Digital Social Hour - Learning From Andy Elliott, Working 7 Days per Week and Balancing Ego | Paul Salamanca DSH #328

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Paul Salamanca comes on the show to discuss how he created his business empire. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly Factor: Use code "DSH50" for 50% off your order at https://www.factormeals.com/dsh50 Digital Social Hour works with participants in sponsored media and stays compliant with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations regarding sponsored media. #ad LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What were some lessons you learned from them? It's not about, it's putting yourself in different rooms, you know. You can't expect change hanging out with the same people, going to the same places, doing the same things. So once I hit 30, I started really diving into personal development. And I feel like it's something a lot of us don't do. We think we know it all. We think we're good just because we're making money.

But I mean, the mind is our strongest asset. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. It truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm back. I'm here with my co-host, Wayne Lewis.

What up, what up? And our guest today, Paul Salamanca. How's it going, brother? Good, good. Thank you guys for having me. Yeah, all the way from Atlanta, right? Yes, sir. Here for Formula One, and now I'm here doing a podcast. Okay, ATL.

Yes, sir. First podcast. You know, it's a big podcast, so I'm excited. Yeah, you're starting off big, man. Yeah, I know. I'd love to dive into the business. I know you've done $55 million in revenue. I'd love to hear how it started and how you scaled. So, you know, in the beginning, it's obviously not the glamorous lifestyle everyone sees i've been in business for 10 years so that's now people are seeing me getting a new ben's truck traveling the world i finally had my kid i've been with my wife for 13 years and we've been business partners for 10

years nice and we finally had our kid why because we had to get our ducks in line um it's been honestly a blessing you know i never saw this coming like i saw me being successful making a hundred thousand a year but i never saw us creating this monster business that we have now nice that's awesome and what is the business exactly so prefer roofing supply is a family owned business we are distributors of roofing material so we saw roofing siding preferable supply is a roofing and siding distributor so we cater to contractors investors homeowners and we deliver the material to the job sites well so tools ladders compressors everything these guys need to build a home mmm interesting and what made you want to get into that did you see an

opportunity in the market yeah so opportunity the roofing supply that's what you don't hear a lot of people becoming suppliers because it's dominated by three big nationwide companies. ABC Supply, Superior Distribution, and Beacon. One of them is private equity. The other one is family owned. And the other one is trade on a stock company. So these guys have a monopoly over the supply, so no one ever wants to compete against them. So when we came in, we saw that there was a need for the Latin market. Right. Somewhere where they can shop,

somewhere where they don't speak, where we speak Spanish, we speak their language. Because if you look at construction, a lot of the salespeople are American, no Latin background, and the labor force is Latino. Right.

So these Latin workers do their side jobs. So a lot of times they would go into one of these suppliers and the guy wouldn't understand them. Or they would be afraid to go to a supplier because these guys do their side jobs and they were afraid they were going to snitch. Hey, Jorge's doing the job over here. He's taking your clients. So we created a safe haven for these guys, man, and we spread like wildfire. That's awesome.

What have you seen in the Latino community in terms of business and entrepreneurship? Are they, like, embracing it? So, yeah, so as far as the construction side, a lot of the labor force is taking over the sales side now. Like in Atlanta, I've seen it grow like crazy. You know, we start off with nothing but subcontractors, the guys that do labor. Now the contractors, the ones that go out there, knock on doors, get the paperwork signed, are Latinos. And now they're selling and they're hiring Latinos still, you know. So it's all becoming Latin, I guess, dominant.

