December 23, 2025 • 28 mins
You can grow revenue, scale teams, and carry real responsibility, and still feel like the business isn’t paying you. In this episode, I sit down with Mauro Campagnaro, Financial Advisor at Campagnaro Wealth Advisory in Calgary, Alberta, to address why getting paid as an owner often breaks down as companies scale.
Mauro brings over 20 years as a business owner and financial strategist. We talk about what happens after growth, when retained earnings pile up, tax exposure increases, and exit planning feels distant but consequential. This conversation is about shifting from hustle to structure: how owners think about compensation, corporate structure, tax strategy, and long-term continuity before pressure forces reactive decisions.
If you’re scaling past seven figures and want clarity on owner pay, wealth preservation, and building a system that rewards the risk you carry, this episode gives you a strategic lens and practical next steps, without noise or theory.
📚 Books Mentioned
- Winning Strategies for Success by Brian Tracy
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
If this conversation sparked questions about structure, tax strategy, or long-term planning, you can connect with Mauro at cwa.life or campagnarowealth.ca. He’s licensed in Canada and available for strategic conversations beyond financial planning.
Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence.
- Free 30-Minute Discovery Call:
Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. William Attaway (00:00):
I'm excited today to have Mauro Campañero
on the podcast.
Morrow is a financial advisorat Campanero Wealth Advisory in
Calgary, Alberta, with over 20years of experience as a
business owner and a financialstrategist.
Optimizing business operations,securing entrepreneurial
(00:23):
continuity, and fostering growthmindsets.
With core values grounded inintegrity, honesty, and trust,
he protects each client's wealthand investment for a lasting
legacy.
This roadmap ensures clients'financial well-being and the
(00:53):
freedom to retire with thelifestyle they dream of.
Mauro Campagnaro (00:59):
Thank you, William.
Wonderful introduction.
I appreciate the synopsis ofwhat I've done so far.
Yeah, thank you.
Dr. William Attaway (01:06):
And I like that so far, because the best is
yet to come.
Mauro Campagnaro (01:09):
Exactly.
That's right.
That's right.
Intro (01:14):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed
to help leaders intentionallygrow and thrive.
Here is your host, author, andleadership and executive coach,
Dr.
William Attaway.
Dr. William Attaway (01:39):
How did you get started?
Mauro Campagnaro (01:42):
Well, how far back do we go?
But let's let's put it this waylet's put it this way.
After university, I spent aconsiderable amount of time
working for some of the largerconsumer packaged goods
companies.
We we uh at a point in timewhen that fire in my belly was
like, you need to be in businessfor yourself.
And I'm probably talking to alot of people who are got it in
the back of their mind that it'sin their belly, they want to do
(02:03):
it.
And my uh recommendation is doit, but do it carefully and
understand what you're doingbefore you get into it, because
you don't want to I mean, you'reyou're gonna fail along the way
and you're gonna make mistakesalong the way, but at the end of
the day, be as pragmatic as youcan towards doing all of the
due diligence before you getinto business for yourself.
So anyway, I got into inbusiness for myself in the uh
(02:24):
consumer packaged goods industryas a distributor.
And then, you know, as as Itell them the story is that the
cars fell because the love of mylife decided that she didn't
want to be on the journey withme anymore.
So at that point, as a as youknow, when you're when you're
holding the cards so thin, itdid impact the business.
I held on for a couple moreyears, but then I found this
angel, which is, you know what,just make sure you you network
properly because networking doeshelp when when the cards are
(02:47):
stacked against you, sometimesyou can you can find someone
that can actually uh help.
And and this person uh decidedthat you know we're we're we
were aligned so much in the wayour thought patterns were and
how we were in the same businessand the same space together at
the same time that he says, Youknow, you got to come on board,
I'm gonna buy you out.
And he bought me on board andhe gave me carte blanche at the
(03:07):
end of the day after a fewconversations.
He goes, Look, I need you.
Um yeah, and it was nicebecause it was you know, it's
not that that uh you know I Iknew a lot more, it's just I
knew a different piece of thepuzzle that he was missing from
all of the experience I'd hadwith all the multinationals,
knowing how they do it.
Well, let's implement thosepractices into our business,
right?
And so continuous improvementwas always in the conversation
(03:30):
around how do we continuouslyimprove things.
And during that con that thatthat period of time, we grew the
business from seven roughlyabout 17 million dollars to
almost forty million dollars infour years.
And we went coast to coast,national.
We hit all of the the care thethe primary um or all of the
large uh retailers in thecountry, and we were crushing
(03:52):
it.
Um and then you know you know,other things happen.
I got I got a phone call.
When you're successful, it'sfunny.
Things see things start tohappen and the word gets out.
Well, I got a I got an offer,and I I took the offer, um, and
I and I got uh basically doubledmy salary and everything like
that.
But be careful of the thingsyou you you choose because that
uh at in that time thisgentleman didn't understand the
(04:15):
the length of time that it takesto actually have business come
to fruition.
And so we were bringing inproduct from Italy and we were
trying to enter a market thatwas already very mature.
So we were we were weren'taligned in terms of our
strategic implementation and howlong it takes.
So I said, you know what, atthis point, I think I'm I'm old
enough now and I'm and I'm I'm alittle bit I'm still not
(04:38):
dialing in on what my corevalues are.
And and so after that, Idecided uh that I had enough,
and and we just I justcompletely moved right up right
into the financial servicesworld.
And I did take the securitiescourse in 99.
So this is how old I am and howdated we are, but but at the
end of the day, I took it in1999.
(04:59):
I was gonna do this in 1990,but at that at that point, I
didn't have my mind and and andthe mindset of a true
entrepreneur who says, you know,I'm gonna put everything on the
line.
Now I had a mortgage, I wasstarting a family, and and these
things get on your in yourhead, you're going, okay, I've
got to support my family here,so I need a salary.
(05:20):
And so I stuck it out and Ididn't pursue my passion, which
is the financial servicesindustry.
Everything happens for reasons,as my new wife says.
Fast forward now today, I'mdoing exactly what I'd love to
do, which is I'm helping people.
And I'm helping those in myspace mostly because my ethos is
entrepreneurs forentrepreneurs.
And so as an entrepreneur, I amhelping other entrepreneurs
(05:44):
discover what they may not knowyet.
And had I known all of thesestrategies and everything that I
do today, you know, I'd be in adifferent place today.
Just because of if somebodywould have knocked my door down
and said, look, there's a betterway of strategizing all of your
wealth and and whatever you'retrying to build inside your
company.
And instead of extracting thatand paying a bullload of tax,
(06:04):
let's do it a different way andlet's let's preserve some of
that tax.
Dr. William Attaway (06:08):
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that you are taking whatyou wish you had known and
sharing that and allowing theinsights and the wisdom that you
have gained along the way nowto be a conduit of that.
So you can you can see otherpeople benefit.
That's such a that's such agiver's heart and mentality.
And I think that serves youwell.
So let's talk about the I lovethat you focus on entrepreneurs.
