YesTalk-150 - Interviews with the Best - Pauly Domenech

Welcome to Kevin Ward's Yes Talk for Realtors. This is Kevin Ward. Hi there and welcome. It's Kevin Ward with yes Masters Real Estate Success Training coming to you with another interview with the Best, where we talk to top performers in the real estate industry who not only are committed to being the best and delivering the best results for their clients, but also believe in having a life. And this special episode of Interviews with the Best. I have the honor, and we have the honor and opportunity today to get to hear from Paul Dominic, otherwise known as Paulie. I think all your friends call you Paulie.

Yes, sir.

Paulie Domenech with ERA American Real Estate in Destin, Florida. He's also a member of our yes. Masters inner circle and just one of the greatest guys you will ever get to meet. Paulie, welcome and thanks for joining us, man.

Thank you for having me, Kevin.

Absolutely. So tell us how you got started in all this. You've been. We were just talking and you've just finished your third year in real estate. Right. So tell us a little bit about your background. Just you give us the kind of 20,000 foot view of who is Paulie, where you came from, and how you got where you are.

All right, well, you know, I am from New York. That's where it all started in the Bronx. And then in between, I moved to Key West, I've lived in Orlando, and now I live in sunny Destin, Florida, where I am a Realtor. But prior to a realtor, I was what was called a mixed martial arts matchmaker. So I've match made for companies like Bellator and M1. Got a lot of people that were into the UFC, so that's what I did. Really. That was my career path prior to getting into real estate. So. And now I'm here. Wow.

So that is cool. So MMA matchmaker, mixed martial arts, that means you put together the big fights.

So the fights that you see right now, I put together, I've gotten Johnny Bones Jones, he's been to all my shows. I've gotten Tom Lawler people, Misha Tate, those people fights prior to them actually getting into the ufc. So we kind of were the college level right before they got their chance in the. In the ufc.

So. Wow, how did you get into that? Intriguing to me.

Yeah, I was actually, when I was living in Key West, I owned a bar at the age of 24, and they were doing something called Bubba Boxing, which was tough man contests. So from that I caught interest into the UFC and then decided, you know what? I think I want to Try to bring that to Key West. And I actually ended up doing the very first sanctioned show in the state of Florida in Key West. And I was the promoter at that time. But doing a show on an island that's the size 2 miles by 10 miles, you don't have very many people. So here I am doing this huge production. You know, it was great turnout, but what I was really good at was building the relationships.

Right, right.

So building the relationships with the fighters. And then that's kind of what led me into being a matchmaker, traveling all over the world. I was matchmaker for the Seneca Indians up in New York. I was a matchmaker for M1, doing fights over in Russia. I've been to Japan, China, Prague, Suriname, all over the world. And my company was called MMA Solutions Global because I was the guy actually the matchmaker for Bellator for a long time was a gentleman named Sam Kaplan. And he actually gave me the nickname Mr. Wolf, because whenever things were going down like in Pulp Fiction, they would call me to find a last minute replacement or match a fight, and I would be able to get it done within 36 to 24 hours. I was kind of like the cleanup guy. That was my specialty, was dealing with the mess, sorting it out, and then finding a solution. So that's where the name MMA Solutions Global came from.

Nice. So how did you jump from that? I mean, it's kind of a logical thing where you get people to fight and then you got into real estate, where you get buyers and sellers to fight. I mean, how's that work out? So tell us how you got into. Hopefully that's not the way it goes. What got you into real estate then?

So a buddy of mine, I was doing a show here, buddy of mine, Keith Wood, he actually does real estate management. And he was just telling me, you know, you know, all these people, I was getting 1500 people at my local shows. He's like, you know, you should try real estate. So I dabbled in it a little bit. And then I realized that what requires you to get paid in real estate is nothing compared to what it takes to put on one fight. So in one fight, I would have to first negotiate the contract for both fighters. Then I would have to make sure that they were licensed in the state. Then I had to make sure that they had all their blood work, hep B, hep C, hiv, their CAT scan, their eye exams. Then I would have to set up their travel. Then I would have to set up their coaches travel, their hotel, set up the cage, make sure that they had the gloves make sure that the lighting was right. So I was doing all of this stuff and that was for one fight. Now I would have 15 fights on a card. So I would do that repetitively 30 times for each fighter to get paid what I was getting paid. When I realized that it really takes a contract, a couple addendums and just knowing the numbers to get you the type of check that you can get in real estate, it was just a no brainer for me. I realized that matchmaking, it really crossed the boundary, the matchmaking part of it, because the integrity has to be there. So the reason why I was so successful for so long was because I made sure that the matches were right. It was a win win situation. There was no lose. Even if you lost, you made a mistake, you went home, you carried that championship mentality of okay, you know what, I messed up, I made a mistake, I closed that hole. It won't happen again, I'm going to be a champion. Not not setting you up. There's different levels of it, right? So by setting up a fight, if you didn't know the level at where someone was at, you could really match them and hu them and match them wrong. So I took that into the whole thing of understanding financially what it takes to purchase a home and these first time home buyers. So when you get qualified for something, that doesn't necessarily mean that that's where we're going to put you. Just because you can fight doesn't mean that I'm going to put you in a particular fight. I'm going to protect you so that you can learn. So then that's where the whole thing came from with me switching over to real estate and how I relate it is saying, okay, people can get hurt if they get with the wrong person with the wrong mentality, just wants to put a fight together. Same with the person that just wants to sell you a house. Next thing you know, they're foreclosed, they're hurt, their families hurt. Same thing in the ring. If somebody breaks their leg, they can't go to work. If they get hurt, they can't continue on whatever they're doing in the office that hurts their family. So it was really the crossover for me I just found was very similar and very easy.