I feel like in a couple years, both sides are going to be Latino. The people signing the paperwork and the people doing the labor. So how do you feel in regards to how they're trying to implement this citizenship in order for Latinos and immigrants to work in the U.S. like they did in Florida, almost like a stoppage? So funny you say that because, I mean, I immigrants will never will never have a lock code on immigrants you know it's kind of like and they work the hardest yeah we work hard a lot of things won't flow the same you know you know back back in the day Latinos are in the roofs it was American people born in this country it would take him three days to build a roof now you got a lot of people are from Guatemala Mexico on mexico on the roofs taking them a day wow a day yeah a day so it's pretty amazing how

you know fast we work and we're just we people come to this country to not waste time a lot of people waste time but the majority come here to get a better life yeah stack some money for sure stack up and grind send it to their family shout out to another bite hosted by john dick dream monroe ariel boswell and it is on the hubspot network the number one network for business professionals they basically do a recap of shark tank episodes they cover their favorite episodes they interview entrepreneurs that pitch they give their thoughts their own ideas and even come up with some of their own companies i just listened to an episode and it was from season one of Shark Tank, The Ionic Ear.

This guy wanted to surgically implant a device into your brain. It was very hilarious. Check them out wherever you listen to podcasts. Another bite. Peace. Send it to their families overseas. It's all about the immigrant mentality is one of the best mentalities. You know, you come to a foreign country.

You don't waste time. You make your paper. You stack up, you succeed. Absolutely, yeah. I got that from both my parents were immigrants, so I'm glad I picked that up from them because I see people that are born here. They're not motivated. Their work ethic is insane. Yeah, and then I was born here, but, you know,

seeing my parents struggle, they're first generation. They're the first ones to come to this country. I have papers, luckily, but I saw all the struggles they went through from language barriers to jumping from job to job. I wanted something better for us. I wanted to break that curse.

Thank God now, first generation to graduate college, first generation to own a business, first generation to have money. Now the struggle is, how do I protect myself? How do I, you know, where do I go to set up a trust? Where do I go to invest in this? That's why I'm putting myself in different positions.

I like coming to this podcast, meeting you guys and networking. Yeah. What did your parents think when you told them you were starting a business? Well, at first, you know, they didn't believe in me. They were like, you didn't go to school to get dirty. You know, we put you in school so you could work at a bank to work in an office. You know, because that's the mentality. They think you can't succeed because they want you to wear a tie and put on a suit every day.

You know, so at first they were like, oh, businesses aren't good. Go get your master's. So I did end up getting a real estate license while I was doing that just because, you know, to make them happy. But at the end of the day, I think I succeeded because I had no other option but to succeed. You know, I had my back against the wall. My friends were making money straight out of college.

I was low-key. Like, I wasn't on Instagram or nothing. And out of nowhere, I popped up on Instagram traveling the world. They're like, damn, how is he traveling the world? You know, but I was grinding behind the scenes. So I feel like it's all about believing in yourself, silencing the noise, because sometimes your parents aren't going to believe in your dreams. No one sees that vision.

God puts that vision in you for you. So sometimes no one's going to understand you. Yeah, I think parents, they want what's best for kids, but they don't know what they don't know. They don't know what's best for you. Now dad works for me wow yeah and now top it off yeah so you know it's been a blessing it's awesome you know and he how is it he's taking care of the shop right now while i'm here how is it establishing the business with your wife yeah i mean i've you know that dynamic is it could get tricky yeah how is it going to work with your wife every day?

My wife is a dominant force. We're both alphas. Without me, she'll be the alpha in her relationship, but we're both alphas, so we clash a lot. There's been times where we crash a lot. But obviously it's learning each other's strengths, coping with each other, knowing how to communicate with each other.

And the biggest thing is aligning with the mission For example She could have been happy With just one location But no We want bigger and better things Can you imagine her Telling me

No I'm fine I don't want to work as much I'm fine with this Toyota Our house is paid off That's it And me I want more I want a mansion

I want to have the Lambos The yachts So I'll be working She wouldn't understand that But since we're Both on the same mission Working working for the same goal, the same company, we're unstoppable. That's amazing.

That's cool. I think that's also been another goo. Like I mentioned before, we've been together for 13 years and business partners for 10. Amazing. There's not many relationships I see last in business, too. It's very hard to balance. For sure.

It is hard. We argue probably a little bit every day. A little bit every day. Overall, it's great. Yeah. It's very hard to balance. For sure. It is hard. We argue probably a little bit every day. A little bit every day. Overall, it's great. Yeah. That's cool, man. And you said you like

materialistic stuff like cars and stuff, watches. Well, that's not the main... What I tell people is you get a little high once you get your first cool car.