(06:31):
I do as well.
So thinking about theentrepreneurial space, what are
some of the mistakes you seepeople making that you're able
to step into and say, hey, hey,hey, hold on just a second.
Mauro Campagnaro (06:41):
It's uh yeah, that's the double-edged sword
because at the end of the day,what I don't see is what's
behind the scenes that's the keydriver of what is that
entrepreneur experiencing?
Do I understand a hundredpercent?
I know their their pain points.
I understand the difficultiesthat they're going through.
What I don't see from an opticsperspective is what are the
(07:05):
little nuances that is that arebothering them and keeping them
up at night every single night.
So with it with a couple ofconversations, what I normally
do is I get in the conversationand say, okay, well, how are you
structured today?
Like, do you have an operatingcompany?
Okay, well, what does youroperating company do?
And it depends on the size andscale of the business.
I mean, some good somecompanies are are out there and
(07:25):
we can we can work with them.
And we're talking about privatecompanies, not public
companies.
We're talking about privatecompanies, you know, business
first for self.
It might be a partnership thatmight be on their own, but
they're successful for the mostpart.
Okay, so we're talking 2million to maybe 50 to 100
million in revenue.
Now you've got some realretained earnings.
And so now we have with someretained earnings.
Well, now we look at thecorporate structure and say,
(07:46):
well, how are you how are youstructured?
Do you have an operatingcompany?
Do you have a holding company?
Is there a trust involved?
What are the how are youstructured?
And then from there, we canstart dialing into what are the
best ways to structure this andand bolting on these financial
tools that we have.
And that and that's that's whenI'm kind of when I'm dialing
into what is what is the the,you know, to answer your
(08:08):
question is we what what do I doto help these folks?
Well, that's pretty much it.
Let's let's see what thelandscape looks like first, and
then we'll dial into how can Ihelp and assist to mitigate as
much tax as possible, then alsocreate some retirement funding.
And then from the estate plan,what what are we going to do to
pass on as much as possible whatyou've built today to the next
generation if there's a nextgeneration to pass on to, right?
(08:30):
And the preservation of wealthis a key component because then
what we might even bringphilanthropy into this equation,
because philanthropy canactually be a very powerful tool
in itself.
Dr. William Attaway (08:41):
So when you when you talk about securing
that continuity that I mentionedearlier, I mean, thinking not
just about today or this quarteror this year, but thinking
longer term, succession, thingslike that.
Do you find that people arealways ready to have that
conversation?
Or do they sometimes think, I'mnot there yet?
Oh, that's later on.
Uh maybe in a decade or two.
Mauro Campagnaro (09:04):
Thank you for bringing that.
Uh coincidentally, I had a kindof conversation with a younger
person last night.
As and I just I attended the uh40 under 40 um event last night
uh in Calgary here, and it wasit was really interesting to see
the the strength and uh andpower of some of the these
people that are that are youknow not even 40 yet, for crying
out loud, and they're makingchange happen in such a
(09:26):
tremendous way in our society.
I just it was very, veryencouraging to see that the next
generation is really pushingthe envelope and and helping our
society out much better.
And I like that because thoseare true leaders in our society.
Um when when you when you talkto the some of these folks are
saying, well, I'm too young forthat.
Well, you know what?
Here's here's the thing.
Stephen Covey, you know, sevenhabits of uh highly effective
(09:49):
people, and and and Brian Tracy,the coincidentally the person
that I that I actually uh wrotea book with, uh, they're both
aligned in terms of let's thinkwith the end in mind.
Yes, yes.
And when I was a younger persontoo, at age 25, I got to know
Brian Tracy from the cassettes Iwas listening to.
I read the the the StephenCovey book, and and it was it
was one of those things where itjust kind of went, oh, okay,
(10:10):
hang on.
I don't want to work till I'm75.
Right?
Now I'm probably on thattrajectory, and it doesn't
really matter because at the endof the day, I think you should
still still be busy.
I think busyness keep keepsyour mind fresh.
But at the end of the day, Iwanted to always look at that.
What does that look like?
What is when you when you lookat your vision, how do you what
do you see yourself, where doyou see yourself in 10 or 20 or
(10:33):
30 years from now?
And that's what we focus on.
So at the end of the day, it'snot that I'm putting estate
planning quote unquote, becausewhat the perception of estate
planning is is a broad subject.
And and it's like, well, whatdoes that mean?
That doesn't mean you're old.
It means we're just puttingthings in place today, so that
as a young person, and if it'san insurance policy, you know
(10:56):
that insurance costs a lot lessfor a younger person than it
does an older person.
Plus, when you're younger, youtend to be healthier than you
are when you're older.
So, in order to accomplishthese things properly, we're
gonna do deal with these thingstoday, and it's not just
insurance, it's investments aswell.
With always an eye on what doesthat look like in the end?
(11:18):
So, whatever we do today, it'sstructuring it for the end game,
right?
It's like getting a mortgagetoday, and let's say it's a
25-year amortization.
Well, I know I'm gonna own myhouse in 25 years from now.
Similar concept-ish, but at theend of the day, what we put
today at the foundation today isgonna accomplish what you want
to accomplish in 25, 30 yearsfrom now, right?
Dr. William Attaway (11:38):
You know, I love that.
But it does take a growthmindset.
You know, and I love thatthat's one of the things that
you focus on is helping theseentrepreneurs to understand that
you know the the grit, thedrive, the hustle that got you
to this point, you know, that'sgreat.
But it's not gonna take you tothe next level.
And you've got to beginthinking in a different way when
(11:59):
you're thinking longer term,particularly around exit
strategies.
Mauro Campagnaro (12:03):
Correct.
Yeah, particularly around exitstrategies.
And and it and and it and Ilove it.
I mean, you you you hit it.
You got the fire in the belly,you know what you're doing,
you're dialed in, you'reaccomplishing feats that nobody
else has accomplished because ofyour mindset, primarily.
Because true successfulentrepreneurs have a very
positive mindset, and they justthey'll see a barrier and
(12:26):
they'll go, okay, that's just achallenge.
We'll just figure out a way andwe'll pivot around it and we'll
get over that hump, right?
And that's it, the true grit ofa successful entrepreneur.
What I do is just say, okay,you know what, that's fantastic.
Let's take that, let's takethat same attitude and let's
apply it towards you, theindividual, who said, you know
what, I got a dream.
And here's my dream.
(12:47):
This is what I want toaccomplish in my life, and
here's what I want to do foreither whatever motivates you.
What is it that motivates you,and why did you get into this
business?
The why is really the answer asto what we're trying to find
out.
Why did you do this?
Are you excited?
Do you get up in the morningexcited about what you're doing?
(13:07):
You know, I to quote KevinO'Leary, you know, one of the
one of the sharks there.
He says, Look, if you're notdoing what you're passionate
about, get out.
You know.
What does he say?
He says, take it behind thebarn and shoot it.
But at the end of the day, ifyou're not passionate about it,
then you know what, you mightwant to address that.
