From Homeless to $250K Website Sale – Stefano Treviso's Journey

[00:04] to have a conversation with Stephano um Stephano is a guy who's built something Stephano is a guy who's built something fantastic sold a website um made a good income has had a big change to his life um as a member of project 24 and just

[00:19] going to spend some time diving in and just kind of finding out what it was that made Stephano who he is I'm sure it's not just one thing so we'll try to learn everything that we can from his experience Stephano thanks for coming um

[00:35] today and just for being willing to take the time to have this conversation my real pleasure it's a pleasure to to be here with you speaking right now well telling us a little bit about who you are how did Stephano start like give us

[00:50] you I was just a normal guy in Venezuela was uh very addicted to exploring always new things and new knowledge I didn't go to university it was never my thing but I would love to learn nonstop about all sorts of things I would just spend all

[01:05] day long on the internet investigating reading books and uh trying to educate myself as much as possible my story of course it starts from a from way before about all the crazy life events I lived in Venezuela but let's move on to the to

[01:19] the biggest turning point which is 2017 when I I left Venezuela the situation in the country had gotten crazy enough at that time the country hit rock bottom in ation was uh climbing on a on a daily basis at a at a speeds you can cannot

[01:35] even imagine okay like it's insane a lot of people especially those of us who didn't have a a strong financial background or something uh said okay listen either we go or we starve then a lot of us had to just simply go however

[01:47] we could I was very lucky to to have an Italian passport so I made the choice to go to Italy there was a cousin who agreed to host me in Italy said I could arrive and stay at least three months with them until I figured out how to how

[02:03] to move myself how to find a job etc etc etc the thing is that life was very crazy so after 8 days in Italy I got thrown out in the street randomly on a Thursday evening like listen go puff out you know so there I was with €400 and a

[02:17] back in Italy that that's how my story in Europe or or the first world uh uh as in Europe or or the first world uh uh as it's popularly known right uh starts so uh a random dist acquaintance of my grandmother uh decided to to give me a

[02:33] hand and help me and gave me a room in the back of a of a restaurant where I could I could sleep and and put my stuff it was so hot that I couldn't sleep in beach and use the room as a storage room from that point on I started doing a lot

[02:47] from that point on I started doing a lot of work in the beach uh helping the guy complex and interesting business after some time uh I managed to make a little bit of money selling photos to tourist and and saving up however I could but

[03:01] the the tourists were always the same so I I couldn't uh make more money right so luckily it was a very strange situation but I found a friend who was living in Barcelona that I have like 15 years I didn't see and we got in touch via

[03:16] Instagram I don't know why I opened the phone and this friend showed up in the suggestions so I just followed and he followed back instantly and I sent the homeless in Italy can you help me yes or no why was I so desperate because the

[03:29] the winter was going to uh come right now I didn't have any any money coming what's what's going to what's coming next and I got nobody to help me I need to help home not the other way around miraculously this this guy came through

[03:44] we'll figure it out don't worry one week I got you so I figured I figured out the way I got a little bit more money Etc and boom I flew I flew to Spain in Spain the guy offered me to stay with his brother so I ended up in like a very

[03:57] strange ghetto neighborhood in Barcelona that was very weird so it took me a lot of time to make the right document to be able to get a job like I'm hearing already like this um just the theme Here is like doing what it takes and I think

[04:09] that's uh probably something that really served you well later on exactly like one of my motos is like when failure is not an option the only way is to succeed okay like uh what am I going to do can I fail will I will I just fail and not eat

[04:23] like I I need to eat right so I just need to need to keep moving forward you poker in the casino know Barcelona every night grinding making small profits in a very controlled way one night it didn't go so well but then that's a different

[04:37] story uh but I managed to get by doing that until I got my first job in the financial services industry I had a lot of experience before out of my own desire to learn about Finance right I I I loved it h so I managed to impress the

[04:52] person who was hiring me and get the job and close it on the spot was a very good highlights of my life I started working in Finance uh and from that point on about learning Etc how the industry works and Etc so that's when I started

[05:07] okay I should make a website right I still I still haven't gotten to the point where I met you guys and uh well and heard about all the content and all that point I was just barely with the idea I should make a website okay and I

