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

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.

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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.

Yes, sir.

First podcast.

You know, it's...

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.

Oh, congrats.

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.

It's been honestly a blessing, you know.

I never saw this coming.

Like, I saw me being successful, making $100,000 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 Preferred Roofing Supply is a family-owned business.

We are distributors of roofing material.

So we sell roofing, siding.

Preferred Roofing Supply is a roofing and siding distributor.

So we cater to contractors, investors, homeowners, and we deliver the material to the job sites.

We also sell tools, ladders, compressors, everything these guys need to build a home.

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 where 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, 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.

So these Latin workers do their side jobs.

So a lot of the 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,

you know, 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 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.

And 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 one in Florida?

Like almost like a stoppage.

So, um, funny you say that because I mean,

I feel like immigrants will never, we'll never have a lock code on immigrants, you know, it's kind of like and they work the hardest.

Yeah, we work hard.

No, for real.

A lot of things won't flow the same, you know.

Yeah, you know, back in the day, Latinos are in the roofs.

It was American people born in this country.

It would take them three days to build a roof.

Now, you got a lot of people from Guatemala, Mexico on the roofs, taking them a day to do a roof.

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 opportunity,

stack up and grind.

Send it to their family.

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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, and 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, dude, 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.

So

I wanted something better for us.

You know, I wanted to break that curse.

And thank God now, first generation to graduate college, first generation to own a business first generation to have money so no 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 so that's why I'm putting myself in different positions like coming to this podcast meeting you 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 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 can work at a bank, to work in in an office, you know, because that's the mentality.

They think you can't succeed because they want you to look in, they want you to wear a tie and then put on a suit every day.

You know, so at first they were like, oh, businesses aren't good.

Go get your masters.

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 no one, I wasn't on Instagram or nothing.

And I don't know where I popped up on Instagram, traveling the world.

They're like, damn, how is he traveling the world?

But I was grinding behind the scenes.

So I feel like,

you know, 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 your kids, but they don't know what they want.

They don't know what's best for you.

Now my dad works for me.

Wow.

And now

i hired my dad so you know it's been a blessing it's awesome you know and he yeah how is it he's taking care of the shop right now while i'm here how is it establishing a 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 for sure man my wife is a dominant force we're both alphas you know so without me she'll be the alpha in her relationship but we're both alpha so we click we clash a lot yeah there's been times where yeah we crash a lot um but obviously it's knowing learning each other's strengths 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 has paid off.

That's it.

And me, I want more.

I want a mansion.

I want to have the Lambos, the yachts.

So I would be working.

She wouldn't understand that.

But since we're both on the same mission, working for the same goals, 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 partnered, 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 are you probably a little bit every day, but 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 know, you get a little high once you get your first cool car.

I recently got my first cool car, you know, 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, oh, dad, your house paid off.

Don't worry.

You know what 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.

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, I think he mentioned it.

It's not about, it's putting yourself in 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.

Like Andy Elliot, he works with his wife.

Brad Lee is 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 of that, 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 mean.

But I feel like it's also good because you can grow into that ego.

Right.

Like if I was broke and I wanted 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 does, it definitely does get a bad rep, but it can 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

flight he took, he was born in December.

We went to 10XCon in February.

We bought those tickets

a year before.

So we had no choice but to go.

You know, it's $10,000 a ticket.

I was going to say $70,000.

I thought $10,000 a ticket for the diamond.

So I wasn't going to let it go to waste.

So, you know, we brought grandma along, took the baby, and went to 10XCon.

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

stop traveling when that baby'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, and I feel 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 need Paul here.

I need Paul for a discount.

I need, you know, and now people are residing, oh, Paul's not here anymore.

Yeah.

You know, Paul is out doing his own thing.

But I'm still always working.

That's seven days a week?

Yeah, it's kind of like I told somebody this the other day.

Imagine me telling my wife, I'm not going to be a dad today.

You know, same thing as a business.

You have to.

be on your business every day.

You know, especially with the phones now, you're always going to be working.

There's texts, fires to put out, clients to attend, sales to make.

So you're always going to be on the phone, especially in the beginning days, man.

You have no time.

You have to outwork your competitors.

In the roofing industry,

all the big suppliers, the 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.

Wow.

They close at four.

We close at seven.

So it's all about outworking your competition in the beginning 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, a 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 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.

Yeah.

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 a 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 like i remember calling my my wife now and telling her i wasn't gonna 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 dang well you know that impacted me i was like damn imagine how many other people are going through this so now i was able to bless

college is expensive man like it is yep especially i mean we coming from the latin community it's rare that they even go to schools they literally start working at it what age like 12 13

you were working out 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 you can call your country.

So, if someone wanted to call, so I would have had to buy a phone card, $10 a piece, and they dollar number.

It's like a SIM card, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So, I was the one in charge of that department.

Then they moved it to meat department.

So, I was also, 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?

Yeah, I knew how to operate it already.

But it's funny because I was like, man, you never gonna drive a forklift after this job.

Next thing you know, how 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, 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 me working.

I did hate it.

You know, what kid likes to go to work?

I'm going to work.

I hated it at nine, but I feel like it motivated 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 into real estate right now.