I love that. So you more lucrative in reality. What you were doing before very much was a segue into what you were doing now is you put deals together as a matchmaker. You were putting deals together for fighters to come in and be able to perform and be Able to perform in a great environment where even if they got beat, it was still a win for them. One, obviously, it was a win, but you were putting together stuff that at the end of the day, everybody was like, that was a good deal for me. And you came into real estate with that same approach, that it's not just about getting a deal, it's about putting together a deal that's a win for your clients first, but also a win for everybody involved.

Correct. And, you know, and it goes back to now saying it's. The business was made off of referrals. So here's repeat customers. Somebody loses, they come back, they ask me again for another fight, or they refer me to somebody that they know that they train with. Oh, you got to work with Paul. So it made my job a lot easier. I wasn't constantly picking up the phone, calling people for business. The business was coming to me because of how I treated people and how I stayed in contact and how it was fair and matched with integrity. So I carry the same thing over in real estate, and I'm just as passionate when it comes.

Yeah, I love that. And I think that's when my. That when we met and you came to your first. Yes. Masters training camp, we connected so well. Because the way you built your entire business, not only your real estate business, but even what you were doing as a matchmaker was you built it on what we call the real estate vortex model, which is it's all based on relationships. That pulls people into a relationship with you and then just pulls more business through those relationships. So you're not always out there having to chase business.

Right.

Chase the next deal, chase the next fighter. Trying to put together a deal with people that already hate. They don't. They don't like you. They don't hate. They don't, you know, they hate you or whatever. You can do it, but not near as fun and not near as fulfilling. And a lot more work.

Yeah, a lot more work, a lot more stress. And having this model it, instead of having to feel like you have to drive towards success, you're actually pulled towards it because people want you to be engaged with them. So when that happens, you've got the opportunity to inspire people so that you can inspire the hire and then be successful.

Yeah, I love that. So tell us the. Give us a little bit of the journey of you getting started in real estate. Three years ago, did you start full time? I mean, just dive all in with both feet, or did you kind of work your way into it? How did you get started. How did your business grow over the last three years?

So when I first started, I took the course and then I didn't take the test. I just didn't take the test. Got busy with, with the MMA stuff. Yep, the MMA stuff. And so then I got a full year where. And my class credit was going to run out, so I ended up just locking myself in my truck. I drove down to the beach, locked myself in my truck, and I read the book that was given to me by our instructor from front to back again, went, took the test and passed the test. So as soon as I passed the test, I went all in. I'm just that kind of person and all in kind of guy. So what was good was that my, I had saved enough money to say, okay, I've got about six months worth of reserves here, I'm going to make this jump and I'm going to make it work. And so I went dove in feet first. And by my first year, in my first six months, I ended up having only three transactions and at the end of that year, I ended up with 42.

Yep, yep. So really, and that's a really one that's very realistic for even a top performer. And it's, it kind of gives people a kind of a scope of if it doesn't happen in the first month, you're right on track. If it doesn't happen in the second month, you're right on track. If in six months you've only got a deal or two or three, you're right on track.

Yeah, absolutely.

And the first year with 42 deals.

And the way that that worked was, you know, first of all, the contact. So it was very much me putting myself out there. I took everything that I did as far as social media and I focused it around my life being a realtor, not asking for the business necessarily, not saying, hey, will you, you want to buy or sell? But what I did was I have the same. And it said it's if they don't know you exist, you're not an option. That's what I said. So what I did was back to my grassroots of mixed martial arts and being a promoter, I went and just straight guerrilla marketed. That's what that's called. I got signs with my faces on them. Nobody at the time was doing that, but I had an open house. I put my face on it and I did open houses every week, at least four a week. And I was doing other people's open houses and I was posting my sign in different areas. So what ended up happening was I was positioning myself.

Yep.

So that when I contacted my people, I was in the correct position and they saw me. So at first you're gonna be that person that you know. People will say that. I don't want to say you're not a hypocrite, but they'll be critical to use you because it's like, oh, so you're, you're now a realtor. Like, oh, so you were doing MMA and now you're, you're a real estate agent. So I really wanted to crush that before it even got any kind of legs underneath it. So I was doing these open houses. So when I said, yeah, I'm in real estate now, they were like, yeah, I see your signs everywhere. So you're, you're doing real estate, huh? And that was it. It wasn't, it was never, never was I ever told because I got ahead of it. Oh, so you went from matchmaking to real estate now, like, as a question, they automatically saw it because I was positioning myself. So when that break came in that six months, it really came from me positioning myself. And then when I contacted my people, I, I was all in. And they realized like, okay, yeah, Paul, you're, you're a savage. You, you did mma. You were a world champion. I know your mindset. If you're doing real estate, I want you. I want you because I seen your signs every Sunday. I know that you're, when we call you to go out, you're not going out because you're doing real estate. And so then what ended up happening was it gave me the opportunity to inspire people to hire me, come six months, and then it just took off.