[05:22] should make some educational resource or something so that's when it started I started uh slowly planning what I was going to put out ET building a a very small uh like just like a simplified course which I ended

[05:35] up like giving away okay uh or I put it on Udi for like $10 or then just gave it from it I believe that the good education should be shouldn't be I'm like okay I should make a website and then I found your YouTube channel

[05:50] right your YouTube channel proved to be I I believe that the most valuable source of information I've ever found online for several reasons it's something even greater than the the quality of content okay because the

[06:03] quality is top but there is something even higher than that which is the kindness and the honesty that you had right you are here to actually provide good stuff you're making something very nice at a very good and fair price as

[06:16] well and you're teaching people like uh uh high quality information and also inside p24 you are very structured as well which is very useful but wait my story then takes a different turn that's because of my own nature okay I'm very

[06:30] particular in the way I do things okay so I'm like okay let's launch the website what am I going to do and then I look at WordPress and that's a very Stephano thing I'm like I look at WordPress and I'm like nah I can't I

[06:42] feel like I'm in a box so I just started learning how to code and I just open this website like W3 schools this the other on ET open some HTML courses and started learning a bit about programming and I'm like after I do it more I fell

[06:57] in love so then when the time of my website came I'm like Noah I'm going to do it myself but then I'm like okay then I kept watching more videos learning about SEO and I'm like how can I improve the game how does it work etc slowly

[07:10] slowly I end up building my own CMS okay a very primitive version of a CMS and well I kept working a few other jobs I became Chief marketing officer for a company Etc then after that I I left that company and said okay I'm in fully

[07:24] and and what I'm going to do and that's when I became a full uh project 24 member at that time uh I started learning watching the videos Etc and also working through through through the whole process of Designing building

[07:37] learning the SEO the strategies Etc and and slowly perfected uh the whole the whole process of building and launching aide look I I made a lot of mistakes

[07:49] it's a miracle still that I managed to succeed because I did do a lot of mistakes so miraculously I I don't know how maybe well after I understood why I some traffic by targeting certain keywords by going after certain um good

[08:04] opportunities I saw there so the site started growing the revenue started started growing the revenue started growing so then I ended up after a long though I was helping them and Etc I ended up finally traveling to Venezuela

[08:17] again and and reuniting with my my mom my dog my father anyways I I was back and during one of those trips I'm like okay listen I understand something I made a mistake I don't have the C capital and the capacity to to develop

[08:32] the trading bible.com my my my my former website into what I envisioned so I understood okay listen with my situation in life with the funds I have and not because I don't want to end up like a slave I said okay I cannot develop this

[08:47] that's it I'm done I cannot reach higher than than what I want I can continue I can continue making money but I cannot take it to what I truly wanted it to be so I said okay look it's time to sell and get some stability in my life well I

[09:02] ended up uh listing the company for sale after a short time let's say 4 months my business the the moment of the sale was uh very interesting I was in

[09:14] Margarita Island in Venezuela I remember I was there uh on the beach right uh just enjoying swimming Etc and I was with a girl at the time we were sitting together looking at the SE and there was barely any signal but I get the message

[09:29] boom this amount of money has been Etc the deal is closed blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and I'm like huh I just put the phone down and I'm like it's time to make dinner I go I get up the road and I go down again to fish

[09:43] time you started the trading Bible till you were till you sold it how much time you were till you sold it how much time passed my particular case was uh longer passed my particular case was uh longer than it should have been so I started in

[09:56] than it should have been so I started in end of 2019 right and I sold it uh last year at the end of last year but it was longer than what it should have been but that's that's my fault it was not actually how it could have been done

[10:09] yeah but still you picked the most competitive topic you didn't Niche down and still in four years you you built up a business that you could sell for a

[10:22] good sum of money and made money from it along the way like that's a success like that's a an amazing thing to do do and anyway I just want to highlight that that's really really fantastic thank you yeah it is it is you sold the website it

[10:37] gave you some Financial stability so then yeah I guess what what's next what what came next for you because I learned how to code right and I got very deep into coding so I started building something called Mozart CMS it's still

[10:51] not available to the public for a any funny reason so that's what I'm doing now I'm building three things mozard I'm keep I'm keeping improving it because it's designed to operate with uh an owner an editor and several writers

