Did you know that the Aluminum Siding Business had a ‘Shady Side’? Paul Burleson fills us in on the tactics that were brought to Home Improvement Business by the wise guys, trying to con, cheat and steal the consumer, and how good things can actually come out of the lessons you learned at an early age. Paul has become an apostle for the RIGHT WAY to sell customers on your unique selling proposition and the benefits to them. The stories and career are truly attention getting and will keep you hanging on every word, Chris and Alan did it again, pulling out something that will Educate but also ENTERTAIN YOU on your journey in the wild world of small business! Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
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Paul’s Links:
• LinkedIn | @paul-burleson-34464a43
• Website | https://westlakeroyalbuildingproducts.com/
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GOLD NUGGETS:
(03:01) - Tin Men's Untold Story
(12:43) - Life as a Young Salesman
(23:38) - From Selling Magazines to Announcing Wrestling
(37:01) - Sales Closing Techniques
(48:53) - Consultative Selling and Making a Difference
(52:49) - Heart and Belief in Sales
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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
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If you loved this episode try these!
• [100th Episode Special!] Insights from Atlanta's Fearless Attorney | Jennifer Gore
• Lessons Learned from the Accidental Entrepreneur: A Business Lawyer's Journey | Mitch Beinhaker
• Mastering Small Business Marketing: Strategies, AI, and Insights with Sarah Block
-----
Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
Did you know that the Aluminum Siding Business had a ‘Shady Side’? Paul Burleson fills us in on the tactics that were brought to Home Improvement Business by the wise guys, trying to con, cheat and steal the consumer, and how good things can actually come out of the lessons you learned at an early age. Paul has become an apostle for the RIGHT WAY to sell customers on your unique selling proposition and the benefits to them. The stories and career are truly attention getting and will keep you hanging on every word, Chris and Alan did it again, pulling out something that will Educate but also ENTERTAIN YOU on your journey in the wild world of small business! Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
-----
Paul’s Links:
• LinkedIn | @paul-burleson-34464a43
• Website | https://westlakeroyalbuildingproducts.com/
-----
GOLD NUGGETS:
(03:01) - Tin Men's Untold Story
(12:43) - Life as a Young Salesman
(23:38) - From Selling Magazines to Announcing Wrestling
(37:01) - Sales Closing Techniques
(48:53) - Consultative Selling and Making a Difference
(52:49) - Heart and Belief in Sales
-----
Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
-----
If you loved this episode try these!
• [100th Episode Special!] Insights from Atlanta's Fearless Attorney | Jennifer Gore
• Lessons Learned from the Accidental Entrepreneur: A Business Lawyer's Journey | Mitch Beinhaker
• Mastering Small Business Marketing: Strategies, AI, and Insights with Sarah Block
-----
Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
They would go in the home and they'd be selling. They're like kid, do your homework, do not turn on the dome light. Use this flashlight. Do not stop using this flashlight. Okay, so I'm listening to them, i'm using the flashlight and I'm doing my homework. So they're in the home about an hour and a half in and they say Mrs Jones, would you care to check on my son? Like his mom died and I have to bring him along with me And he's out there doing his homework And she's like we're an hour and a half, two hours. He's not had anything to eat. Well, would you care to go check on him? That's the cue. So they always come out, they check on me, they invite me into the home and they say son, are you hungry? Would you like some meat? Yes, ma'am, i'm very hungry. That was my cue. And then the guy in the back would be if we're cooking, we're closing.
Chris Lalomia:If we're cooking, we're closing. If we're cooking, we're closing. Babe, there you go, gold nugget right there.
Paul Burleson:You're cooking and closing.
Chris Lalomia:Oh my God, this is classic. So they used to. they pipped you out like that. Welcome to the small business safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from any of your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountain top.
Chris Lalomia:Here we go, everybody. another great episode of the small business safari. about to get down, get rolling, get dirty. We're gonna get really into it. If you ever wanted to get some dirty stories down, this is the episode you want to listen to. I can't say stay tuned, because we're on it, man, we're gonna get going. So, but before we get started, we've got to say on National Bourbon Day, as we're recording this hey, cheers.