I love that. Okay, so I want to wrap this into a package here because what you just did in the last five minutes was you gave a clinic for a new agent getting started. So I'm going to kind of wrap. I want to kind of go back this. So here are some things that I noticed about you said. Number one is when you pass your test, you went all in, 100% all in. You had six month cushion in the bank financially, which is ideal. A lot of real estate agents don't have that, so they try to go in part time. But if you're going to go in the way, I think if you want to grow your business fast and succeed fast, this is ideal. Six month cushion, 100% all in from day one. That's what you do. And you champion the fact that you are now a realtor. You also came in for Six months, only did three deals. That's one that's pretty good. But it's not like nobody's gonna look at it and go, like, he's gonna make a million dollars this year. You know, it's. But at the end of the year, to make 42 deals, to do 42 deals, your first 12 months, now we're talking, you averaged three and a half deals a month for 12 months. And really, you're averaged eight or nine deals a month for six months, which is huge. And when you got started, you. The approach you took was positioning yourself as a real estate agent. So when your social media strategy, and I'm just kind of re. Summarizing this, because I'm just taking notes, because this is so good that somebody watching this as a new agent or thinking about it and going, like, how do I get started? So one, your social media strategy was you championed yourself, your life as a real estate agent. You were not out there going like, hey, I got my real estate license. I need business. Give me business, Give me business. You weren't asking you. Were you not using social media as a way to solicit business. You were using it as a way to share with the world what you were doing as a part of your life. And people automatically were attracted that. Wow, that looks like fun. Wow, he's excited about it. Wow, he must be doing good. And then the other big thing that I wrote down was you're doing four open houses a week. Whether you had a listing or not, you were doing four open houses a week, and you had signs everywhere with your picture all over it. So everywhere, every social media, all your marketing, you're putting your pictures on the signs so people see your name and they see your face and they see you out there doing business. And even if you, in that first six months only hadn't. If you had done your work, you're not working on your first deal, but they see you doing four open houses and your signs everywhere. People are like, man, he's everywhere. And you created that perception of. You literally created the reality. But it started as creating a perception that you were out there doing business, making it happen. And so when you talk to people that you knew, they're like, I see your sign. So they're not going like, oh, really, you're in real estate. How's that going? Are you proved to me you're good, and then I'll use you with that kind of stuff. The objections that a lot of new agents fear. You did that? Did I miss anything?

Nope. That Was it. That was how it all started. You know, I actually did that to where I created the perception and I studied. I knew it. I knew my stuff. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't sitting back not studying. But while I was studying, I also knew how good I was. So I had to get it out there without the opportunity to tell people every day. So I did that was position myself to make it look like I was the guy in the area. And it now I am boots on.

The ground and training. And at the same time, you were still doing all the training, so you were actually learning the stuff and getting good at it. If they don't know you exist, you're not an option. I just. That is such a powerful. You have to get the word out. And as I'm thinking about this, what you described to me as your business model cost almost nothing in terms of marketing. You create a few open house signs with your picture on it and then you hit the streets talking to people. Talking to people, you know, putting out there in social media, but you're out there talking to people all the time. So tell us now you jumping ahead over year number two, year number three, how do you get your business? Where does your business come from and how do you get it to come from those sources?

So my business all comes from my personal circle.

Okay.

So I don't buy Zillow leads, I don't buy Trilia leads, I don't get company leads. None of that. All of it is from my past clientele because I have a level of service commitment. Then I inspire the hire so that when I'm done with my client, my group now is called the dominance group. And our motto is it's where your community lives. And the dominance group is not me, Josh, Erica and Shane. It's also John, Sally, Kevin, Carl, Angie, all the people that have purchased from me before. That is the dominant group. And I make sure that they are aware of they are on my team. Whatever they need, I am there for them. And so that I create that and that is what drives my business to me. And then I also make sure that I have top of mind awareness. Yep. I have billboards, I have yard signs that say things like believe in yourself. Changing lives that have. That has no number, no phone number on it, Nothing that says that I'm a realtor.

But it's got you on it.

It's got me on it. And a positive message. And what that does is that engages my clients. Top of mind awareness. Whenever they're driving around, I'VE had actually. So what are we doing? Fourth of July, I bought 1500 flags and we're going to go down to the celebration that they have in the city and we're going to hand out these flags with flag tags on them that say it compliments of the dominance group. So we were out there handing out these flags and the gentleman came up to me, it was during the election season over here and he said, son, I don't know what you're running for, but I see your positive messages all over the town. Whatever you're running for, you let me know. I'm voting for you, sir. I'm actually a real estate agent. Gave him that good feeling and that's the type of feeling that I want to give to people to let them know that I'm here as a servant, not as your real estate agent. But I am one heck of a.

Real estate agent because of the way you approach it, which that's part, I think that's the whole point that I'm so love hearing from what you're doing is that you're. The reason you're a heck of a real estate agent is because real estate is not about selling, it is about serving first and foremost because you represent clients, you don't sell clients 100% which is a total twist from the traditional. A lot of the traditional hard sells training that comes from other sales industries and people try to bring into real estate and go like, you know, just hard close them and all that kind of stuff and you beat the crap out of people. Nobody's inspired by that. And you talk about inspiring the hire. I'm going to tell you though, the biggest, I mean right away for me, the biggest takeaway that I got just already in our conversation is the dominance group. And it's not my team, it's my personal circle. In other words, it's not just the people. My buyer's agent, my assistant or transaction coordinator, just not the people that work in my office. And it is every person that has ever done business with us, everybody that I know. They're our community, our personal circle. And you brand it that way. You know, when I started the training on the real estate Vortex, Kant's model four years ago, I talked a lot about top of mind awareness which you just mentioned. But I also talked about that your personal circle should be be your W O M MT which is your word of mouth marketing team. That's what you just created. And you brand it and make everybody feel a part of that community. Dude, I mean that and you got in the fruits on your tree. Yep.

I love them.

You don't buy leads. You're not out there chasing it. It's coming to you.