But at the end of the day,let's say, let's say these
successful entrepreneurs arepassionate about what they're
doing.
And all we're trying to do issay, look, you've done
(13:27):
everything right today.
Now what we're gonna do iswe're just gonna take what
you're doing right and we'regonna position a place where you
are gonna benefit from it.
Because you know who gets paidlast as an entrepreneur?
You.
That's right.
And so let's take all of youreffort and make sure that it's
not all for naught, so to speak,so that we can actually
(13:50):
preserve a lot of that blood,sweat, and tears, I call it,
right?
And so you've done everythingyou you had to do to get this
thing to be successful.
Well, now we're gonna try topreserve that wealth for you
because you didn't do this justas you know, for charity.
You did it to earn something,I'm going to assume.
So that's where that's that'spretty much the goal.
Dr. William Attaway (14:12):
You know, I I love this first that you're
helping people in such a verytangible way that is so needed.
But I think I what I loveequally is the fact that you're
speaking out of your ownexperience as an entrepreneur.
You know, and you're helpingpeople understand things that
I'm guessing you didn'tunderstand early on.
And like you said, if you couldgo back and apply a lot of what
(14:33):
you're talking about today, thethings you know now, your life
would look a little bitdifferent.
Have you seen examples ofclients that you're working with
that that stand out?
You're like, you know, theyactually did the work.
They actually took it andapplied it and it has caused a
dramatic difference.
Can you think of an examplethat you could share?
Mauro Campagnaro (14:53):
Yes.
So um there's a couple ofthere's a couple of examples
where one individual, you know,I obviously can't name names
here, but I'm just trying to I'mtrying to, you know, I'm trying
to be as as as you know uh uhum obscure as possible, but this
is one individual who's a who'sa retired, very successful,
(15:14):
very successful, had asignificant amount of money,
let's put it that way, in hisoperating company, which never
ended up being anything but aholding company at the end of
the day.
And so when we you know yourefer to some in most instances,
that would be more of aprofessional where they've got a
professional corpse, so adoctor, not so much a dentist,
(15:34):
but a doctor, let's say aphysician, where they've got a
professional corp, where thatprofessional corp might not be
anything other than a mechanismto flow cash through.
This individual was in adifferent space, but it was it
was still consulting type ofbusiness, right?
And he had this significantamount of money sitting in this
in this operating company, whichat the end of the day became a
holding company because there'sthere there was it was the end
of the operation, but I I saidto suggested to him, look,
(15:56):
you've got a million bucks inhere.
Well, it was a million or more.
And and I said, You got enoughmoney that that you've got to uh
do some some strategic thingsto get this money out.
You know, normally when you goto see your accountant, and most
people think that theaccountant is the holy grail of
of planning.
I love my accountants and I Ithey I partner with them and
(16:16):
they are a significant piece ofthe puzzle.
However, um, and I have to bebe very respectful of this
profession because at the end ofthe day, they are educated to
help us mitigate as much aspossible.
But what they're what I'mfinding is that they're not
proactive.
So so when they and they don'tsee the whole picture, they're
(16:36):
kind of looking at it from oneangle saying, okay, what did you
do?
What kind of mess did you make?
And let me let me coordinatethat mess so we can do what I
can do at this point to mitigatetax.
But what my position is, is I'ma I'm a planner.
So when we say with it from thebeginning, you know, we look at
the end in mind is saying,okay, well, what are you doing
(16:58):
today?
And what can we do to help youbridge that gap to get to the
next level?
During that journey, we needthe accountant.
And we also need a lawyer.
So from a triangularperspective, every entrepreneur
needs three advisors in theirbusiness.
They must have, okay?
And you must choose yourfinancial planner very
(17:20):
carefully.
Because not everybodyunderstands all of the
strategies.
So I would recommend you dointerview a few different
advisors that you uh, you know,have you been recommended to or
whatever, but interview them andunderstand what they know about
all these different strategiesand how they can actually help
you as an entrepreneur.
So get a good advisor, is is myrecommendation.
(17:43):
And then, you know, do theyhave the team?
Do they have a good accountantthat understands the strategies
we might be putting into place?
And then we have the lawyer.
Now the lawyer's going to takepart all, you know, take care of
all of the legal easeproportions of this strategy.
So we, you know, from atriangular, I would say to the
triangle, make sure you've gotthe right people in place to
help you get to the next level.
(18:05):
And so, anyway, that's anexample of this individual
having this money sitting inthis company, and we put, we
bolted on the strategies ontothat so that we could, we we
never gonna we're never gonnaget anything tax-free unless
we're going through what theycall the CDA account, okay, and
in the corporation.
And that's after the fact,after somebody passes away.
(18:26):
But at the end of the day, um,what we're trying to do is
mitigate a lot of tax and avoidand avoid legally, obviously,
taking this money out of yourcorporation, growing it in a
tax-free environment, okay, andthen bringing it back to you as
the individual.
In some way, shape, or form,either it's going to be through
the corporation or it's going tobe outside the corporation.
But at the end of the day,we're we're making sure that the
(18:48):
the pieces are put togetherproperly with the accountant's
help.
Okay.
So in your case, it would beIRA, are we here at CRA?
So at the end of the day, we'rewe're we're making sure that
they're happy with the strategyand and and everybody is on
board, above board.
Dr. William Attaway (19:04):
Yeah.
Okay.
I like that holistic approach.
You know, so often I think wetend to compartmentalize the
things that you're talkingabout.
You know, your planner, youraccountant, your your lawyer,
and they're not really workingtogether as a team.
What you're describing is avery holistic, integrated
approach where they are wherethey're aware of what each
(19:25):
other's doing and they're makingsure that they are making
decisions with the whole inmind.
That's that's a that's aphenomenal strategy.
Mauro Campagnaro (19:32):
Yeah, 100%.
Uh you know, and and who's theleader?
Well, the entrepreneur is theleader.
Yeah.
So if you're if you're leadingyour team and you're being
successful, then all you'redoing is reverse engineering
that and saying, Okay, you knowwhat, I gotta I gotta bring my
team together for me.
That's it.
(19:53):
That's it.
Right.
And say, you know what, who'smy advisor, who's my accountant,
who's my lawyer?
And then we're let we're allgonna get in the same room where
We're all going to have aconversation together and
respectfully understand eachother's piece in the puzzle and
have each you know professionalcourtesy for each other or
other, but allow theentrepreneur the opportunity to
say, guys, help me out here.
(20:14):
How do we take what I'm doingtoday?
Get to the next level, andlet's mitigate as much tax as
possible.
Now, everybody got, you know,respectfully you got to pay tax.
We've got to pay tax because itkeeps our society together.
Sure.
But at the end of the day, theythey've allowed us strategies
to mitigate some of it.
And as an entrepreneur, that isyour, I don't know, your
strategic plan uh plan becauseat the end of the day, you're
(20:37):
taking all the risk.
You're taking all the risk asan entrepreneur and and and
you're employing people.