Paul Burleson:Cheers to you, Paul. Much love, much honor to my George Dickle friend over there in the corner.
Chris Lalomia:That's right. So we have Paul Berglson in studio today from Westlake Royal Products. But this guy you know what I love about guys when they're younger, they come in and try to get into the company and say, chris, i've been in carpentry for 20 years, i'm like you're 27. No, i started when I was seven. No man, that doesn't count, bro, that doesn't work. But this guy truly, truly started sales at 12.
Chris Lalomia:At 12 years old, he was sound siding And we're gonna get into this because he's got a great story. And he said, hey, there's a story. I really like to start telling a story. And he starts ripping into it a couple of days ago And I said, man, dude, you're gonna have to pause for a minute because I have no idea what this is. And he's like brother, are you, have you been in the home improvement business or what? What's your problem? I'm like, oh my God, i feel like I was so off and I had to go review it all. And I'm like, oh my God, he's right. The 10 man he liveth, or did, liveeth, as it were. So, paul, thank you for coming on the podcast. Looking forward to this episode. I've teased it a little bit. We're gonna really get into it, though.
Paul Burleson:Well, you know, it's such a pleasure to be here. It's an honor. I had the opportunity to be in Atlanta doing a couple of seminars and my schedule keeps me busy. I'm traveling all the time, but this is a very important topic for me. So I have been working on this book for 10 years and I could release it 10 years ago, but I never did because the 10 men's story has never been told. You Google what a 10 man is, and that's an aluminum sighting salesman. You'll find nothing on Google. You go to the 48 hours, all these YouTube videos. Every single thing has been exposed, from the mafia to the Amish, to everything, but the 10 men's story has never been exposed, because 10 men don't talk.
Alan Wyatt:And. I can verify that, because I Googled it before the show today And the only thing is the Danny DeVito movie. That's it Now it's a 1987.
Chris Lalomia:I did the same because he said I can't find anything. I'm like this is crap, there's no way. And I go out there and I'm like, yeah, you're right. So here we are about to break into. This is like. I think this puts us in the genre of like true, true, like crimes. I mean we're.
Alan Wyatt:Yeah. I'm like do we need to go into witness protection program? We might have to this, Paul, That's the reason why I waited 10 years.
Paul Burleson:I had two individuals waiting to die And now that they're dead I could start talking to someone. get whacked.
Chris Lalomia:Nice.
Paul Burleson:That's how serious this story is, because this was a time that nobody understood, nobody knew about, but it controlled so much of our industry And for me it literally changed my life. So I've waited so long. I had a gentleman named Gus Russo who writes many crime novels. He wanted, like eight years ago, to make this story a movie, but I'm so loyal to this business At the time I felt like being blackballed out of this business was not worth whatever amount of money they would pay me. Because you're loyal to this game In my heart, i'll peddle plastics. I hit the casket because that's what I know.
Alan Wyatt:And that's how I flow. I could just imagine our regular listeners are going, what is going on, but I like this. This is good to be killing. I don't want the usual stuff. This is amazing.
Chris Lalomia:Oh, this is amazing. All right, so, paul, for everybody, let's level set this again. The Tin Man were aluminum siding salesman in the 50s and 60s.
Paul Burleson:So in the 50s and 60s there was a lot of notorious aluminum siding salesman that you know, that you don't know. The two top most popular siding aluminum siding salesman of the time was Johnny Carson.
Alan Wyatt:You can Google it The Johnny Carson, the.
Paul Burleson:Johnny Carson, you can Google it. It does come up in Rodney Dangerfield.
Chris Lalomia:No way, which I can confirm, because I told my sales staff this morning I was coming to do this And I said and there was one guy in that and the guy I said it was Rodney. He goes, rodney Dangerfield was an aluminum siding salesman In between gigs. I'm like this is going to be good.