It's just coming and, you know. And so the other thing that I've leveraged, though, is my online presence. Obviously, the way that I focus on what I have going on in the Internet world is I'm like an avatar. That is what that is. So I focus on trying to make my avatar the most powerful creature or game player out there. So when my position is right, when they do look online with my reviews, that drives me to the top of these sites with my bio that's completed, with my picture that's smiling, when I position myself right. And I talk to people and I'm constantly inspiring people, whether they like my message or not. I am true to my message. So I do like to talk a lot and tell people I will shout it from the top of the mountain. But the best thing about this is I don't have to pay for realtor.com and I just got a lead from there because when they saw my face, they said, you know what? I've seen this guy. Let me click on him and see what he's about. Whether they like me or they don't like me, they're going to click on it. And when they click on it, they see what the real deal is. So that really helps me as well. It's not going to some flat website or not having to go click on Zillow and my. My profile not be complete. So that huge thing as well. So not only with my PC, but when my PC is talking about me, it allows other people to hear the conversation. And then when they want to engage in real estate, they see my face, they click on me instead of the other 10 people because they just want to hear these. They remember me from top of mind awareness to say, you know, I heard that guy talking a lot. He was talking a lot like, he's something. Let me click and see. Oh. Oh, yeah. Wow. He is something.

Yeah.

So that's the other part of the online. And the online vortex that you give. It's fantastic because that is just allowing people to just get information. No frills attached, no strings attached. And if they want it, they could click and connect. Continue to proceed.

Yeah. So tell us how you people see you talking, all that. Tell us how you use video in terms of putting yourself out there. How often do you do video? How do you use video?

So I use video in a way that's A little bit unique. It's not tutorial videos. Okay. So I do something called Labor Day and I go out into my community and I. If I don't have something going on with one of my listings, like earlier today, if you could see, I'm a little red. So earlier today I was actually at one of my clients who was deployed in Korea. He had a rental and when he rented the house, they did nothing to the lawn. They just let it go and it was beautiful. So today me and my team got together and we mowed the lawn, we laid mulch, we pulled up the rock, put it back down with some weed barrier. So we do videos doing and showing what we're doing that engages people. So if you go on to my Facebook, you will find some videos of me leaf blowing, mowing a lawn in a suit, doing things like that. So I use a lot of video to engage people by just showing them, hey, this is what it's about. It's not about just selling houses and cashing a check. It's not about the million dollar listing. That's not what it's about. It's about hard work. And I'm here to do that. If you. All I need is this. All I need is one thing. Just give me the opportunity. I don't need the only opportunity. I will earn your business, but just give me the shot, give me the appointment. Just make your decision from there.

So there. And it's almost like there's no, well, what about your 72 point marketing plan? Nobody, they don't even care about that when they see that. And it is. You put yourself out there in video as what I describe as the attractive character or the attractive personality. What Napoleon Hill described as having an attractive personality nearly 100 years ago and think and grow rich. He said, you have to have an attractive personality. And that is you have to put yourself out in the relationships in the world. And when people see you, they go like, okay, I want to learn more about that person. And you model that in your stuff. It's not marketing videos per se. It's not sales videos and it's not informational videos. Because people are. Information is pouring out of our ears. I mean, it's going into our eyes and pouring out. There's so much information out there. But how many people get to watch a real estate agent out there hoeing weeds for his client? And I'm like, I'm. As a real estate agent, I'm like, I would not, I was not ever going to do that. I got landscapers bro, I'll send a landscaper over, do the work for you, but I ain't going to go out there and sweat and seeing you not only go like, I'm willing to do it, but embrace it. And you champion that. As this is who I am, this is how I show up. You want somebody that's going to work for you, you talk to me.

You know, the thing with that is you would say, somebody would say. Has said to me, like, hey, why don't you just pay for somebody to do that? I'm good. I definitely can pay somebody to do that. But the way I look at it also is it's building skills, number one and getting out there, and it's also keeping me connected to what I'm doing. I am servicing people. I'm not shuffling houses and paperworks and contracts. It's not what it's about. When it comes down to it, people are physically involved, emotionally attached. I want the struggle to be there saying, you know what? We put so much work into this house. We have to do every single thing we can to sell. We paint. We help paint that house. We need to make sure that it gets sold. There's an attachment to it. We're not just going to let it go. It's not just another picture on our board or another peg on our wall that has an address. It is an address that we know about, that we care about. So that when it comes down to dealing with the transaction, we're also passionate about it because we know about it. How I touch and I'm able to. I keep my passion and I get my team there. And my team actually said one. He had a light bulb go off in his head the other day. He said, you know, at first I was like, man, we're doing these Labor Day. We're doing free, free work. That's what it felt like. And he was kind of had this like, oh, man, I hope these people appreciate it. But then the other day, I got a referral. I was helping with the yard, and we were all there, and the neighbor came over and asked, how much do we charge to do this? And I told him, we don't. We're actually. And this was at a seller's. I had the buyer. So the seller's agent was on a cruise, and I wanted to make it nice for the buyer, so I asked if I could do it. And the seller said, yeah, go ahead. Spend money on most. Do all that. Well, the neighbor came out, asked me how much I charged. I told him that we were the buyer's agent, he asked for a card. The next day, he called me up and asked me for a listing appointment. I went over there, and I sold his house right next door in 24 hours. So the sign that I sold with my buyer went down and my listing went up, and I've gotten a bunch of calls and signed calls off of that particular property as well. So I was able to leverage that. So then he realized, wow, you know what? This is gaining referrals. Like, people see us doing this, and then they see us on the sign, and they're like, wait, that's you? Then he said, but really what it does is he realized that it helps him learn skills in life. Different things. Like, we helped put up a fence. We've helped with siding. We've helped with the landscaping. We've helped with cleaning the pools, doing that as well. So he's learned, wait up. This is helping me deal with skill set. So when a client does ask me about something, I could tell them exactly what needs to be done in order to repair it themselves and. Or help with the process.