[11:05] using the same system uh I'm building Linex the financial group and I'm building something called which is for fun and passion uh I go Venezuela and the I go network uh which is the whole project so I started I went to Venezuela

[11:19] I bought like a Jeep uh and then got the the Drone Etc all the stuff and started traveling across Venezuela and filming shots and taking drone photos everywhere and building a tourist website that is very oriented towards

[11:33] exactly pointing out where are the right places to go why how Etc with prise locations so I got I got a lot of stuff going on in the back it's still all very small very humble very simple let's see how it goes I'm in the stage of uh of

[11:46] taking it forward but the real baby on the back it's Mozart CMS you know content creators need to be thinking of themselves as you know entrepreneurs business owners we need to treat what we're doing as a business because that's

[11:58] what it is is and that's what it's always been and that's I think probably going to be one of the most important things going forward just given the way the industry is changing the way information is changing the way AI is

[12:10] doing what it's doing um maybe we could talk about that for a minute what what you're still in the content space you're still working on U multiple websites so what are you seeing after these you know latest Google updates and what what are

[12:26] your thoughts as we move forward so Google update destroyed a lot of websites okay that's for sure like everybody took a hit I took a hit the given time the thing is the following which was going back to what

[12:39] we were discussing before about if you were Google what would you do okay so the question is I got a trillion websites in the world and I got 10 spots on the first page to show how am I going to make that decision right how can you

[12:51] make that decision you see more websites that are very genetic ranking top for whatever it is they do so to compete you really got to gain an edge in other areas okay and go as specific as possible okay and then explore as well

[13:06] different languages I'm operating at least in in the new project in 10 languages included English as well with a level of specificity that it's insane like but why because I know that regardless how long is the query and

[13:20] regardless that it brings five visitors there're very five profitable visitors especially with what what we know how to do in finance AI did not kill the game it it made it actually easier for some people okay it's just about knowing how

[13:33] to profit so if we know that you have WordPress and you have a Ai and Google WordPress and you have a Ai and Google says oh God WordPress and AI e no MM need to make some changes we need to say okay good custom system AI editing with

[13:50] a professional writer as well then to make sure that the content is really amazing I believe that long form content is not the way to go this is a very controversial statement okay some of the some of the blog posts that I have in

[14:04] several websites who were ranking very high had 700 words but they were very relevant down to the point it's a trillion doll answering machine whose job is to provide the most relevant possible answer and who likely wants to

[14:16] you know but at least now while they can't okay we need to make sure that we are very relevant Google analytics for and the updates of of the level of

[14:28] tracking that they have for user Behavior okay now there's no running away from the engagement game now they know oh Stefano went right now to the continue reading and then he went to the computer and maybe he drank a coffee and

[14:42] he didn't like the article so much because he scrolled seven times less tracking and engagement will not lie so to make sure we solve that problem now we need to be as relevant and as precise as possible you're right A lot of people

[14:56] it's different they can't find the reports they're used to but we have so much more information about engagement about the actual events that are happening with a user when they come to

[15:09] the page and we can track how a user then they went to this page and the thing is that we have access to that thing is that we have access to that data now but you brought this up so does

[15:22] Google it used to just be the code loads when the page loads Google knows people came to the page but even the um time on page number was way off because Google couldn't Google only tracked when the page opened you know now Google actually

[15:38] page opened you know now Google actually knows and so Behavior also all of it all of it so i' that's got to be feeding back into the algorithm and so we can't get get away with just writing long articles

[15:52] that are full of whether it's fluff or helpful content but helpful content that's not relevant that we can't get away with that the days of building crappy blocks are done okay you got to you got to build Brands okay so now you

[16:06] cannot just go and and and just uh put whatever out there and make it no you need to think about how you build the brand how you how you you really need to have the long-term vision and how you scale you need to think about how will

[16:18] you set up Partnerships with Ikea how will you have the affiliate programs how that and and how will you communicate with your people what kind of YouTube about Brands now but the business is still doable it's still very good

[16:31] there's still a lot of low competition on many things that are impressively good now is the time to follow the receipt much better be very specific try to build the brand try to connect with people try to think about the long-term

[16:43] vision of things you cannot just go and slap some war press stuff there and put you you're going to see Zero traffic if you do that I think you're you're absolutely