I recently got my first cool car after 10 years. But I do like shopping and things. But the biggest thing is being able to bless the people in your circle. Like dad your house paid off don't worry you know i mean you don't got to work no more but he wants to work he wants to help me yeah or hey mom i want to remodel your house that's the biggest blessing being able to bless your family you know yeah

absolutely um i know you recently got to hang out with bradley and andy elliott you know two nine-figure guys what were some lessons you learned from them so kind of um I think he mentioned it it's not about it's putting yourself in different rooms you know you can't expect change hanging out with the same people going to the same places doing the same things so I've been you know investing in my self-development being around these high individuals that teach me about family they teach me how they run the relationships with their wives again yeah he works with his wife bradley's a very social guy he has a lot of connections i'm trying to get his connections become his friend get a little closer to them so once i hit 30 i started really diving into personal development and i feel like it's something

a lot of us don't do we think we know it all we think we're good just because we're making money but i mean the mind is our strongest asset we have to keep feeding it positivity because if not then i mean absolutely so you think ego kind of gets in the way of success a little bit ego is good and bad i mean ego is bad just when you think you know it all when you don't want to hear advice from anybody yeah that's what i feel like it's also good because you can grow into that ego right like if i was broke and i want to be a millionaire i would walk around like a millionaire trying to do things millionaires do in order to become a millionaire i like that yeah because it doesn't it definitely does get a bad rep but it can't be used yeah it definitely can it's bad if you just think you're the best and you don't want to listen to anybody and you're always right.

Stubborn, I guess, per se. You have to turn it off when you're working with your wife. Yeah. You can't have an ego. No ego. She said. I know you love traveling. Is it true your one-year-old baby has been on 44 flights already?

Yes, sir. So our first, the first flight he took, it was born in December. We went to 10X Con in February. We bought those tickets a year before, so we had no choice but choice but to go you know it's $10,000 a ticket cheese and I wasn't gonna I say 70 I thought $10,000 a ticket for the diamond so I wasn't gonna let it go to waste so you know we bought grandma long took the baby and win a 10x con then from there went to Jamaica we took him to Los Cabos went to Canada we're about to go to Japan next week.

Bro, you should let people stop traveling when they have babies. So it's been a blessing. And, you know, I was able to do this now because before I was always at the shop, opening the doors, closing the doors. I felt like my business couldn't run without me. But when I had my kid, man, it helped me pull back away and just see everything from a different perspective. Nice. So now, you know, this whole year I've been traveling enjoying life enjoying my family my baby and it's been awesome you know like I put myself in this position all these years and created a good team now you know where I can work on the business not be an employee because I

was an employee I was locked down I had to be there the business wouldn't run without me they'll be like where's Paul I's Paul? I need Paul here. I need Paul for a discount. And now people realize, oh, Paul's not here anymore. Paul's out doing his own thing. But I'm still always working. That's beautiful. Seven days a week? Yeah, it's kind of like I told somebody this other day,

imagine me telling my wife, I'm not going to be your dad today. Same thing as a business. You have to be on your business every day. Especially with the the phones now you're always gonna be working there's a text fires to put out clients to attend sales to make so you're always gonna be on the phone especially the beginning days man you have no time you have to outwork your competitors in the roofing industry my all the big suppliers the big three I mentioned they closed Saturdays we were like now we're gonna

work Saturdays yeah they close holidays we big three I mentioned, they close Saturdays. We were like, no, we're going to work Saturdays. They close holidays, we're going to work holidays. They close at 4, we close at 7. So it's all about outworking your competition in the beginning of days. And you, being the owner, have to be the face in the beginning. You have to be out there because people buy people. No, that's a fact. They buy you, not the product. They buy you first.

Man, I love that. You also started your own scholarship, right? Yeah, so we have a scholarship. They buy you, not the product. They buy you first. Man, I love that. You also started your own scholarship, right? Yeah, so we have a scholarship at Georgia State University, which is where me and my wife met. Wow. Okay. Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life.