Right. Well, and this is also just the principle, another principle from Think and Grow Rich about the principle of going the extra mile. And that's the way you. Not only are you doing it, you're teaching your team to do it, which is counter. Kind of countercultural for the way a lot of real estate agents are trained. They're like, what? I don't have to do that? Of course you don't have to do it. You can watch Paulie do it, and he gets the listing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

I just think that is so, so amazing. So you can't do that all day. So tell us about the average, real, average day in the life of Paulie the realtor. Now, let me just, before we get to that, tell people, like, this year, what are you on track for this year? This year, you've just finished your third year. Tell us how your years look in. In terms of transactions, whatever you want to tell about commissions. Where. What are you doing now? Your third. After three years, real estate.

So after three years, right now, currently, I am at 66 closed and pending right now for the end of July.

Year to date, or in the last 12 months, year to date.

January to now. Right? January to now.

11 deals a month.

Yep. I have six listings that are active right now. The only one that I have one is 135. It is an investment flip. The next one is 395. And then they all go up from there. I've got two half million dollar houses and a million dollar house listings. I have 12 listings that are already signed and coming soon. So in total I have 18 listings that will be on the board and active looking at the end, by the end of July.

30 days.

Yeah, within 30 days they will be listed and active. So right now I'm on track. Now here's the thing. I have a new team. I have a very new team. I decided to hire on value, not production. So I believe in my team. I think that they are going to be. They are lions led by a lion. They are not lying. They're not sheep led by a lion that says that they can do it all. I saw that they were lying and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna train you to do this. And so they're part of my pride. So they have. One has done four and the other one has only done one of those transactions. But we're positioning them. We're going to have that breakthrough this second half of the year. So out of all of those transactions that I just Talked about, the 65 and 18 listings, that is from a, from me as a single agent being the rainmaker. So that's kind of where we're going with that. So I think my projection is to close 125 transactions this year with my team contributing maybe approximately 10 of those transactions to the pile and end at somewhere close to the 30 to 32 million this year. Last year I did 21 million and my GCI, my goal is a quarter of a million dollars. Like I think I can. I think I can get to $750,000 this year in my fourth year, which.

Would be an increase of a quarter of a million from last year.

Increase a quarter million from last year.

You'Re looking at a 50% growth in your business. Most of the business to this point. You're the rainmaker. You're the one doing all the business and so forth. Do you have transaction coordinators that help with the transaction?

Yes. So the way that I structured my team is I actually have a transaction partner the way that she was new. So how do you train somebody new? You could send them out to the wolves or send them to war. Right. Or you can have them in the war room showing them how people prepare, how people train, how people do all that stuff. So what I've got her doing is she's doing the transactions, but she's also able to bring people into the system. So she is the transaction part of it. We have an assembly line My other guy, Josh, is my buyer's advocate. So all he does is show people their houses and then drafts the contract for me to present to whoever is whoever we are trying to buy from. The other seller's agent, My role is to get all the listings and then sign the listings. So comes in and I have a buyer. I automatically, we sit them down for the buyer's consult and then they go with Josh, find some house, those in the houses. Now, when Josh is done showing them the houses, if they like something and he's got another showing with a different client, he will call me and say, hey, Paul, they like this house. 200, $225,000, $5,000 towards closing costs is what they want to do. I go, okay, Josh, no problem. I called a client, Josh goes on his next showing appointment. By the time Josh is done with his second showing appointment with a different client, the contracts already written for the first client and sent into the for the offer to get accepted. And then Josh does it again. So now when Josh is done showing all the clients, he's done for the day. He doesn't have to go back, he doesn't have to write the contract, he doesn't have to get the wdo, he doesn't have to talk to anybody. That's his job, that's. But if somebody calls and needs to see it at 8am in the morning or 8pm, that's his job. If they want to write a contract and it's at 9pm, I wake up, they passes the baton to me, I handle the client. Then after me it goes to Erica. Now Erica is still an agent though. So if Erica gets a buyer in, it will go to Josh and then the person will go through the same cycle. And this way we become masters at what we do. We are like Seal Team 6. You have a medic, you got a weapons guy, and you got the guy with the map. I don't care where we're at because I know that the guy with the map has us exactly where we're going to be. If I'm the weapons guy, if I'm the medic, I don't care what the guys are using to protect us because I know the weapons guys got the right weapons in their hands. I'm gonna do my job as the medic and focus on what I've got to do to get these guys back home and patched up. And that's how I structured my team. Now my team does get a salary, so I do pay my transact, I pay Erica and I pay Josh, I pay them both. So that they are not driven on sales only and focus on customer service. Not have to make a sale to eat or pay their rent. But if they would like to buy a fine bottle of wine, they will bring us in a client. So they have to be productive if they want to be rewarded. But they are getting paid for what they are doing. So it keeps them inspired and motivated because if they bring one person in, their salary will go up to $5,000 in a month. If they just bring one person in as a beginning agent. So that's their motivation, to talk to everybody. Just bring one person in. You bring two people in. Come on. Life is good.

All right. Love it. I love it. So you're built. So you're building a team. I love the way you're building the team. They specialize in what they specialize in. That's phenomenal. And I like the way you've structured. I think it's really, really brilliant the way you've structured it. So let's talk about your day. What does your day look like in terms of how much time do you spend a lead generation, lead follow up, talking to people, doing deals, going appointments. Tell us what the average day in the life of Paulie Dominic looks like.