So there is a little bit ofbenefit for you for doing so.
And then if you can, you know,add that other piece, which is
let's save a little tax andbring that out to us, the
individual, in a better way,then that's the kind of the
idea.
Dr. William Attaway (20:58):
Right.
And I think you that's exactlyright.
Entrepreneurs create jobs.
You know, that's that's reallywhat we do.
Yeah.
And when we do that well, youknow, there are ways to make
sure that we are paying the taxthat we owe.
And I think we should do that.
I think that's that's a moralimperative.
I just don't think we shouldpay more than we owe.
Mauro Campagnaro (21:15):
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think in the spirit ofbuilding a true uh looking for
the the the American dream, soto speak, or the Canadian dream,
which is the entrepreneurialspirit, the free enterprise.
That's right.
You have to give someadvantages back to the
individuals that are takingthese risks.
That's exactly right.
In order to do so.
(21:36):
Because if not, what what wouldbe the compelling reason to do
so?
Right.
So yeah, I think that sums itup right there.
Dr. William Attaway (21:44):
Yeah, risk reward.
Right?
I mean, the greater the risk,the greater the potential
reward.
Um so uh Mar, let me ask youthis.
You know, you have to lead yourteam, your clients, at a higher
level today than you did five,ten years ago.
And that same thing is gonna betrue five years from now.
How do you stay on top of yourgame?
How do you level up with thenew leadership skills that
(22:07):
you're gonna need to have tolead at that higher level in the
days ahead?
Mauro Campagnaro (22:11):
The first thing that comes to mind is
education.
No one will ever know at all.
No, no.
Right?
And so it takes time, it takesa lot of grit, and it takes a
lot of persistence and betenacious in terms of what I
don't know, I need to know, andI want to know.
And that's and that's my angleall the time is is who are the
people and who are theorganizations that I'm going to
(22:34):
access this information from.
So I look for other leaders andand and educational
institutions that are going tosupply that education to me,
which just level levels up mygame.
I'm always trying to level upmy game because at the end of
the day, yes, I know enough tobe very uh very good at what I
do.
It's just at the end of theday, I again I don't know
(22:55):
everything.
So if a client asks me aparticular question that I don't
really know the complete answerto, I'll say, look, you know
what, let me get let me researchthat.
As my accountant says to me,and I love it, because I I
really respect somebody whosays, Look, I don't know that in
the in the way I should knowit.
I know enough about it, but Idon't want to be incorrect in
how I explain exactly how thisprocess works.
(23:16):
So let me go find a little bitmore information and I'm not
gonna chat it.
I'm gonna chat yes, but at theend of the day, I'm gonna
validate what chat gave back tome, and I'm gonna go to the
actual institution or I'm gonnago to the spread the leader that
knows this answer.
And I also may bring thosepeople into the conversation
with the client too, justbecause they're such an expert
(23:36):
at what they do, I will bringthose people into the
conversation.
That's good.
I like that.
Dr. William Attaway (23:44):
You know, we we talked a little bit about
this, but I'm I'm curious if youhad the ability to go back and
talk to 25-year-old you knowingwhat you know now, what would
you love to go back and tellyourself?
Mauro Campagnaro (24:00):
Don't sweat the small stuff.
I like it.
Focus, focus, focus on the bigstuff.
Chatter, banter, what peoplesay.
That's one piece.
The other piece is do what youlove to do and don't waste time.
I sometimes felt during mycareer I was selling my soul,
(24:24):
selling something that justdidn't align with my core
values.
It was not good for you, it wassomething that uh maybe the
company's culture wasn't rightfor me.
Uh there's a lot of a lot ofwasted time in your 20s and 30s
where you're still trying tofind yourself.
Where do you fit into theequation?
(24:45):
What is your your strengths?
And I know it's a difficultquestion when you're you're
you're you're you're goingthrough the motions of of of
adulthood and you're you'relike, okay, where do I fit in
this puzzle?
Yeah.
It's not an easy answer to, youknow, it's not easy to answer,
but at the end of the day, Ijust encourage people to do
what's in their heart and whatthey really feel passionate
(25:06):
about doing.
What gets you up in themorning, what gets your brain
moving and saying, Well, if Icould only just do this, or if I
could, you know, if I couldjust create this or do something
like that.
Here's here's a beautiful thingthat that I don't I don't think
they and I don't know, I meanI'm I'm just docking out of
school here, but maybe the youngdon't understand the difference
between when I grew up in thisworld and when what what's
(25:28):
available to them today.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah.
Mauro Campagnaro (25:31):
Okay, I never had a cell phone when I
graduated university and therewas no internet.
So today, with the internet andthe cell phone, these are such
powerful tools that people don'treally understand the power of
them and and the potential ofyou just literally getting
online and and maybe teachingsomething to somebody that you
(25:54):
have knowledge about.
There's no inventory.
You don't have to buyinventory.
You're just explainingsomething that somebody, you
never know whose life you'regonna change, but you've just
told somebody that you've you'veyou've changed their life just
because of the one or a coupleof things you've said.
They're gonna go, aha, wow, Iheard I'm glad I heard that.
So don't discount what you knowtoday, right?
(26:15):
You've learned a few things.
You know something today.
Don't discount the fact thatyou don't know something.
I don't, I don't encourage youto go out and build a business
or buying inventory and doingall that kind of stuff.
That's that's very riskybusiness.
But knowledge, knowledge todayis an amazing tool.
And if you have something toshare, don't be afraid to share
it.
Just don't be afraid to shareit.
Be very courageous and do it.
(26:35):
You will, you will, by doing soand stretching your boundaries,
you will discover things aboutyourself that it that are just
amazing.
So yeah, I always encouragepeople just push.
You've got the technologytoday.
I didn't have this opportunitywhen I when I was a young adult.
I just didn't have theseopportunities.
That's so good.
Dr. William Attaway (26:54):
All right, this is this has been so
fantastic.
I'm so grateful to you forsharing so generously from your
experience and your journey sofar.
And like I said earlier, Ithink your best is still ahead.
And I can't wait to see what'sgoing to happen next with you.
I know our listeners are gonnawant to stay connected to you
and continue to learn more fromyou and about what you're doing.
(27:14):
What's the best way for them todo that?
Mauro Campagnaro (27:16):
Appreciate that, William.
Very good.
Well, I've got my in my websiteright there.
So it's uh campignarowealth.caor simplified one that I went
to, which is cwa.life.
So cwa.life is my website.
Nice.
That's probably the best waythey can get a hold of me and uh
if they want to have aconversation about anything.
You know, for for anybodylistening to this
(27:37):
internationally, at the end ofthe day, what I can do is maybe
some consulting as far as yourbusiness is concerned.
I I you know I have my successfor as far as doubling the
profits and doubling the therevenue of the company that I
participated with as their vicepresident.
Now, that's on the consultingside, so I can do that
internationally, but from a froma a pretty pure financial
planning standpoint, I am onlylicensed in Canada.