Click the application link below, and here's the episode, guys. So once we had a little money, we're like, you know, we always wanted to give back to the community, so we went to Georgia State first, you know, because that's where we graduated. We met there, the city, and it was a stepping stone for us. And so basically it's called the Salamanca Scholarship after my last name, and that goes to first-generation college students

who are leaders in the Latin community and are interested in entrepreneurship. Because when I was in school, I lost hope. Hope is a, I don't know if there's hope in other states, but hope was basically government-funded scholarship where if you keep a 3.0, you go to school for free. Oh, okay. So I lost it, unfortunately, and I got it back eventually.

But when I lost it, it took a big toll on me. I remember calling my wife now and telling her I wasn't going to go to school next semester. Because my mom didn't have the money. But luckily, I was blessed. My uncle helped us out, and I was able to go to school. But, you know, that impacted me. I was like, man, imagine how many other people are going through this. So, I was able to bless.

College is expensive, man. It is, yep. Especially, I mean, we coming from the Latin community, it's rare that they even go to school. They literally start working at what age, like 12, 13? Yeah, 12, yep. You were working that early? So, yeah, so we came to Georgia because one of my uncles started a meat market.

So as soon as I got to Georgia, I was like nine, I was selling phone cards. You know, back then they sold phone cards so you can call your country. So if someone wanted to call us, I would have had to buy a phone card, $10 a piece, and then your dollar number. It's like a SIM card, right? Yeah.

So I was the one in charge of that department. Then they moved it to me, the department. So I was always hustling, you know what I mean? And now I tell this story where I work at my uncle's warehouse driving a forklift. And it served me a purpose because now I was able to drive my own forklifts in my own warehouse. You get it? I knew how to operate already, but it's funny because I was like, man, I ain't never going to drive a forklift after this job.

I've been able to drive it for a living. That's crazy. So working at such a young age and you got to miss out on a lot of childhood memories, do you feel like that took a toll on you? Childhood memories per se, I mean, my parents were always working, so I feel like that really took a toll on me, childhood memories per se i mean my parents were always working so i feel like that really took a toll on me you know them always working they weren't always home they would come late so i feel like that was the biggest effect as far as far as me working i did hate it you know what kid likes to go to work i'm gonna work i hated it i'm nine but i feel like it molded me

to the individual that i am now you know right i'm always my mind's always thinking about new opportunities going here thinking about the next business i get bored a lot too so i'm like oh let's go buy this let's go do this business let's go do that so i'm always thinking about new ideas what is the next business that you want to get into so i'm big in the real estate right now i'm buying and holding properties but i want to start developing you know building multi-family you know single-family homes and i also want to start developing, building multifamily, single-family homes, and I also want to buy apartment complexes. Yeah, I know you've got a commercial real estate portfolio, right? Yeah, I do.

So right now I just have quadplex, triplexes, and single-family homes, and I also have one commercial building where I have five tenants. So what's the strategy there? Is it more for preserving wealth or building wealth? Building wealth, per se. strategy there is it more for preserving wealth or building wealth um preserve building wealth per se you can also learn now that um you can actually preserve your wealth by buying real estate yeah through cost segregation yeah so that's a gem that i had to pay money to learn guys but it's a free gem for you right right so how does that work so you basically buy a building so if i make a million

dollars a year i'm going to buy something that's worth three three times of what i make so three million dollar building and then i'm gonna hire an engineering company that's gonna accelerate um accelerate the depreciation on it so they're gonna break down and dissect the whole building the cabinets the floors the roof the trees the asphalt and they're gonna depreciate everything in the line item so you're gonna get about for a three million dollar building you're gonna get about three hundred thousand dollars $3 million building, you're going to get about $300,000. Right, so he loses it. He doesn't have to pay tax.

Oh, you lose $300,000? Yeah, yeah. Whoa. So just removing all those items. They dissect it all. Yeah, like gut it. Okay, but then what happens when you go to sell it?