So what we do right now is I wake up early in the morning and I either go for a run or I go workout. That is around right now. I've been slacking. So it's somewhere around 4:45 when. Because our business is really growing fast. So it's longer days in the office. It's a little bit harder for me to get up in the morning. Not to mention I just had a baby.

Yeah, we'll get to that part in a minute. You're also a new father on top of all this. All right, not much going on in your life.

So we start that and then I get into the office around 7 o' clock and I have a roundup with my team and I have an inspiring conversation. So right now we're talking about positioning and we talk about whatever the topic is, and I inspire them to see where they're going to be in one week, one month, one year, five years, 10 years. So I really focus on all of my topics with my team and I focus to give them mindsight.

And this is a daily. This is a daily huddle.

This is a daily hustle. This is what I do daily, every morning. So we get in there and we have this con the talk, and then we get into our lead generation or what we call positioning.

Okay?

So we do our signs that need to go out. We talk about that. We talk about what we're gonna do for the Labor Day. We talk about what's going on for the open house. Some days we don't have to do it, but this is what's scheduled. Unless we have every single thing off of our plate at the end of the day and we kind of pat ourselves on the back and it's like, okay, guys, you know what? Everybody just come in at 8 o' clock in the morning and we just get right to work. So we do that, we talk about positioning, we talk to the team about, I do real estate, and I'm blessed to have that as how I make my money. But my true mission in life is I hope to inspire people to realize that things are very simple. They're not easy, but they're simple.

Right?

You can change your story with just one thing. One, one degree will change the course of your life. So I look to these as my teammates to inspire them to change their life. To be. To not ask, what are we making? But what are we becoming? So my day then leads into. We contact from 7 o' clock to 9 o'.

Clock.

We are positioning from 9 to 10. We do all of our contacting from 10 to on is pretty much whatever we have to do in the day. I do all of my appointments on. I try to do them on Wednesday, but if I need to make a quick appointment, it will be always between 2 and 3 and. Or 5 and 6 if they are not available. And I always try to schedule it with at least a day or two in advance unless they tell me like, oh, you know, I have to work, then I'll go with the after hours. I won't jump into what, what, so what time is good for you? Because that is the wrong precedence. Even when we're doing our Labor Day, it's not like, hey, we'll rake your lawn. That is not what comes out of our mouth. It is, hey, this needs to get done. Then when we hear the pain of, well, I really don't have much to get that done, then that's when we step up.

Got it?

Okay, well, we will help you. So I set the appointment, and then at 5:00, I come home, I feed my child, I spend time with my wife. And on Monday and Wednesdays, I go to jiu jitsu from 6:30 to 7:30, 8 o', clock, and then at 5 o' clock on the other days, me and my wife, we go for a Walk with the child. And we just try to stay fit, because that's where I can fit it in. Here's the thing. I also tell this to my team. We don't make excuses. You know, I did get a little heavy, got a little bit out of shape. You know, when the success comes, I said, well, this is my piggy bank. That's what you see around my waist, baby. My piggy bank. Right. So I normally compete around 195, and I did get to 220.

Wow.

So I had to make some adjustments. Yeah. So we don't make excuses. We make adjustments. So right now I'm trying to fit it in where we can get it in. And it's not easy. It's not something that I want to do. None of this is. None of this is what I want to do. You know, going out there and doing those open houses four times a week, that's not something I would rather be. Yeah, I would rather be selling a house, but I'm not. But I've got to make sure that I understand that if I don't position myself, it's going to be a long, long, hard road. So I try to think about what are the things that I can adjust that I'm happy with, even it's going to stink, but still do it so that I can overcome obstacles. And the good part about that is also it helps me overcome those obstacles that get just thrown at you when you do something that you don't want to do. And you're like, I really don't want to do this, but you do it. It's really training your mind to deal with those obstacles that come at you on the fly. And you just say, you know what? I got this. I can deal with this, because I do things I don't want to do all day long for fun.

Yep, Absolutely. All right, so let's talk. I want to talk about fatherhood. You just had a. You and your wife just had your first baby. So tell us a little bit about how do you. How are you. And you already kind of gave us a little insight into this, but how do you balance growing a massive business with the kind of success you're having going to 125deals, you're with a new team, you've been doing most of it yourself, and having a relationship with your wife and being a father? How do you approach balancing or integrating your business and your life?

Well, you know, it's not easy. And this is my first child, so I will probably look back at this video and maybe shed a tear one day because it was awesome. But this is my first child. And you know what? There is no book that can truly prepare you personally for it. There are books out there to read and stuff like that. But personally you have to go through it. Right now I can say that I am one of the luckiest men alive in my situation. I've been blessed with not only the success and the opportunity to inspire people, but my wife is completely amazing and she is handling and doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes down to the day to day stuff to allow me to go to work, to provide for my, to provide for the family. But it definitely has created a different shift of self motivation. I was very self motivated before. Now I'm in this position where I have something, someone, my wife and my child. Elias, Paul Dominic. Now, to make sure that I'm doing the right thing, right, I used before I found that I used people for inspiration and accountability. So there's a little bit different now coming into fatherhood, it's just a higher level. So everything that I've accomplished right now today has been accomplished from the inspiration of inspiring other people and not really having to put it on something that I felt was for me. I thought that if I put. I feel like if I'm putting and doing what I'm doing for my success, I feel that that's very selfish.

Mm, right.

Right. So in my mind my success should be helping others. But now I've got this whole nother level of inspiration. It's like my success now is for something that is a part of me.

Right.