(28:00):
And so at that point, that'sthat's kind of where the buck
stops on on that on that pieceof my of my experience that I
can help with, right?
Dr. William Attaway (28:08):
Sounds like you can help people wherever
they are with at least onething.
And I'll at least one thing.
Mauro Campagnaro (28:12):
Yes, yeah.
Dr. William Attaway (28:13):
I love it.
And for our Canadian friends,if you don't have somebody who
in your life who is doing whatMorrow's doing, I think it's
time.
So make that connection.
Mauro, thank you again so muchfor today.
Mauro Campagnaro (28:26):
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for thetime and we've spent together.
Appreciate it very much.
I'm excited today to have Mauro Campañero
on the podcast.
Morrow is a financial advisorat Campanero Wealth Advisory in
Calgary, Alberta, with over 20years of experience as a
business owner and a financialstrategist.
Optimizing business operations,securing entrepreneurial
(00:23):
continuity, and fostering growthmindsets.
With core values grounded inintegrity, honesty, and trust,
he protects each client's wealthand investment for a lasting
legacy.
This roadmap ensures clients'financial well-being and the
(00:53):
freedom to retire with thelifestyle they dream of.
Mauro Campagnaro (00:59):
Thank you, William.
Wonderful introduction.
I appreciate the synopsis ofwhat I've done so far.
Yeah, thank you.
Dr. William Attaway (01:06):
And I like that so far, because the best is
yet to come.
Mauro Campagnaro (01:09):
Exactly.
That's right.
That's right.
Intro (01:14):
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed
to help leaders intentionallygrow and thrive.
Here is your host, author, andleadership and executive coach,
Dr.
William Attaway.
Dr. William Attaway (01:39):
How did you get started?
Mauro Campagnaro (01:42):
Well, how far back do we go?
But let's let's put it this waylet's put it this way.
After university, I spent aconsiderable amount of time
working for some of the largerconsumer packaged goods
companies.
We we uh at a point in timewhen that fire in my belly was
like, you need to be in businessfor yourself.
And I'm probably talking to alot of people who are got it in
the back of their mind that it'sin their belly, they want to do
(02:03):
it.
And my uh recommendation is doit, but do it carefully and
understand what you're doingbefore you get into it, because
you don't want to I mean, you'reyou're gonna fail along the way
and you're gonna make mistakesalong the way, but at the end of
the day, be as pragmatic as youcan towards doing all of the
due diligence before you getinto business for yourself.
So anyway, I got into inbusiness for myself in the uh
(02:24):
consumer packaged goods industryas a distributor.
And then, you know, as as Itell them the story is that the
cars fell because the love of mylife decided that she didn't
want to be on the journey withme anymore.
So at that point, as a as youknow, when you're when you're
holding the cards so thin, itdid impact the business.
I held on for a couple moreyears, but then I found this
angel, which is, you know what,just make sure you you network
properly because networking doeshelp when when the cards are
(02:47):
stacked against you, sometimesyou can you can find someone
that can actually uh help.
And and this person uh decidedthat you know we're we're we
were aligned so much in the wayour thought patterns were and
how we were in the same businessand the same space together at
the same time that he says, Youknow, you got to come on board,
I'm gonna buy you out.
And he bought me on board andhe gave me carte blanche at the
(03:07):
end of the day after a fewconversations.
He goes, Look, I need you.
Um yeah, and it was nicebecause it was you know, it's
not that that uh you know I Iknew a lot more, it's just I
knew a different piece of thepuzzle that he was missing from
all of the experience I'd hadwith all the multinationals,
knowing how they do it.
Well, let's implement thosepractices into our business,
right?
And so continuous improvementwas always in the conversation
(03:30):
around how do we continuouslyimprove things.
And during that con that thatthat period of time, we grew the
business from seven roughlyabout 17 million dollars to
almost forty million dollars infour years.
And we went coast to coast,national.
We hit all of the the care thethe primary um or all of the
large uh retailers in thecountry, and we were crushing
(03:52):
it.
Um and then you know you know,other things happen.
I got I got a phone call.
When you're successful, it'sfunny.
Things see things start tohappen and the word gets out.
Well, I got a I got an offer,and I I took the offer, um, and
I and I got uh basically doubledmy salary and everything like
that.
But be careful of the thingsyou you you choose because that
uh at in that time thisgentleman didn't understand the
(04:15):
the length of time that it takesto actually have business come
to fruition.
And so we were bringing inproduct from Italy and we were
trying to enter a market thatwas already very mature.
So we were we were weren'taligned in terms of our
strategic implementation and howlong it takes.
So I said, you know what, atthis point, I think I'm I'm old
enough now and I'm and I'm I'm alittle bit I'm still not
(04:38):
dialing in on what my corevalues are.
And and so after that, Idecided uh that I had enough,
and and we just I justcompletely moved right up right
into the financial servicesworld.
And I did take the securitiescourse in 99.
So this is how old I am and howdated we are, but but at the
end of the day, I took it in1999.
(04:59):
I was gonna do this in 1990,but at that at that point, I
didn't have my mind and and andthe mindset of a true
entrepreneur who says, you know,I'm gonna put everything on the
line.
Now I had a mortgage, I wasstarting a family, and and these
things get on your in yourhead, you're going, okay, I've
got to support my family here,so I need a salary.
(05:20):
And so I stuck it out and Ididn't pursue my passion, which
is the financial servicesindustry.
Everything happens for reasons,as my new wife says.
Fast forward now today, I'mdoing exactly what I'd love to
do, which is I'm helping people.
And I'm helping those in myspace mostly because my ethos is
entrepreneurs forentrepreneurs.
And so as an entrepreneur, I amhelping other entrepreneurs
(05:44):
discover what they may not knowyet.
And had I known all of thesestrategies and everything that I
do today, you know, I'd be in adifferent place today.
Just because of if somebodywould have knocked my door down
and said, look, there's a betterway of strategizing all of your
wealth and and whatever you'retrying to build inside your
company.
And instead of extracting thatand paying a bullload of tax,
(06:04):
let's do it a different way andlet's let's preserve some of
that tax.
Dr. William Attaway (06:08):
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that you are taking whatyou wish you had known and
sharing that and allowing theinsights and the wisdom that you
have gained along the way nowto be a conduit of that.
So you can you can see otherpeople benefit.
That's such a that's such agiver's heart and mentality.
And I think that serves youwell.
So let's talk about the I lovethat you focus on entrepreneurs.
(06:31):
I do as well.
So thinking about theentrepreneurial space, what are
some of the mistakes you seepeople making that you're able
to step into and say, hey, hey,hey, hold on just a second.
Mauro Campagnaro (06:41):
It's uh yeah, that's the double-edged sword
because at the end of the day,what I don't see is what's
behind the scenes that's the keydriver of what is that
entrepreneur experiencing?
Do I understand a hundredpercent?
I know their their pain points.
I understand the difficultiesthat they're going through.
What I don't see from an opticsperspective is what are the
(07:05):
little nuances that is that arebothering them and keeping them
up at night every single night.