Paul Burleson:So he was a singing waitress And he was at the table one day with Johnny Carson. Johnny was a struggling comedian And he was selling aluminum siding on the side. So Rodney lived in Long Island and would travel across to New Jersey and sell siding And then he would do the comedy gigs at night, which is a great parallel because you're always performing in the hall. So this was a business that started a long time ago. But people understand the earliest beginnings of this business was controlled by organized crime Because it was all about cons and hustles And these guys would go in the home and convince people to give them thousands and thousands of dollars, and I'll talk about some of those practices. I've never ever said this in a public format ever before.
Paul Burleson:But I met Chris, i liked him And I wanted to share the story leading up to my book that's going to be released, tales of the Last Known 10 Men, and it was a time that people don't understand. You've got to understand. The mafia is all about cons And it's all about hustles And it's all about earning. Well, the home improvement business was great Because you could go in these small towns or mountain towns And there was no internet. There was no exposure to anything And you could tell these people anything, they'd believe because they wanted to believe. They wanted to believe that somebody wanted to help them. They never seen a guy come in with a Rolex watch or wearing a fancy suit or driving a Cadillac. When the sunny guy came to town, it was a show And these guys would travel all across the country. They would run rackets for two or three months and get the money. Then they'd move on somewhere else.
Alan Wyatt:Can I interrupt? Yeah, did the people ever get siding? Did they just pay too much for it?
Paul Burleson:Oh, they got siding. Sometimes, a lot of times, they pay too much for it And I'll go into some of those stories. But this was a culture that was never discovered, like these women's talk about the anatomy of what one of these guys looked like. They weren't good husbands to their wives You'd meet their girlfriend at lunch and their wives at dinner. They weren't a good father to their children. They lived for the score, the con, the hustle, 24-7. It was about gambling. It was about closing in the home. It was about getting paid. It was about running women. It was about drinking. It was all about that constant hustle.
Alan Wyatt:Kind of sounds like your day-to-day.
Chris Lalomia:Actually we're pretty close. I'm thinking why I'm living the hustle. I'm living the dream baby. It's the hustle, kandee, there we go They made so much money.
Paul Burleson:You understand They made so much. This is 1983. I'm exposed to this In 1983, they are making $2,000 and $3,000 commission on the siding job when minimum wage is $1.65. Good Lord, $3,000, right? So my story? you have to back up and figure out where I come from. This is a sad part of my story, but I've told it many times, i'm very comfortable with it. So I never knew my father. My mother was a known prostitute. I grew up like I was telling my friend earlier today Like the first time I ever had a gun pointed to my head was at six years old.
Paul Burleson:I watched a guy beating my mother in the living room and I tried to go to the rotary phone in $0 and had a $45 put up to my head. I can still feel what that feels like to this moment And so I went through that. Then I got hit by a car when I was almost seven and I was in a body cast for almost 2 and 1 half three years which is a critical point of where I am today And I was sitting in this body cast and I had no interaction with kids And I was all alone right there and having to listen to things that were going on in the bedroom in the back, and so there was a lot of trauma in my life. So when they said, i don't know if you ever walk again Like I'm going to walk again, i don't know if it's going to happen, i had a guy hit by a car, a 78-tranzam on the sidewalk, done 175 stitches in my head I could show you the scar Broke. Both my legs still had metal fragments in punctured.
Paul Burleson:My lung Was not supposed to live. God had a bigger and better plan for me. So 10, about 10 years old, i came out of it, but I didn't have any socialization skills because I hadn't been hanging around kids. So what I did? I started selling Grip Magazine. Not every heard of Grip.
Alan Wyatt:I remember Grip Magazine.
Paul Burleson:Right, i sit up in front of the Family Dollar and Sell Grip and I would do that Monday through Thursday, but they didn't want you to work weekends, crazy model. So I was looking through the comic book and saw this thing called Mason Shoes. I still have my actual Mason Shoes kit in what I call my Hall of Fame at my house, and at 12 years old I ordered this kit because they had shoe horns, they had polish, they had all this cool stuff that you could demonstrate And that excited me because I think I could sell this. So the first to I ever knocked on was the sales manager for a company called Amri. Amri was the leading organization of in-home selling the day. It's what became Sears back in the day.