So it's kind of changed the game. And yeah, I'm excited. You know, I want him to speak, but they told me like, hey, you want to speak and move around right now? And you're just like, please speak, like walk, engage with me for about maybe a year. And then the rest of his life you're always telling him to be quiet and sit down.

It's all coming, it's all coming, my friend. Absolutely. So let's shift gears a little bit and talk about you're a fighter and you got into Brazilian Jiu jitsu. And this happened before or after real estate? Was this part of MMA or was this. When did this happen?

This was before MMA. So this was about 14 years ago. I got into Jiu jitsu.

Alright, so tell us about that because you've done some impressive stuff, you've won some impressive championships. I want to just like, where did you come from? How did you get to Be somebody who shows up the way you show up and to achieve the way you did in Jiu Jitsu, which I think is carried over into this. So take us back to your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey. And I want to then dive into a little bit of the mindset that is required to do what you've done.

Okay, so it starts before Jiu Jitsu. So when I was growing up, I grew up in an area that was predominantly white. It was in the suburbs of the New York City in a place called Highland. So there might have been five people that were of some race. And I was pegged to be hanging out with those people instead of where I was comfortable, which was skateboarding, snowboarding, and listening to Rage against the Machine and techno.

Right.

So I got pegged as an outcast. I got pegged as, you know, Paul's gonna either end up being dead or in jail kind of attitude. Right. So I always felt like I had something to prove. I always had something to protect my. I needed to protect myself.

Yeah.

So I made some choices. In sixth grade, I actually realized that's when my entrepreneurial spirit kicked in. In sixth grade, I realized that I could buy candy from a local store down the street from me, go to school and sell it when to my classmates for their lunch money, for twice the money. So I got into that. And so getting into that led into other things, you know, And I did get in trouble. I got in big trouble. I just felt at that point in time, I found a place that accepted me by going to raves, and I found a group outside. So we would travel all over the northeast going to rave. So I was very much taken away from my hometown. And. But within those. Within that group, you know, we were doing a lot of drugs. And, well, me being the outgoing person that I am, you know, everybody knows Paulie. Well, where do you get the drugs from? Well, you know what? I know everybody. I might as well provided. So never was I ever in a situation where it was a violent situation or selling drugs on the corner. But I ended up getting caught with some, some, some, some drugs. And I went to prison.

Wow.

I went to prison for 14 months and was a three to life sentence. And the three to life sentence was because the amount that I had on, on me, they just didn't know how to classify. Was my first offense. It was non violent there. It was not some big drug raid thing. It was set up. And I was set up by somebody that was close to me as a friend. So when I got in trouble I just pretty much said I made it. And when I said that, they were not too happy with that. So they said, well, you know what? This is your first offense. And it was in my hometown and my county, thank goodness. So people knew who I was just because I was one of the only few people of color in the area. Right. So they knew I was a good kid. Just misled. I was, Got caught a break. They gave me the three to life sentence. And they said that you can go to boot camp, but if you do not complete it, you are in prison for the rest of the of your life. And at that point in time, they put me in a box. And when you've got my kind of personality to be put in a box, oh, it's tough. They took it all away from me. You know, you're buried alive and you don't know, you know, you're in there with other people that have different agendas that are in there for maybe five, 10 years. Yeah, I would say it was an awkward blessing, but the person that. Because I had life sentence, I was put into a section while we were getting transferred that had people that had life sentences. So one person was in there for a triple homicide. He didn't really talk to anybody, but people knew who he was. He happened to take a liking to me, and we played chess, we played cards. So nobody really messed with me, because that was the biggest thing was if I got into a fight, if I got caught with something, then I was gonna be in there for the rest of my life. People plot to do that. People plot to do that today in life. People are telling you stories. People are sure everybody wants you to be successful, but not as good as them, right. So they're always trying to sabotage you. So in this situation, it was a legit thing with somebody physically being able to do something that would change my life, change the direction. So I ended up. He ended up befriending me, and people left me alone. So I ended up doing the eight months in and then the six months for the boot camp, and I got out. And when I got out, it just changed everything for me. Yeah, I realized that, you know, yes, you can have everything taken away from you by one choice, one decision. But also on the same note, you can have everything by making or one decision, one decision at a time. Love it, all it takes, you can make it. And so I chose the different path of making that one decision day by day, to make myself better and improve myself. So I ended up leaving there, moving to Key west, and in six months, I owned a bar with my brother because all I did was work constantly. Down in Key west, there was a place called Rum Runners, and I was a bar back. And I was willing to do anything, willing to take any shifts, do whatever it takes, work 12 hours, because I knew what the other side was like. And I wasn't going. Wasn't going to get paid 30 cents a day to be out there cleaning latrines and doing things like that inside the prison.

Yep.

So I took that mentality of pain and turned that into emotional pain of being there. I turned and realized that if I put myself into positions that people don't want to be in and I do it really good, success will come my way. I'll attract success. So when somebody's like, I don't want to do that, I'll do it. I'll do it. No problem. So when I started, and now this goes into the Jiu Jitsu, when I was in Key west, they had something called bubble boxing, which was like a tough man contest.

Yep.