So with it with a couple ofconversations, what I normally
do is I get in the conversationand say, okay, well, how are you
structured today?
Like, do you have an operatingcompany?
Okay, well, what does youroperating company do?
And it depends on the size andscale of the business.
I mean, some good somecompanies are are out there and
(07:25):
we can we can work with them.
And we're talking about privatecompanies, not public
companies.
We're talking about privatecompanies, you know, business
first for self.
It might be a partnership thatmight be on their own, but
they're successful for the mostpart.
Okay, so we're talking 2million to maybe 50 to 100
million in revenue.
Now you've got some realretained earnings.
And so now we have with someretained earnings.
Well, now we look at thecorporate structure and say,
(07:46):
well, how are you how are youstructured?
Do you have an operatingcompany?
Do you have a holding company?
Is there a trust involved?
What are the how are youstructured?
And then from there, we canstart dialing into what are the
best ways to structure this andand bolting on these financial
tools that we have.
And that and that's that's whenI'm kind of when I'm dialing
into what is what is the the,you know, to answer your
(08:08):
question is we what what do I doto help these folks?
Well, that's pretty much it.
Let's let's see what thelandscape looks like first, and
then we'll dial into how can Ihelp and assist to mitigate as
much tax as possible, then alsocreate some retirement funding.
And then from the estate plan,what what are we going to do to
pass on as much as possible whatyou've built today to the next
generation if there's a nextgeneration to pass on to, right?
(08:30):
And the preservation of wealthis a key component because then
what we might even bringphilanthropy into this equation,
because philanthropy canactually be a very powerful tool
in itself.
Dr. William Attaway (08:41):
So when you when you talk about securing
that continuity that I mentionedearlier, I mean, thinking not
just about today or this quarteror this year, but thinking
longer term, succession, thingslike that.
Do you find that people arealways ready to have that
conversation?
Or do they sometimes think, I'mnot there yet?
Oh, that's later on.
Uh maybe in a decade or two.
Mauro Campagnaro (09:04):
Thank you for bringing that.
Uh coincidentally, I had a kindof conversation with a younger
person last night.
As and I just I attended the uh40 under 40 um event last night
uh in Calgary here, and it wasit was really interesting to see
the the strength and uh andpower of some of the these
people that are that are youknow not even 40 yet, for crying
out loud, and they're makingchange happen in such a
(09:26):
tremendous way in our society.
I just it was very, veryencouraging to see that the next
generation is really pushingthe envelope and and helping our
society out much better.
And I like that because thoseare true leaders in our society.
Um when when you when you talkto the some of these folks are
saying, well, I'm too young forthat.
Well, you know what?
Here's here's the thing.
Stephen Covey, you know, sevenhabits of uh highly effective
(09:49):
people, and and and Brian Tracy,the coincidentally the person
that I that I actually uh wrotea book with, uh, they're both
aligned in terms of let's thinkwith the end in mind.
Yes, yes.
And when I was a younger persontoo, at age 25, I got to know
Brian Tracy from the cassettes Iwas listening to.
I read the the the StephenCovey book, and and it was it
was one of those things where itjust kind of went, oh, okay,
(10:10):
hang on.
I don't want to work till I'm75.
Right?
Now I'm probably on thattrajectory, and it doesn't
really matter because at the endof the day, I think you should
still still be busy.
I think busyness keep keepsyour mind fresh.
But at the end of the day, Iwanted to always look at that.
What does that look like?
What is when you when you lookat your vision, how do you what
do you see yourself, where doyou see yourself in 10 or 20 or
(10:33):
30 years from now?
And that's what we focus on.
So at the end of the day, it'snot that I'm putting estate
planning quote unquote, becausewhat the perception of estate
planning is is a broad subject.
And and it's like, well, whatdoes that mean?
That doesn't mean you're old.
It means we're just puttingthings in place today, so that
as a young person, and if it'san insurance policy, you know
(10:56):
that insurance costs a lot lessfor a younger person than it
does an older person.
Plus, when you're younger, youtend to be healthier than you
are when you're older.
So, in order to accomplishthese things properly, we're
gonna do deal with these thingstoday, and it's not just
insurance, it's investments aswell.
With always an eye on what doesthat look like in the end?
(11:18):
So, whatever we do today, it'sstructuring it for the end game,
right?
It's like getting a mortgagetoday, and let's say it's a
25-year amortization.
Well, I know I'm gonna own myhouse in 25 years from now.
Similar concept-ish, but at theend of the day, what we put
today at the foundation today isgonna accomplish what you want
to accomplish in 25, 30 yearsfrom now, right?
Dr. William Attaway (11:38):
You know, I love that.
But it does take a growthmindset.
You know, and I love thatthat's one of the things that
you focus on is helping theseentrepreneurs to understand that
you know the the grit, thedrive, the hustle that got you
to this point, you know, that'sgreat.
But it's not gonna take you tothe next level.
And you've got to beginthinking in a different way when
(11:59):
you're thinking longer term,particularly around exit
strategies.
Mauro Campagnaro (12:03):
Correct.
Yeah, particularly around exitstrategies.
And and it and and it and Ilove it.
I mean, you you you hit it.
You got the fire in the belly,you know what you're doing,
you're dialed in, you'reaccomplishing feats that nobody
else has accomplished because ofyour mindset, primarily.
Because true successfulentrepreneurs have a very
positive mindset, and they justthey'll see a barrier and
(12:26):
they'll go, okay, that's just achallenge.
We'll just figure out a way andwe'll pivot around it and we'll
get over that hump, right?
And that's it, the true grit ofa successful entrepreneur.
What I do is just say, okay,you know what, that's fantastic.
Let's take that, let's takethat same attitude and let's
apply it towards you, theindividual, who said, you know
what, I got a dream.
And here's my dream.
(12:47):
This is what I want toaccomplish in my life, and
here's what I want to do foreither whatever motivates you.
What is it that motivates you,and why did you get into this
business?
The why is really the answer asto what we're trying to find
out.
Why did you do this?
Are you excited?
Do you get up in the morningexcited about what you're doing?
(13:07):
You know, I to quote KevinO'Leary, you know, one of the
one of the sharks there.
He says, Look, if you're notdoing what you're passionate
about, get out.
You know.
What does he say?
He says, take it behind thebarn and shoot it.
But at the end of the day, ifyou're not passionate about it,
then you know what, you mightwant to address that.
But at the end of the day,let's say, let's say these
successful entrepreneurs arepassionate about what they're
doing.
And all we're trying to do issay, look, you've done
(13:27):
everything right today.
Now what we're gonna do iswe're just gonna take what
you're doing right and we'regonna position a place where you
are gonna benefit from it.
Because you know who gets paidlast as an entrepreneur?
You.
That's right.
And so let's take all of youreffort and make sure that it's
not all for naught, so to speak,so that we can actually
(13:50):
preserve a lot of that blood,sweat, and tears, I call it,
right?
And so you've done everythingyou you had to do to get this
thing to be successful.