Alan Wyatt:And you're how old right now.
Paul Burleson:I'm 12 years old, 12 years old.
Chris Lalomia:Was there any school in this thing or no?
Paul Burleson:Well, so I did go to school.
Chris Lalomia:Good question, when I got out of school.
Paul Burleson:I was not the greatest student. I think I graduated high school with a 2.25, right, i'm just being honest. But in college I got my GP up to 3.7. One time I kind of bribed the professors and Rolex watches, but hey.
Chris Lalomia:I got the grades. It doesn't matter, always be selling, i like it. All right, so let's go back to 12. All right, so you're selling, amri, you're doing, you see, this in-home sale stuff, but you're selling shoes.
Paul Burleson:Right. So I'm selling shoes, i go in and I go through this, start presentation and sales manager is like all right, keep going, kid, and I keep pitching, i'm pitching, i'm pitching for like an hour And then I stop and he's like what's your mama's name? I'm like what? So? what's your mama's name? I don't understand. I do something. What's your mama's name? So I give my mama's name and number and he's like leave. Okay.
Paul Burleson:So two days later my mom said Robert, i want you to meet him at his house at 8 am Saturday morning. Don't ask any questions. Bring your bike and pack your lunch. Okay, i was still wondering what's going on. So I show up and he said put your bike in the back, kid. Okay, he drops me off in a neighborhood and he gives me a stack of door hangers. He said you're gonna go up to every door, you're gonna put a hanger on the door and you're gonna say hey, if they're there, would you like an estimate for siding? This is the greatest thing in the world and we'd love to send an estimate for it. That's all you gotta say.
Paul Burleson:So I put out like 250 hangers that day. By the end of the day he picked me up like he gave me a quarter. I called there's actually a dime at the time called and he picked me up and put my bike in the back. Like I worked like 10 hours my first day and then that evening they started getting calls. The next morning he said, kid, drive your bike downtown, meet the boys. This was Sunday morning. So I walk in at like nine o'clock on Sunday morning. Imagine guys hung over reading newspaper papers, drinking bourbon and it was a national bourbon day, i gotta say.
Alan Wyatt:Every day is national bourbon. Every day is national bourbon.
Chris Lalomia:They're placing some horses.
Paul Burleson:They're doing all this stuff and they're in line to go and close out their deals from the week prior. So I'm watching guys go in to the sales manager the guy who I originally pitched and come out with two and $3,000 cash in their hand, like what I mean? here's the answer. I mean, like where I lived, we were so poor, the rats were so big in my house. I kid you not that we had to put a metal plate up on the door because I would lay in bed at night and I would listen to rats chew through that door coming in to get me And I could not sleep at night because I just knew I was gonna get eaten alive. And I made a commitment that I would never be poor again. I didn't care who I had to kill, i didn't care what I had to do, and to kill anybody Never will, hopefully All right, we'll keep it on that.
Chris Lalomia:So they hasn't killed anybody yet? No, they haven't. What's that plan on this? That key word?
Paul Burleson:yes, key, not gonna happen today on national bourbon day, for sure.
Chris Lalomia:All right, perfect, cause you got a driver, we're perfect, I got a driver, i'm good.
Paul Burleson:But the point of it is it was a time in my life to sink or swim, right. So I'm watching these guys get all this money and I'm like I don't care what I gotta do, i need a piece of that right. So at that point these guys started bringing me in because they didn't have relationships with their sons, because their wives wouldn't glamorize what they did. So I became an extension of their family And these kids, these guys, would give me money to go to school for lunch.
Paul Burleson:I remember one time that somebody had stole my bike at school and I couldn't get down to run leads And I told one of the guys. so he told his son that somebody stole Paul's bike, so they wouldn't be the guy up and got my bike back. for me. I mean, like I was so valuable to these guys I would sit across the road when they were gambling and I would sit and watch for cops and I would whistle. I mean like this is the type of life that I was brought into, but for me I didn't know that it was wrong.
