In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Aksel Gulukyan, Director of Partnerships at Quality Builders Warranty. Aksel shares his immigrant background, describing how his family escaped religious persecution and lived in a cramped basement in Queens before his father, a self‑taught diamond setter, built a multimillion‑dollar jewelry business through relentless practice and a clear "why"—providing a better life for his family. Drawing from that experience, Aksel outlines his leadership philosophy: he works for his team, prioritizing individualized development over short‑term sales targets, and warns against the trap of short‑term thinking. He emphasizes maintaining a growth mindset, warning that complacency can lead to a fixed mindset that stalls progress. When reflecting on personal growth, he stresses perspective—recognizing that many concerns are trivial when viewed against larger life challenges—and the importance of staying positive. Aksel identifies his formula for happiness as having a strong personal "why" (family) and living a simple lifestyle, avoiding unnecessary materialism. He mentions the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini as a current read that reveals how people are conditioned to comply, reinforcing his belief in challenging the status quo. He shares two favorite quotes: a personal mantra with his wife, "It’s always going to work out," and Gary Vaynerchuk’s "Skills are cheap, passion is priceless," which he uses to motivate his sales reps. The episode concludes with Aksel directing listeners to his LinkedIn profile for contact.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Axel Galuckian with us. He's the director of partnerships at Quality Builders Warranty. So welcome to the show, Axel.
Hey Tyler, thanks for inviting me on.
Of course, man, thanks for joining us and we'll dive in. The first question I have for you is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, so my family came to this country when I was 5 years old, mainly to escape religious persecution. And, you know, and I share this story a lot because we lived in a very poor neighborhood in Queens, New York, where for many years we lived in a one-room basement with little to no insulation, where my mother would have to open up the oven in the winter so that, you know, we kept it warm. My father, he didn't have a formal education and he didn't even go to high school. So he got a job pretty quickly as a diamond setter and quickly learned it could be a really lucrative opportunity for him. So for many years, he would leave at 6:00 in the morning and come home around 7:00 PM, eat dinner, pat me on the head, and then he built himself a really awesome practice bench. Where he would sit home and really just practice his craft, you know, for about 3 hours every single night. And his thought process behind that was, if I put in one diamond, and every single diamond that I put into a piece of jewelry, I make a dollar off it. So if I can get faster at that, I can make more money. But at the same time, if I could improve the quality of my work, I could move on to different gemstones where I can make more money. Per diamond that I put into a piece of jewelry. And the number one motivation he clearly had was to get my mother and I out of that basement. It took a couple of years, but he did so. And he was able to open up his own shop. And I think it was like an 800-square-foot little shop in the heart of jewelry district in Manhattan. And he continued that work ethic and was able to take his little shop with 5, 10 employees and grow it into a multimillion-dollar operation. So It just goes to show you that it doesn't matter where you come from, if you have a goal and if you have a strong why, and most importantly, you're focused and you work incredibly hard, you know, you can do absolutely anything.
Yes, man, thanks for sharing that story with us. And what's the most valuable piece of information that we should know that is within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, so as a sales leader, I have a saying that I work for my team and it's not the other way around, and I feel like a lot of people in these type of roles may have that confused. And I've been blessed in my career to work with some incredible organizations and really, you know, I've understood that my job is not only to achieve sales objectives, but it's also to prepare my team for their next jobs and ensure that I do everything in my power to develop them to get to those goals. So many times I found that leaders can get so overwhelmed with short-term issues And this is not just in the sales world, but pretty much any department, that they fail to see the long-term vision, how important individualized development can be. So I guess the best piece of information is to really just make sure that you're developing your people on an individual level and always challenging them to get better. And the whole point is that this strategy alone has taken me further than anything else professionally.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, not necessarily industry-specific?
Tyler Wagner This is a great question, and I would have to say is that you have to always have a growth mindset. Complacency becomes more and more of an issue as you do better in business because what ends up happening is, and it's just a psychological thing, is that you don't want to risk losing everything you worked so hard for up to this point. So what ends up happening is in time you end up having a fixed mindset, and that fixed mindset alone can become really your biggest enemy and deter you from taking that next step.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
It would be to have a lot more perspective. So, when I was younger, I like to think that I would overreact over trivial things. And it's important to understand that so many of the things that we deem as "important" go out the window if God forbid, that you had a loved one that was diagnosed with, let's just say, a terminal illness. And I, you know, I take it to that place because it's so true. And this is what keeps me humble and focused and honestly keeps me working incredibly hard is, I, you know, my wife and I, we have an almost 4-year-old and I like to always, not like to, I like to think about, God forbid, if anything ever happened to either my wife or my son, You know, how important is that next meeting? You know, how important is that next sales call? You know, in reality, you know, whenever you're hit with an obstacle or a hurdle in life, you have to think to yourself, okay, I could either complain about this for, you know, X amount of time, or I could put it in perspective in the bigger picture and move on and really just stay positive and be enthusiastic doing so.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I think there's two things. And I know this is a pretty— a lot of people have talked about this, but really having a strong why and putting it first. And it could be cliché. It's a popular topic, putting your why in front of you. But it really is true. My family is the most important thing to me, and I do absolutely anything for them. And I have to continuously remind myself how lucky I am to have such a strong group of individuals that's within my immediate family. And I'm blessed in having that. And the second thing is living a simplistic lifestyle. A lot of people are so focused on getting the new this or the new that. People make fun of me all the time. I literally got rid of my iPhone 5 not too long ago. I drive the same car I've been for years now. And, you know, I don't need much to be happy. And, you know, sometimes people miss that because, you know, going back to the last question is there's a lot of people in this world that don't have the gifts and the blessings that we all do. And it's just really reminding yourself of that and putting that into perspective.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I don't know if I have a best book, but the book that I'm currently reading is called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. By Robert Cialdini, and I hope I pronounced that correctly. It's super interesting, and what it does is it teaches you so much about yourself and how we are conditioned from birth to unconsciously conform and comply. And it really opens your mind to challenge the status quo and really push past your limitations. And I love it because, you know, it just goes back to my parents, and, you know, they could have totally stayed where they were and they could have been comfortable and, you know, they didn't have to challenge themselves to come to a different country and start from scratch, but they did. And, you know, I admire them for doing so.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
So I have two. The one's very personal to me. It's a quote, it's something that my wife and I always say to one another. And, you know, this summer will mark our 10 years together. And like any other married couple, obviously we've gone through our ups and downs. And I'm happy to say a lot more ups than downs. But even during those downs, it's funny, we have a little saying that we say to one another, that it's always going to work out. It's going to work out and it always does. We say that to one another over and over again, and we stay positive. Throughout any issues that we endure together. And the second one, from my man Gary Vee, is, "Skills are cheap, passion is priceless." And I say that to my reps all the time, where, you know, you could be the most skilled person in the world, but if you have zero passion, zero enthusiasm, you're not gonna really get far. And people can really just tell during meetings that you actually care, not just about your product, your services, the value that you bring to the table, but most importantly, where the client's trying to go and the problems that the client's trying to resolve.
Dude, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. And the last question I have for you just before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Yes, sir. Best place to find me online is on LinkedIn. You guys can reach out to me and I'd be happy to respond. Thanks so much for your time.
Of course, man. We will talk with you soon.
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