be willing to put yourself out there and, and, you

know, not afraid to fail, right?

Failure is just really just kind of a made up term. I like to call it and first set a lot of, you know, it's

the First attempt and learning, right? So. The first attempt in learning, like it's unreasonable to

come into a situation that you've never been in before and expect you to be amazing at it like

that, that just doesn't happen.

Sure, you can have some natural talents and maybe storytelling or, or, you know, putting out

content or, or whatever, but it's actually the tactics and experience that that actually gets you

better. But like, you have to be willing to suck at something for you ever to be good at it. it's a

process.

And if you never hit record on that first time, you're never going to get that compounding effect.

You're never going to put, you know that future growth, um, you're still gonna set in the same

situation [00:22:00] you always are. And even worse, you're gonna set there and time's gonna

pass. And you're gonna sit there and think in your head, man, for years I've been thinking about

doing this, you know, this personal branding thing or, or whatever that thing is.

And I've just been sitting here on the sidelines and I'm no closer today than I was, you know, five

years ago when I first had that thought. And in fact, you're probably further away, than you, you

were when you first had that thought. because things don't just stand still. They're either growing

or dying.

Um, you know, in a dynamic world we live in, nothing, nothing is solid and stand still for, for any

amount of time. So you have to be constantly pushing forward or just naturally you're gonna be

slipping back. So, you know, I would encourage all the, all the listeners here to really think

about. How can personal branding, being authentic online, putting yourself out there, help your

business? Right? Or, and maybe it's not even a business thing. Maybe it's just, you know, you

have a passion about a topic that can be very valuable.

You know, say it's been [00:23:00] very valuable in, in, in your world. Like, for me, like, you

know, I talk a lot about working out and working out and, health and, all those types of things.

You know, that's not necessarily, um, business related. I mean, in my head it's business related,

but it's putting out information like that that is just good for the world that you wanna push out

there, right?

Something, some lessons you've learned and put it out there, to grow value. So you know, every

person has some sort of expertise in some area or a story to share. that can impact somebody

else at a much deeper level than, you could ever realize. And the cool thing about me doing this

over the last few years is I get messages pretty consistently from people, um, people that I know

very well, um, people that I don't, you know, have any idea who they are.

But I get a lot of messages of people thanking me and, Just telling me, encouraging me to keep

putting content out there and, telling me how maybe, podcast episode or a video or whatever,

you know, affected them and [00:24:00] that, you know, is corny or cliche as is found. That is

very satisfying to me.

You know, money and growth of business and I, I, I love all that stuff. I, believe me, I live and

breathe and eat that stuff every day business. but it truly is like the, the ability to impact others

and, and the megaphone the internet gives you to be able to impact people at scale and to

spread good, is amazing.

And, you know, it's, it's a huge tool that anybody can grab a hold of and develop right for, for

themselves. So. You know, guys, if you have any inkling of doing, you know, a podcast or a,

personal brand or, or just talking about, you know, you know, subjects online that you're an

expertise in, you know, you have expertise in, just Do It, man.

Just do it. Start putting yourself out there. Hit the record button and post it. you're gonna look

back on that video five years from now and say, wow, that. That was terrible. I had no idea what

I was doing. And that's true. You don't, you don't have any idea what you're doing. [00:25:00]

Um, and that's fine.

And that's okay. the only way to figure out what you're doing is to start bumping around into

things and start making mistakes and putting yourself out there. So I encourage everybody to do

that. To build authentic relationships. And it, it's amazing the, the value that comes all out of that

in business, your personal life relationships, friends you develop out of it, you know, it's amazing

that, you know, I've done this long enough and part of different groups and and whatnot, that I

can go to almost any major city in the United States and have somebody there that I could have

dinner with that I know.

you know, from online connections, which is, which is really, really cool.

So, guys, you know, this, this kind of wraps up, you know, Rick's episode. You know, I'm, I'm

very disappointed that Rick was a fantastic guest and, and very disappointed that we kind of lost

some of the audio and, and, and due to technical difficulties. But, we really just kind of wanna

wrap up the episode and put a, put a bow on it so we can use it and put out, you know, the

content that we do have from Rick.

Um, he's an amazing entrepreneur up [00:26:00] in the Portland area and, and something that.

You know, everything I've just talked about in the last, you know, 10 minutes or 20 minutes or

whatever it is, he does in spades and, you know, you look at his stuff on social media, online

and, and, and being so in depth in the Portland entrepreneurial space.

It's, it's really cool and it's something he, he does in spades. But, check out Rick, check out his,

check out his content and there's a lot to lot to learn from him. and just to kind of wrap it up with,

you know, a little bit of quote is like, success is built day by day, brick by brick.

It is very unsexy. It is very boring at times. and that's, you know, that's where a lot of

entrepreneurs struggle. Uh, it's because they get bored and they try to move on, and it's like,

you know, you, you start to get a little momentum into something and then it becomes boring

really quick and you quit and you jump onto the next thing.

And once again, success is built day by day with consistency, pushing in the same areas every

single day, and moving it a little bit forward every day. And if you do that, I promise you

eventually with [00:27:00] enough work and energy, you will get what you want. nobody wants to

stand in the way of something that's relentless, right?

Like, if you are relentless about something, no one's gonna stop you. In fact, they'll get outta

your way. so it, it's being that passionate, being that consistent, that disciplined man, and, and

the world is the world's your playground. Guys, just wrapping up the episode, you know,

Paden: listeners, we'll catch you next time.

Speaker 9: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate,

review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're

trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs.

You can follow us on social media by searching for me Paden Squires.

Or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of

personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.