Alan Wyatt:Now did he pay you that first day after the $250? $50.
Chris Lalomia:$50, oh my God, money man $50, get a sense of it.
Paul Burleson:I was making a grown man's wage. I was paying the bills that my mother had at 12 years old. I made $50. That was a grown man's wage of $165 an hour.
Chris Lalomia:So all right, so you are in now with the 10 men. You just didn't know it at the time. I had no idea Right, so you're out there you're hanging the door hangers, you're doing all this stuff. You go in there on a Sunday morning. you see this When did they actually allow you to go and start selling in the house?
Paul Burleson:So they used me different ways at different times. So at 13, they started using me to do what they called the ride along, and this is very, very cool for them To tell the story, but at the time it was kind of weird. So they would have me set in the front seat of their Cadillacs And you remember those aluminum Rayovac flashlights that had the red end on them.
Chris Lalomia:Absolutely had one. yeah, You know what They had the big D batteries.
Paul Burleson:Big D batteries the big aluminum.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, so they were called camp flashlights. Really They're big, all right. So you had that on you, so they would go in the home and they'd be selling.
Paul Burleson:They're like kid, do your homework, do not turn on the dome light. Use this flashlight. Do not stop using this flashlight, okay. So I'm listening to them, i'm using the flashlight and I'm doing my homework. So they're in the home about an hour and a half in. They say Mrs Jones, would you care to check on my son? Like his mom died and I have to bring him along with me and he's out there doing his homework And she's like we're an hour and a half two hours He's not had anything to eat. Well, would you care to go check on him? That's the cue. So they always come out, they check on me, they check on me, they invite me into the home and they say son, are you hungry? Would you like some meat? Yes, ma'am, i'm very hungry. That was my cue. And then the guy in the back would be if we're cooking, we're closing.
Chris Lalomia:If we're cooking, we're closing. If we're cooking, we're closing. babe, there you go, golden nugget right there. If you're cooking, you're closing. Oh my God, this is classic. So they used to. they pipped you out like that as, hey, my baby can't eat And I gotta sell something for them to eat.
Paul Burleson:And they always closed the deal And then at 16, to move forward. They're like, kid, we're moving you to flower duty. I'm like what's flower duty? Shut up, we tell you what you need to know when you need to know it.
Paul Burleson:So there was one flower company, specifically Statewide Home Improvement, which was a big company in Texas, was our competitor, and they would deliver flowers to companies I mean, excuse me, to home orders that they just had sold a job to and they had a three day rescission So they'd want to get flowers in the mix. So there was one guy every day at four o'clock for Monday to Wednesday would deliver flowers to companies that it's set leads to. So my job is I would switch cars and I was trained how to follow and case cars and not get seen, and I would follow the delivery truck to the houses to see where they delivered the flowers. And then I would go to a payphone. I would call back to the office and say, look, it was 2111 Walnut Street.
Paul Burleson:So they'd go to the left and to the right and to that house and say, ma'am, i talked to you about aluminum siding or vinyl siding. They'd be like well, we've got an estimate of the day. We're getting ready to do the job. What surprise I will be to buy $1,000. And they'd flip the job.
Chris Lalomia:Oh my god, that's her greasy ass. gold nugget right there, man, He would case it, run it. I mean, if this doesn't make a mob movie, I mean this is.
Alan Wyatt:But so far it's all. it's sounding all legal, It's just intense.
Chris Lalomia:Oh it's a thousand percent legal right, but but dude, this has got balls to it, let's go.
Paul Burleson:All right, keep going So you know and what I learned about these guys selling was so easy they would challenge each other. Not only do you got to close the job or close the deal, but you got to break a piece of their furniture, you got to hit their car in the park a lot and still write the contract.
Alan Wyatt:That's like a challenge.
Paul Burleson:It was so easy. It was so easy. And then they would walk away to now with two or three, four grand and they would go to a.
Chris Lalomia:You're kidding me right now. Wow, how about that?