I'm buying and holding properties, but I want to start developing you know building multifamily you know single family homes and I also want to buy apartment complexes so okay I know you 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 uh five tenants

so what's the strategy there is it more for preserving wealth or building wealth um preserve building wealth per se.

You can I also learn now that um you can actually preserve your wealth by buying 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 gonna buy something that's worth three three times of what I make so a three million dollar building and then I'm gonna hire an engineering company that's gonna accelerate

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 going to get about for a $3 million building, you're going to get about $300,000.

Right, so he loses it.

Yeah, you don't have to pay taxes.

Yep, oh, you've lost $300,000,

yeah, yeah.

Whoa, yeah, so just removing all those items, they dissect it all, yeah, like gut it.

Yep, okay, but then what happens when you go to sell it?

You lose, you lost the value.

The idea is you're gonna keep it, yeah.

So,

you have to hold it.

You do sell it, 1031 exchange, you know.

So, what's that when you have a property, so you 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 at 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 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 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?

I'm not playing golf, but he's a picture.

So you just went to talk to him?

But I mean, I suck.

Like, I was music.

He was low-key annoyed.

The five kills 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.

Yeah.

I play soccer, but I'm trying to learn golf now.

It's a good thing.

It's good to have.

That's like probably the biggest networking sport, if you think about it: golf and racing.

And it's all day, bro.

You'd be out there eight hours talking.

Yeah.

So it was a good time.

How good were you at soccer?

Soccer, I was good.

I mean, I stopped playing in high school for two years, you know, got distracted by girls and back being, you know, troublemaker.

But you were a troublemaker in school?

A little bit.

Yeah, same dude.

I got suspended.

I got the tension.

All that.

Just hustling, hustling mentality.

And they taught you that that was bad, but you were just different.

And

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.

Hold $55 million in sales.

So every year, thank God since we started, we've been increasing.

You've been in the green.

Amazing.

We've been in the green since we started, thank God.

So this is 55 million 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 organizations.

Yeah, retail, brick and mortar.

So you're not looking online.

So now I am going to launch an e-commerce, but I'm going to sell the phone.

But you're not doing anything online?

No.

That's what I'm saying.

55 retail.

Physical.

Yeah.

That's hard.

Yeah.

Very.

I don't have no experience in the brick and mortar.

I'm an online guy.

Nah,

it's only doing it in the middle.

You can't really buy the big building materials online either because you can't ship it.

It's heavy.

Each single, 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 gonna sell that that's awesome do you want to scale outside of Georgia too in terms of the physical stores um you know it's it's a lot of overhead in our industry that's I don't have 10 stores you know it's 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 first and then see where I go you know like I told you I like doing real estate I want to do another business where I don't need so much moving pieces.

Not 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 going to go to work today.

So that person being out of work causes a 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 sub 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 pay the route.

We have our 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.

They were all picking up.

Then we ended up getting a box truck.

And I would go hand and load the shingles while she did the sales, my wife.

Wow.

And I would go hand and load the shingles with a college degree, like sweating, you know, and I was like, one day this is going to be worth it.

And after two years, I was able to get a flatbed with the machine because, you know, those trucks run about 90,000.

The machine runs about 45,000.

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 have 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 credit cards.

Credit badges.

Leveraging.

Yep, leveraging.

Bro, I just got 200K and 0% interest.

Having good credit.

Got me.

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.

First, working with my wife, one, then learning and adapting.

We never had a mentor.

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 a year.

We moved to 15,000 square feet.

And we're like, this is too big.

We all grew it in a year.

Now we're at 60,000 square feet.

Our third move, our first location moved three times.

So that's where it took us a while to open our second and and our third location.

Got it, got it.

But now we have a system.

We know what we need now to be able to scale quicker.

But, you know, just going pace, never having a mentor, just learning through try and error.

Or you never had a mentor?

No, that's why I want to, if anyone wants to mentor me, my name is Paul.

Non-Papu's Life.

I am looking for one.

You know, I was just with Ed Milette.

Ed Milette.

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 Milette mentored the previous guest today.

Yes, I won.

Ed Milette, I just joined his little group, RTA.

Well, a big group, RATE Syndicate, and I actually got to talk to Ed Milet.

We got to get you to Ed Milette himself.

We got to give me $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, invested $80 million in it.

So for someone to have $100 million to buy some land and develop for yourself,

wait, he put down $100 million?

Yeah.

He bought a $20 million island.

He bought $20 $20 million for the island and he's putting $80 million of his own money into it.

Gosh.

Right now.

There's love.

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, you know, that kind of money is crazy.

And the type of people he coaches.

Yeah, in Maine.

Wow.

Yeah, he does coach some bad shit.

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.

You need to, 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, seeing where it goes.

Yeah, you could be the face of the Latin community.

Literally, bro.

For sure.

Like, this is crazy.

I think Albert, you know, Albert pressiaro

yeah you two could dominate yeah i mean he's already doing it but yeah i feel like no one has a swag like me though

check me out

right right i love that well paul it's been a blast man anything you want to promote or close off with um

so yeah but just my instagram i'm on instagram tick tock 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 coming bro Appreciate it, guys.

You got anything, Wayne?

Thank you guys for watching.

Thanks for watching, as always, guys.

Peace.

I'm Pablo.