Well, now we're gonna try topreserve that wealth for you
because you didn't do this justas you know, for charity.
You did it to earn something,I'm going to assume.
So that's where that's that'spretty much the goal.
Dr. William Attaway (14:12):
You know, I I love this first that you're
helping people in such a verytangible way that is so needed.
But I think I what I loveequally is the fact that you're
speaking out of your ownexperience as an entrepreneur.
You know, and you're helpingpeople understand things that
I'm guessing you didn'tunderstand early on.
And like you said, if you couldgo back and apply a lot of what
(14:33):
you're talking about today, thethings you know now, your life
would look a little bitdifferent.
Have you seen examples ofclients that you're working with
that that stand out?
You're like, you know, theyactually did the work.
They actually took it andapplied it and it has caused a
dramatic difference.
Can you think of an examplethat you could share?
Mauro Campagnaro (14:53):
Yes.
So um there's a couple ofthere's a couple of examples
where one individual, you know,I obviously can't name names
here, but I'm just trying to I'mtrying to, you know, I'm trying
to be as as as you know uh uhum obscure as possible, but this
is one individual who's a who'sa retired, very successful,
(15:14):
very successful, had asignificant amount of money,
let's put it that way, in hisoperating company, which never
ended up being anything but aholding company at the end of
the day.
And so when we you know yourefer to some in most instances,
that would be more of aprofessional where they've got a
professional corpse, so adoctor, not so much a dentist,
(15:34):
but a doctor, let's say aphysician, where they've got a
professional corp, where thatprofessional corp might not be
anything other than a mechanismto flow cash through.
This individual was in adifferent space, but it was it
was still consulting type ofbusiness, right?
And he had this significantamount of money sitting in this
in this operating company, whichat the end of the day became a
holding company because there'sthere there was it was the end
of the operation, but I I saidto suggested to him, look,
(15:56):
you've got a million bucks inhere.
Well, it was a million or more.
And and I said, You got enoughmoney that that you've got to uh
do some some strategic thingsto get this money out.
You know, normally when you goto see your accountant, and most
people think that theaccountant is the holy grail of
of planning.
I love my accountants and I Ithey I partner with them and
(16:16):
they are a significant piece ofthe puzzle.
However, um, and I have to bebe very respectful of this
profession because at the end ofthe day, they are educated to
help us mitigate as much aspossible.
But what they're what I'mfinding is that they're not
proactive.
So so when they and they don'tsee the whole picture, they're
(16:36):
kind of looking at it from oneangle saying, okay, what did you
do?
What kind of mess did you make?
And let me let me coordinatethat mess so we can do what I
can do at this point to mitigatetax.
But what my position is, is I'ma I'm a planner.
So when we say with it from thebeginning, you know, we look at
the end in mind is saying,okay, well, what are you doing
(16:58):
today?
And what can we do to help youbridge that gap to get to the
next level?
During that journey, we needthe accountant.
And we also need a lawyer.
So from a triangularperspective, every entrepreneur
needs three advisors in theirbusiness.
They must have, okay?
And you must choose yourfinancial planner very
(17:20):
carefully.
Because not everybodyunderstands all of the
strategies.
So I would recommend you dointerview a few different
advisors that you uh, you know,have you been recommended to or
whatever, but interview them andunderstand what they know about
all these different strategiesand how they can actually help
you as an entrepreneur.
So get a good advisor, is is myrecommendation.
(17:43):
And then, you know, do theyhave the team?
Do they have a good accountantthat understands the strategies
we might be putting into place?
And then we have the lawyer.
Now the lawyer's going to takepart all, you know, take care of
all of the legal easeproportions of this strategy.
So we, you know, from atriangular, I would say to the
triangle, make sure you've gotthe right people in place to
help you get to the next level.
(18:05):
And so, anyway, that's anexample of this individual
having this money sitting inthis company, and we put, we
bolted on the strategies ontothat so that we could, we we
never gonna we're never gonnaget anything tax-free unless
we're going through what theycall the CDA account, okay, and
in the corporation.
And that's after the fact,after somebody passes away.
(18:26):
But at the end of the day, um,what we're trying to do is
mitigate a lot of tax and avoidand avoid legally, obviously,
taking this money out of yourcorporation, growing it in a
tax-free environment, okay, andthen bringing it back to you as
the individual.
In some way, shape, or form,either it's going to be through
the corporation or it's going tobe outside the corporation.
But at the end of the day,we're we're making sure that the
(18:48):
the pieces are put togetherproperly with the accountant's
help.
Okay.
So in your case, it would beIRA, are we here at CRA?
So at the end of the day, we'rewe're we're making sure that
they're happy with the strategyand and and everybody is on
board, above board.
Dr. William Attaway (19:04):
Yeah.
Okay.
I like that holistic approach.
You know, so often I think wetend to compartmentalize the
things that you're talkingabout.
You know, your planner, youraccountant, your your lawyer,
and they're not really workingtogether as a team.
What you're describing is avery holistic, integrated
approach where they are wherethey're aware of what each
(19:25):
other's doing and they're makingsure that they are making
decisions with the whole inmind.
That's that's a that's aphenomenal strategy.
Mauro Campagnaro (19:32):
Yeah, 100%.
Uh you know, and and who's theleader?
Well, the entrepreneur is theleader.
Yeah.
So if you're if you're leadingyour team and you're being
successful, then all you'redoing is reverse engineering
that and saying, Okay, you knowwhat, I gotta I gotta bring my
team together for me.
That's it.
(19:53):
That's it.
Right.
And say, you know what, who'smy advisor, who's my accountant,
who's my lawyer?
And then we're let we're allgonna get in the same room where
We're all going to have aconversation together and
respectfully understand eachother's piece in the puzzle and
have each you know professionalcourtesy for each other or
other, but allow theentrepreneur the opportunity to
say, guys, help me out here.
(20:14):
How do we take what I'm doingtoday?
Get to the next level, andlet's mitigate as much tax as
possible.
Now, everybody got, you know,respectfully you got to pay tax.
We've got to pay tax because itkeeps our society together.
Sure.
But at the end of the day, theythey've allowed us strategies
to mitigate some of it.
And as an entrepreneur, that isyour, I don't know, your
strategic plan uh plan becauseat the end of the day, you're
(20:37):
taking all the risk.
You're taking all the risk asan entrepreneur and and and
you're employing people.
So there is a little bit ofbenefit for you for doing so.
And then if you can, you know,add that other piece, which is
let's save a little tax andbring that out to us, the
individual, in a better way,then that's the kind of the
idea.
Dr. William Attaway (20:58):
Right.
And I think you that's exactlyright.
Entrepreneurs create jobs.
You know, that's that's reallywhat we do.
Yeah.
And when we do that well, youknow, there are ways to make
sure that we are paying the taxthat we owe.
And I think we should do that.
I think that's that's a moralimperative.
I just don't think we shouldpay more than we owe.