Paul Burleson:I mean it's true It would go to a restaurant and I would tell you who could get the girl to flash them or something. I mean like it was a lifestyle that you just couldn't imagine. It seems so surreal, but for me it just seemed normal Because I didn't have exposure of kids, i didn't have any family. These guys brought me in. You can be explained to me about this business. You didn't get into this business unless somebody died or went to jail.
Chris Lalomia:All right. So the turnover wasn't big then, cause today, I mean in today's world, roof exciting sales, you know anything in the home service industry, a huge turnover. But back then no turnover. Not when you're making that kind of money. Right, that's coin, right.
Paul Burleson:Yeah, you're not going to, you're not going to leave it. And the way they made their money, they targeted what we called the mountain towns, The coal mining towns. We'd go into, you know, uh, wattsburg, kentucky and uh, virginia and North Carolina. You got to understand these are towns that most people didn't have any TV, no exposure to the real world, and you would go in and like they've heard about these fancy looking guys on TV, they've read about them, maybe you know, in a magazine, but they never seen anybody wearing a catalog. You know driving a catalog, like a wearing family.
Alan Wyatt:So they were excited when you rolled into town.
Paul Burleson:It was a show And what we would do. These guys were so cocky. I remember riding to Murphy, north Carolina, and they would go into these towns and they wouldn't have any money with them, right, like they were going to close the deal, so somehow they didn't close. Then we have to do to a fallback And they would do this con. They called recharging lightning rods.
Chris Lalomia:All right, here we go.
Paul Burleson:People in the mountain towns. They had these lightning rods on the side of their house And they believed that they were electrically charged. Your house couldn't be struck by lightning. So these guys would take these battery charges and put bells and rig them up to where, when they put like the clips on them And they felt like their lightning rods were getting charged, that was 75 bucks. And then they would run another con. They would go to the local hardware store and say you know my grandmother's, you know chimney is really falling down. Can I borrow a ladder? Here's my ID and here's 25 bucks. They'd borrow you a ladder. Then we go to randomly through little communities and do chimney inspections, climb up on the rock on the roof and you take a spike and you bust a brick loose. And you come down and say ma'am, you got a brick loose. It cost you $75 for replacing. Go up and put it back. That's the type of stuff that people did.
Paul Burleson:This was a world that went on for years and nobody knew about it because nobody talked about it. Like 10 man code is you? you can tell a 10 man by looking at their eyes. Right, you can know a real 10 man, knows a real 10 man But like it's a secret society that people didn't understand. So you have people come in from Long Island, staten Island, boston, you know, come into these small towns and they would do everything. One of the big cons was FHA launch. They would go in and sign people up in the East with these FHA loans, which they could get 15, 20 grand. They'd sign six or eight up in a neighborhood.
Chris Lalomia:And the FHA loan would be set up so they could get the house fixed back up to where they wanted to and get the loan. So they can get the siding done, the windows done or whatever you're selling.
Paul Burleson:It'd be 15, 20 grand And then once you submitted it like clockwork it was five days before the mail got delivered They'd case out the neighborhood, they'd steal all the checks, they would endorse them to themselves and leave TAM. I mean, that's the type of stuff that happened. And then when they were doing signing jobs to get financing stuff back in the day, they would do the front of the house to have the companies drive by just to see the front done, but they wouldn't do the sides or the back, just the front to get the rest of the money released and they would skip town. So this was such a unique time in life that people just didn't understand.
Alan Wyatt:And this all started for you when you're 12 years old. You're trying to sell a grit magazine in the first door you knock on.
Paul Burleson:Well, with the shoes, oh, the shoes, the shoes.
Alan Wyatt:And you were hoping to make a buck and go, get yourself a RC Cola and put some peanuts in it. Yeah, that was it.
Chris Lalomia:There you go, All right, so you're 16, Flower Man. then you keep going. You're like this is where I'm going, Yet you mentioned that you ended up still going to college, which a lot of people, I think.
Paul Burleson:if I'm doing that and I'm making coin like that, and then I got a chance to get it. You're a vote?
Chris Lalomia:Oh, i'm definitely rolling that man. Those bricks are flying and I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I don't know.