You lost the value. The idea is you're going to keep it. Yeah, the idea is not to sell it. So you have to hold it. Today you do sell it, 1031 exchange. What's that? When you have a property.

So capital gains tax, you avoid it by doing a 1031 exchange. You buy this building, you sell it, and that profit you put into another building. Got it. So it won't really hurt you. So you just keep it rolling. Keep it rolling to different bigger properties. Got it. So that's how you delay taxes with real estate.

So cost of irrigation is the best. That's why all these, you know, income tax is what hurts me the most. They take 40% of what I make. That's why I barely pay myself, bro. I'm broke, baby. I'm broke.

I just pay myself enough to cover rent and food and stuff. So I paid, I was telling him, Ryan Pineda, $5,000 and he put me on game. He paid Ryan Pineda $5,000

to go golf. To go golf. And I don't even play golf. I don't play golf. I told him this. Some relationships you got to pay for. Yeah. Wait, so you didn't even play golf?

No, he played golf. You just went to talk to him? But I mean, I suck. Like, I was mad. He was low-key annoyed. The $5,000 was just to be around him. Yeah, I paid to be around him. I actually know someone else that paid that too.

And he said it was worth it. Yeah, it was worth it. Two people. Yeah, but Ryan was annoyed because I suck at golf. I play soccer, but I'm trying to learn golf now. It's a good skill to have. That's probably the biggest networking sport, if you think about it, golf and racing. It is all day, bro.

You'd be out there eight hours talking. It was a good time. How good were you at soccer? Soccer, I was good. I stopped playing in high school for two years, got distracted by girls distracted by girls and back being, you know, troublemaker. But you were a troublemaker in school a little bit. Yes. I got suspended. I got the tension, all that hustling mentality. And they taught you that that was bad. But you were just different.

And they didn't they didn't know. But, you know, so everything happens for a reason. Doing $55 million in sales, over what time period was that? Was it a year? Was it over three, four years? No, no. So $55 million this year, year to date, we're at $55 million. Holy crap. In sales. Yeah.

So every year, thank God, since we started, we've been increasing. You've been in the green. Amazing. Yeah, we've been in the green since we started, thank God. So this is $55 million a year to date. Last year it was about $40. So every year we're growing and growing, the green. Amazing. Yeah, we've been in the green since we started, thank God. So this is $55 million a year to date. Last year it was about $40. So every year we're growing and growing, thank God. Wow.

And it's so impressive because it's all retail, physical locations. Yeah, retail, brick and mortar. Nothing online. So now I am going to launch an e-commerce, but I'm going to sell the tools. Oh, you're not doing anything online? No. That's what I'm saying, 55 retail. Wow, physical.

Yeah. That's hard. Very. I mean, I don't have no experience in the brick and mortar. I'm an online guy. Nah. We're only doing it in Georgia. You can't really buy the big building materials online either because you can't ship it.

It's heavy. Each bundle weighs about 80 pounds. Holy. So you can't ship it. But the little tools that I'm talking about, the guns, the hoses they use, the hammer tackers, the hammers, I'm going to sell that online. That's awesome. Do you want to scale outside of Georgia, too, in terms of the physical stores? You know, it's a lot of overhead in our industry.

That's why I don't have 10 stores, you know. You need a lot of cash, a lot of inventory, a lot of trucks, a lot of forklifts, machinery, drivers, a lot of stuff. So I think I want to get to dominate Georgia, get to 10 locations locations first and then see where I go, you know I told you I like doing real estate. I want to do another business where I don't need so much moving pieces Mm-hmm not to having a lot of employees, you know, yeah, because every employee is a good thing, but it's also a Headache because all their problems become your problems. Oh, I'm sick. I'm not gonna go work today So that person being out of work causes domino effect.. Now you got to go fill that hole, figure out that problem. So I want to do something where it requires less people per se.

But I do want to get to 10 stores in Georgia at least. How many employees do you got right now? We're at 40 right now. We sell about nine for deliveries because we have to deliver. So sometimes we can't handle our own deliveries because of the volume. Wow, that's crazy. You should start a trucking company on top of that. Yeah, so essentially we are a logistics company.