Mauro Campagnaro (21:15):
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think in the spirit ofbuilding a true uh looking for
the the the American dream, soto speak, or the Canadian dream,
which is the entrepreneurialspirit, the free enterprise.
That's right.
You have to give someadvantages back to the
individuals that are takingthese risks.
That's exactly right.
In order to do so.
(21:36):
Because if not, what what wouldbe the compelling reason to do
so?
Right.
So yeah, I think that sums itup right there.
Dr. William Attaway (21:44):
Yeah, risk reward.
Right?
I mean, the greater the risk,the greater the potential
reward.
Um so uh Mar, let me ask youthis.
You know, you have to lead yourteam, your clients, at a higher
level today than you did five,ten years ago.
And that same thing is gonna betrue five years from now.
How do you stay on top of yourgame?
How do you level up with thenew leadership skills that
(22:07):
you're gonna need to have tolead at that higher level in the
days ahead?
Mauro Campagnaro (22:11):
The first thing that comes to mind is
education.
No one will ever know at all.
No, no.
Right?
And so it takes time, it takesa lot of grit, and it takes a
lot of persistence and betenacious in terms of what I
don't know, I need to know, andI want to know.
And that's and that's my angleall the time is is who are the
people and who are theorganizations that I'm going to
(22:34):
access this information from.
So I look for other leaders andand and educational
institutions that are going tosupply that education to me,
which just level levels up mygame.
I'm always trying to level upmy game because at the end of
the day, yes, I know enough tobe very uh very good at what I
do.
It's just at the end of theday, I again I don't know
(22:55):
everything.
So if a client asks me aparticular question that I don't
really know the complete answerto, I'll say, look, you know
what, let me get let me researchthat.
As my accountant says to me,and I love it, because I I
really respect somebody whosays, Look, I don't know that in
the in the way I should knowit.
I know enough about it, but Idon't want to be incorrect in
how I explain exactly how thisprocess works.
(23:16):
So let me go find a little bitmore information and I'm not
gonna chat it.
I'm gonna chat yes, but at theend of the day, I'm gonna
validate what chat gave back tome, and I'm gonna go to the
actual institution or I'm gonnago to the spread the leader that
knows this answer.
And I also may bring thosepeople into the conversation
with the client too, justbecause they're such an expert
(23:36):
at what they do, I will bringthose people into the
conversation.
That's good.
I like that.
Dr. William Attaway (23:44):
You know, we we talked a little bit about
this, but I'm I'm curious if youhad the ability to go back and
talk to 25-year-old you knowingwhat you know now, what would
you love to go back and tellyourself?
Mauro Campagnaro (24:00):
Don't sweat the small stuff.
I like it.
Focus, focus, focus on the bigstuff.
Chatter, banter, what peoplesay.
That's one piece.
The other piece is do what youlove to do and don't waste time.
I sometimes felt during mycareer I was selling my soul,
(24:24):
selling something that justdidn't align with my core
values.
It was not good for you, it wassomething that uh maybe the
company's culture wasn't rightfor me.
Uh there's a lot of a lot ofwasted time in your 20s and 30s
where you're still trying tofind yourself.
Where do you fit into theequation?
(24:45):
What is your your strengths?
And I know it's a difficultquestion when you're you're
you're you're you're goingthrough the motions of of of
adulthood and you're you'relike, okay, where do I fit in
this puzzle?
Yeah.
It's not an easy answer to, youknow, it's not easy to answer,
but at the end of the day, Ijust encourage people to do
what's in their heart and whatthey really feel passionate
(25:06):
about doing.
What gets you up in themorning, what gets your brain
moving and saying, Well, if Icould only just do this, or if I
could, you know, if I couldjust create this or do something
like that.
Here's here's a beautiful thingthat that I don't I don't think
they and I don't know, I meanI'm I'm just docking out of
school here, but maybe the youngdon't understand the difference
between when I grew up in thisworld and when what what's
(25:28):
available to them today.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah.
Mauro Campagnaro (25:31):
Okay, I never had a cell phone when I
graduated university and therewas no internet.
So today, with the internet andthe cell phone, these are such
powerful tools that people don'treally understand the power of
them and and the potential ofyou just literally getting
online and and maybe teachingsomething to somebody that you
(25:54):
have knowledge about.
There's no inventory.
You don't have to buyinventory.
You're just explainingsomething that somebody, you
never know whose life you'regonna change, but you've just
told somebody that you've you'veyou've changed their life just
because of the one or a coupleof things you've said.
They're gonna go, aha, wow, Iheard I'm glad I heard that.
So don't discount what you knowtoday, right?
(26:15):
You've learned a few things.
You know something today.
Don't discount the fact thatyou don't know something.
I don't, I don't encourage youto go out and build a business
or buying inventory and doingall that kind of stuff.
That's that's very riskybusiness.
But knowledge, knowledge todayis an amazing tool.
And if you have something toshare, don't be afraid to share
it.
Just don't be afraid to shareit.
Be very courageous and do it.
(26:35):
You will, you will, by doing soand stretching your boundaries,
you will discover things aboutyourself that it that are just
amazing.
So yeah, I always encouragepeople just push.
You've got the technologytoday.
I didn't have this opportunitywhen I when I was a young adult.
I just didn't have theseopportunities.
That's so good.
Dr. William Attaway (26:54):
All right, this is this has been so
fantastic.
I'm so grateful to you forsharing so generously from your
experience and your journey sofar.
And like I said earlier, Ithink your best is still ahead.
And I can't wait to see what'sgoing to happen next with you.
I know our listeners are gonnawant to stay connected to you
and continue to learn more fromyou and about what you're doing.
(27:14):
What's the best way for them todo that?
Mauro Campagnaro (27:16):
Appreciate that, William.
Very good.
Well, I've got my in my websiteright there.
So it's uh campignarowealth.caor simplified one that I went
to, which is cwa.life.
So cwa.life is my website.
Nice.
That's probably the best waythey can get a hold of me and uh
if they want to have aconversation about anything.
You know, for for anybodylistening to this
(27:37):
internationally, at the end ofthe day, what I can do is maybe
some consulting as far as yourbusiness is concerned.
I I you know I have my successfor as far as doubling the
profits and doubling the therevenue of the company that I
participated with as their vicepresident.
Now, that's on the consultingside, so I can do that
internationally, but from a froma a pretty pure financial
planning standpoint, I am onlylicensed in Canada.
(28:00):
And so at that point, that'sthat's kind of where the buck
stops on on that on that pieceof my of my experience that I
can help with, right?
Dr. William Attaway (28:08):
Sounds like you can help people wherever
they are with at least onething.
And I'll at least one thing.
Mauro Campagnaro (28:12):
Yes, yeah.
Dr. William Attaway (28:13):
I love it.
And for our Canadian friends,if you don't have somebody who
in your life who is doing whatMorrow's doing, I think it's
time.
So make that connection.
Mauro, thank you again so muchfor today.
Mauro Campagnaro (28:26):
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for thetime and we've spent together.
Appreciate it very much.
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