Alan Wyatt:You're like, how much do I get if I bang their car and break the furniture?
Chris Lalomia:That's so close of you.
Paul Burleson:I am so in on this, so at 18, these guys actually wanted me to be better. They wanted me to have a different life, right?
Alan Wyatt:So I'll never forget at my What do you mean To not be like them?
Paul Burleson:Because they failed with their own sons. I was a chance that they could actually get behind to do something with their life.
Alan Wyatt:Wow.
Paul Burleson:You know, and they got behind me in that. I'll never forget this In my high school graduation they pulled 50 Cadillacs in the parking lot and all the 10 man were sitting there in the audience. you know their their flasker banging in their jackets, you know. you know they're shouting and screaming. They give me $3,500 for college. I went to college at Easton C State University, and they wished me the best And they're like you're better than this, don't spend your life in this business. And I should have listened to them but actually had a taste. It was hard. I met a guy named Joe Chateau, who lives here in Atlanta today, who started Paysetters, which was a huge company So Dixie Homecrafters with Hugh Harris, and he was my mentor. He took me under his wing. I talked to him yesterday and shame, i couldn't spend time with him, but he brought me into Paysetters. but I went to college. So in college I got to work. you know he started working on degree in marketing and communications And I was doing play by play for like basketball and different things. crazy story.
Alan Wyatt:He probably could have taught a couple of the classes.
Paul Burleson:Oh yeah. So I met a kid named Mark Carrier whose father, larry Carrier, used to own the Raceway in Bristol when it was called Bristol National Raceway. And that was back in the day when Mark was actually a boxer and they had the World Boxing Federation. You can look it up, it's legit Own premise at the Raceway. So he's like come to the boxing match one day, you know, and he said watch me fight. It was the ESPN taping, it was on the Sunday night.
Paul Burleson:I get there and the ring announcer is crazy story, you didn't know this about me. The ring announcer didn't show up at all, right, and Mark's like wait a minute, paul is like you do play by play at the Etish. You know things that you think you can ring analysis. Hey, i could try anything once. So the tuxedo kind of in a little bit I put it on and I ring announced my first time ever on ESPN two on a Sunday night in 1989, 1989 at that time And his desk you know him and a guy named Ron Scalpey on the World Boxing Federation. I was like this is phenomenal. Why don't you come and travel the world for us and be a ring announcer for a boxing? Because when we go to Guam and different places. They love a American sounding announcer and your little guys, so you make the fighters look bigger and you can come back and do your sighting leads on the weekend.
Paul Burleson:So I went to school at the time I was a junior. I ended up finishing, i came back. I traveled for over a year with a World Boxing Federation, going around the world and doing an announcing that I would come back and sell sighting jobs. And then I ended up getting my degree when I came back And this is a crazy part of story You don't know is I was in a pizza place in Morristown, tennessee, and I ran into this wrestler at the time guy named Chris Jericho And he big wrestler Dave. Everybody knows who he is. He's like the top wrestler in the world, but you have to be a wrestling fan to know. But he's like Hey did you do boxing or something.
Paul Burleson:I was like Yeah, he's like I saw you on TV and he's like I got a call from Dusty Rhodes and Ted Turner at WCW and they want me to come down and do a tryout. And we would love, maybe you to come down, man, because they want me to find a ring announcer for some tryouts.
Chris Lalomia:I just want to interject. We're catching this arc right. He, just, he, just, hey, man, go to college, go do this thing Now. next thing you know he's traveling the world talking for a living, which which clearly you can tell already He can do in this. And then he meets and now we're on our way. So we just went for boxing to let's get into wrestling. Here we go.
Paul Burleson:So he's like Hey, you know, we'll share the gas, we'll go down. So I went down and met Dusty Rhodes, i met Ted Turner, i met Johnny A, saw the promoters. I met Rick Flair, i met Toley Anderson Woo, and I'm gonna be totally blanchard, you'll kill me for getting those two crossed. And I started announcing doing all the regional loops Tennessee, georgia, florida, alabama, mississippi and Kentucky. Any show that came. I did all the house shows in the nineties And the nineties.