Yeah, because we have to deliver. We have to figure out, I've got to find the routes. So you guys got your own trucks every day. Yeah, we have our own trucks. In the beginning, we had no clue that clients wanted deliveries because it was all pickups. Yeah, yeah. They were all picking up.

Then we ended up getting a box truck, and I would go hand unload the shingles while she did the sales, my wife. Wow. And I would go hand unload the shingles with a college degree, like sweating, you i would go hand unload the shingles with a college degree like sweating you know and i was like one day this is gonna be worth it and after two years i was able to get a flat bed with the machine because you know those trucks run about 90 000 the machine runs about 45 so it's not just hey here's my money and then we didn't have good credit wow you know we didn't have credit we had good credit but we didn't have like a big credit line yeah so credit is very important in anything you do.

I think the rich people in America are the ones with the best credit. Credit, yeah. Leveraging. Yep, leveraging. Bro, I just got $200K and 0% interest. That's insane. Having good credit got me up. Yeah, it's very important, guys.

It's insane. What were the biggest challenges and bottlenecks along the way that you had to overcome? Every day was a new challenge, you know. First, working with my wife one then learning and adapting we never had a mentor we never we started off with a 5,000 square foot warehouse we didn't know that one truckload of shingle was going to take over the whole space so then we had to move after here right we moved to 15,000 square feet and we're like this is too big we all grew it in a year year. Now we're at 60,000 square feet.

Our first location moved three times, so that's why it took us a while to open our second and our third location. But now we have a system, and we know what we need now, so we're able to scale quicker. But just going pace, never having a mentor, just learning through trial and error. You never had a mentor? No, that's why I want to, if anyone wants to mentor me, my name is Paul.

I'm Pablo's life. I am looking for one, you know. I was just with Ed Milet. It's crazy, Sean, because how do you mentor somebody who's already done $55 million? There's levels. I mean, there's not many, but there's someone. Ed Milet mentored the previous guest today. Yes, Ed Milet, I just joined his little group, RIT.

Well, big group, RIT Syndicate, And I actually got to talk to Ed Milet. We got to get you to Ed Milet himself. We got to. I mean, you $55 million. What's Ed doing? Ed might be doing more than that. He just told me he, because like I said, I was just with him. We smoked cigars.

It was awesome. Yeah. And he bought an island for $20 million and invested $80 million in it. So for someone to have $100 million to buy some land and develop for yourself is... Wait, he put down 100 million? Yeah. He bought a 20 million dollar island. He bought 20 million dollars for the island and he's putting 80 million of his own money into it.

Oh my gosh. Right now. And it's for himself. He ain't selling it. He's keeping it. So he was talking about his amazing island in Maine and that kind of money is crazy. And the type of people he coaches. Yeah, in Maine. Wow.

Yeah, he does coach some bad a**. That's what's amazing, you know. So it's like, I'm sure he's expensive. Do you want to get into coaching yourself one day? You know, like I told, I just started doing content. The back community needs you, bro. For sure. So I was thinking about it.

That's why I started doing content too. And my son, I was like, you know, people need to get inspired that it is possible to make the American dream happen, you know. And people have been reaching out for mentorship. I just don't know how to structure it. You know, so I have to see who can connect me with a coach or something to see how to structure that side of the business. Because it is something I probably am going to do. Write a book. There's different things, you know.

But right now I'm just creating content and seeing where it goes. Yeah, you could be the face of the latin community literally bro for sure this is crazy i think albert you know albert presciato i think yeah you two could dominate yeah i mean he's already doing it but yeah i feel like no one has the swag like me though check me out just kidding i love that well paul it's been a man. Anything you want to promote or close off with? So, yeah, just my Instagram. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, at Don Pablo's Life. Be sure to follow me.

I'm doing a lot of content on mindset, family, fitness, and faith. So, guys, follow me, and thank you for having me. Absolutely. Appreciate you for coming, bro. Appreciate it, guys. You got anything, Wayne? Thank you guys for watching. Thanks for watching, as always, guys.

Peace. I'm Pablo