[16:55] that I think you're you're absolutely right that's I completely agree well um your whole day but uh what is kind of the the big takeaway that you'd like people to take away after hearing this I guess your main advice for people who

[17:08] are um either just starting or have been in this for a while but they're not where they want to be yet what what do you say to someone uh in this would love to to leave people with and that's why I wrote my book and shared my

[17:20] story and did all all that I did first find your find your North okay of why are you doing things okay you want to make a website why what is the plan you actually want to do something nice with it and help people okay if you want to

[17:33] going to have a very much better uh Direction and motivation to do what you do also decide what you really want and set up a Target money gives a marginal level of of happiness for example you can deposit into me $20 million right

[17:47] now and it will not honestly increase my happiness marginally because as a very chill person with a very detached lifestyle I'm happy in flip flops on a boat on the sea just enjoying my life and Etc so you need to really set your

[17:59] Target on what you really want I guess the top thing I would love to to to leave to people is find the North find the true purpose okay also believe in something greater than yourself right and and don't let the distractions and

[18:14] all the crap that is going on out there take advantage of you so find the purpose stay true to it work hard don't let the first world contaminate you and remove your your uh your the core of the energy you have put yourself in

[18:27] option but to move forward I I love that so honestly I believe basically the same thing it's been the thing that's guided me the most and that and that is that

[18:39] one like some of the the hardest mental health issues that we Face often happen health issues that we Face often happen in large part because our the society that many of us live in is very comfortable we have a lot of time to get

[18:54] stuck in our heads and we have very little that we struggle with it's it you know it kind of comes back to masa's hierarchy of needs right if you're worried about where your next meal is coming from no depression these higher

[19:09] level needs like they're just not even there your mind isn't even focused on that I think to your other point about just having your North your reason your why you know there's a lot of ways people talk about that but when as we

[19:24] know and we reach towards self-actualization you know at the very top which is you know if all of your needs are being met and you reach this point where it's like okay but you still have a need and that is

[19:37] self-actualization if you don't have a North if you don't have a reason then you can't ever have that need fulfilled and so every you it's impossible you have to have a something that's driving you that is beyond just you internally

[19:54] and so I think I think those are critical you know if you don't have that it's going to be really tough but also if you don't ever give yourself things to struggle through then it's also really hard to solve a problem

[20:09] um and have it matter right it's like if I don't achieve this or if I don't solve this problem I don't know what's going to happen to you know next month or even tomorrow you know but don't shy away from things just because they're hard

[20:22] to make you great we have an opportunity as content creators to shape the world into what we want it to be so and I think that's a heavy responsibility that we need to take seriously well Stephano I really appreciate your time if people

[20:36] want to learn more you know what what's the best way for them to find you obviously there's the book and I think we should all go read your book I'd love to hear to get more of the details of the story so zero to Dubai we'll uh

[20:49] we'll make sure we link to that um anywhere else that you'd like people to go to I'm I'm very transparent person I'm not a content creator uh and I have not even giv too much thought about being one right so I got an Instagram

[21:03] right which is my name Stefano Treviso got LinkedIn as well with my name and then you have the book on Amazon but I haven't focused on making social media pres YouTube videos and this and that and Etc I wrote my book because I wanted

[21:16] to give people something nice and that's it with my story but to find me yeah you can find me on Instagram with Stefano triso uh the book is in Amazon zero to Dubai uh yeah that's it you know if you want to reach me find out way to reach

[21:28] there's a couple articles out there you can find me but I'm not I'm not a social media presence or something you know like yeah awesome well you've done some some really cool things and I again I appreciate you sharing a bit of your

[21:42] story here with us today um thank you very much thank you very much as well Ricky and uh I I I can't stress this enough you know also thank you for your great contributions the extremely amazing Channel and business you have

[21:56] built over over the last years I think you have helped so many people and you are one of the very few people who is actually providing high quality stuff who was actually helping people and I'm happy you are doing it in the right way

[22:11] I'm happy uh that no guru stuff here okay it's like proper high quality stuff you know so yeah uh I'm giving my full recommendation on what you guys are doing because yeah it does help and I have seen help people and also help

[22:25] myself as well you know well thank you that means a lot to hear you say that so that means a lot to hear you say that so it's a real pleasure very much