And so while I was promoting it, I had this feeling like, you know what? You've got to live it. You can't just promote it unless you do it. So that's kind of what started my journey on boxing and training that. And then I saw the ufc, and then I started my journey in Jiu Jitsu. And Jiu Jitsu is putting yourself in a position that nobody ever wants to be in and learning from those uncomfortable positioning positions, repositioning, making the adjustment, and then getting better. So there's constant failure in Jiu Jitsu. You will be choked out so many times, it sucks. I tell people this. It sucks. Everything sucks. I'm just going to tell you that right now. Nothing's easy. You know what? You see what I'm doing? I love Jiu Jitsu. I'll tell you, Jiu Jitsu is the best thing for anybody to do, but it sucks because for the first six months, the struggle is real. You're gonna want to stop, you're gonna want to quit. You're not gonna want to go. You're not gonna want to get up off the mat. You've been defeated. Your ego, your mind, everything just gets completely tore apart. But you have an opportunity to make that one choice, to continue to go back and get better. And every day, I faced that, and I continued to do it. And then what ended up happening was people fell off. People will quit. People will stop. Hey, hey. You don't, like, start. You don't like to start over. Here's my advice to you then. Stop quitting. Nobody likes to start over, so stop quitting. And so then what ended up happening was I put the time in, and I saw my colleagues that were serious in Jiu Jitsu. And as a competitive person, I just had to do one more thing, make that one choice that they chose not to do to get me that. That much closer to greatness. And so I did those things, and I ran in sauna suits during the day in the heat, did all of that. And then it led me to winning my first World championship that I had not competed in Jiu Jitsu before. And I went to the IBJJF, which is the highest ranking Jiu Jitsu tournament. And 2013, as a Purple belt. It goes white, blue, purple, brown, black as a purple belt. I won the. I won the World Championship. I came in first place in my division, and then in my open. In the open weight class, I came in second. And then in 2015, when I got my brown belt, I went and competed in what we call Pan Ams, which is kind of like the World Championships. Olympics is what they would call the World Championships. And then this would be. I mean, yeah, the Olympics is the World Championships. World Championships is like Pan Am's. Right, right, right. And I won double gold at Pan Ams as a brown belt in my weight class and was the best in the world because I beat everybody in all the weight classes. And so now I have my black belt. And it was all built on, you know, doing that one thing, that one thing that I don't want to do, but I also know that my competitor doesn't want to do. So therefore, or I'm gonna do it and sticking with it. And that's kind of what I take into everything that I do, even into real estate, big time into real estate. When you don't get those listings, when you get told no, when you get down, you know what? I've realized that the more no's equals the closer to the yes. When I get no, I improve. I don't dwell, I don't cry. I don't cry on the mat. When I tap, I go, okay, let's go again. You're not going to get me, and I'm not going to put my position in that yet. I'm not going to put myself in that position again. But when I get you, oh, it's going to be on. I got you. You know, I let people, when they don't pick me, you know what? All right. Hey, no problem. When you're done with the agent that doesn't sell your house, give me a call. But I'm going to be selling your neighbor's house. And when you're mad that your Neighbor sold in 30 days or 21 days and you're still on the market, give me a call. It's all right, no problem. I'll spar with you still. And I've got that mentality, that calloused mind, you know, that's pretty much how it's traveled.

I love that, Paulie, because what you've just given us is so much of the mindset of a world champion is also the mind chat mindset of becoming a top real estate agent, a top performer in real estate in anything. And you did it in entrepreneurship. You did selling candy bars, did it owning your own bar with your brother. You did it in being a matchmaker. I mean just. And so you've just done it over and over again in everything that you've tried because of the choices that you've made, because of the way you've approached the struggle, the suck, and you never let it stop you. And I'm telling you, I love this. We could talk forever about all the stuff that you've done and how you approach it and all this. One last question is for somebody who's looking at you and going like, alright, how do I become as successful as Paulie Domenech 100? You know, your third, now you're starting your fourth year and your fourth, you're probably your third full year. You're looking at doing well over 100 deals, which there's very, very few agents that do that kind of production ever, much less do it as fast as you've done it. What would you say are the two or three takeaways? Like, this is the thing that made you where you are today.

The one thing that really, truly helped me in my real estate career and in my life is what is the story that I'm telling myself and making sure that you know that you can always change your story no matter where you're at with one decision. And when I get into something where it comes down to real estate, if I don't get a sale or I don't get the listing, my story is, you know what, that's okay. Because the time that it would take for me to explain it to them over and over until they get it, I can work with three people that get it and I could cash three checks, thank you very much. By no means. Next. And being able to change my story and Proximity is power. Making sure you're surrounding yourself with people that fill your cup up so that you can give from your saucer. If they are taking from your cup, you need to get away from them.

Yeah. 100%, man. I love it. I love having you a part of our coaching community and working with you, watching your business grow, watching explode and watching you contribute not only in your world and your business, your team, your community, but also to the yes Masters team, yes Masters community. And I think just this conversation we've had today, that's going to go out there and it's going to impact a lot of real estate agents and a lot of lives are going to be impacted because of the gift that you have brought from your struggles, from your mistakes, from your journey. So Pauli Dominic, thank you so much for sharing. If somebody wants to get in touch with you, how would they be the best way for them to find you? And you're in Destin, Florida with ERA Real Estate, what would be the best way for them to get in touch with you?

You can find me on my website@itspaully.com its p a u l y.com and if you've got a referral and somebody coming my way, you could contact me directly at 850-543-1418. Thank you Kevin for the interview. It was a pleasure and as always I am grateful for your coaching and what you do for our community and always making sure that we are nothing less than the best.

Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much my friend. Guys, thanks for joining us. Make sure you give the video a thumbs up for Polly and subscribe to the channel if you haven't done that yet. And play to win and always expect yes. And again, thanks Paulie for being with us today.

Thank you.

You bet. Hey there, it's Kevin. Did you like today's podcast? If you did, be sure to subscribe to the next one and tell a friend about us. If you want more free training and resources that are the best to help you get more yeses with no bs, visit me at yes Master. Until next time. Remember every day to embrace life, engage opportunity and always expect yes.