Paul Burleson:But now here's where I really start making the money. Then I go working full time for Reynolds aluminum in the distribution business, and every single contractor is a wrestling fan.
Chris Lalomia:Oh, let's go.
Paul Burleson:So now I say, listen, i could get you not to grab pictures, Stone Cold, steve Austin and say in my nickname in the business for year was bonds, because I was so easy I meant so easy, so little, so skinny that they call me bonds because I was so thin. And so I would say if I could get you a Polaroid, say I'm baffling bonds, would you give me your business. So when I was on the road with them that weekend I would get a Polaroid of them holding the sign by your signing from bonds. So when I come back I was selling all the contractors and all the home improvement guys And then when they would come to Knoxville or Nashville I was so the Reynolds aluminum that was B2B, That was not B2C.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah Right.
Paul Burleson:So then I'm dealing with contractors again, So kind of I kind of switched out, because for me I always wanted to see what was on the other side, Like I just didn't want to just get kind of pigeonholed and I kept moving.
Chris Lalomia:Brother, you were not pigeonholed at all. Right now, right, even though we're still in the business.
Alan Wyatt:And sometimes there's people that just grind their whole life. But the opportunities came to him in a couple of just really random ways, right, and then he jumped on it.
Chris Lalomia:People say that all the time. You know, oh, you know, if I just had this opportunity. You know luck, you know I'm just not lucky. You could tell this dude's been hustling all his life and that's how luck happens. You make your own luck and I believe in that 100%. Your destiny is made all on your mindset, to your actions, to your character, to your habits, and that's what makes it happen.
Paul Burleson:Yeah, and it's just about connection. That's crazy stories like you. Take Dave Yoho that you heard me speak at Like. I heard Dave the first time when I was 12 years old. I was sitting with signing guys at the Ramana Inn in Nashville, tennessee, on the third row, and I looked at the guy beside me and his name was John. I said one day I'm going to be on stage with Dave Yoho. I was like, yeah, i keep not going to be on stage with Dave Yoho.
Paul Burleson:40 years later, my destiny becomes true. Now I'm on stage and I'm acknowledged and respected and speak all the time when I have the opportunity with Dave and with Rick Grosso and with Rodney Webb and with Tony Hodey and all the guys in our industry, because for me it's about paying your dues. I respect this business. Everything I have comes from this business. I'm not married. I don't have any kids. I sacrifice my whole life for this business. Because what do you give me? I train 20,000 people a year because I live to give back, to allow anyone a chance to live their dreams, like I had the chance to live mine.
Chris Lalomia:This is awesome. All right, we got to go back, though, sorry. So did you really meet Rick Flair? That's the biggest type of question I have hung out with Rick Flair.
Paul Burleson:I've hung out with all the four horsemen. I've drove them around like my first initiation in WCW. I got put on I don't know how I can say this politically correct but little people duty. So I had to drive little people around in a minivan And let me tell you something So unintended, when little people are mooning out the window or running around on the bar at Shoney's, it's hard to lasso them, to kind of keep them under control.
Chris Lalomia:How about that? There's a mental image for you. I can't lasso the little people running on the bar at Shoney's. I've arrived, brother. I've arrived.
Paul Burleson:Here we go, So so my role was interesting wrestling business, because it was more of an agent And then I would handle a lot of things. You can understand some. I didn't have any social skills. I did not know how to pick up women. I didn't know how to talk to women. My ability to have a little flair and hustle came from the wrestling industry, because these guys would be like all right. So my nickname well, my name they give me in the wrestling industry was Paul Diamond, That's all right, That was your, your your your, your name, paul Diamond.
Paul Burleson:Paul Diamond right. Even have a passport under Paul Diamond Crazy story. So Paul Diamond, here I am. They're like PD, so I was PDD and Paul Diamond way before there was a PD.
Chris Lalomia:See your PDD. before PDD was around. baby, let's go, there you go. We got the OG PDD. I got that down.
Paul Burleson:Don't give me a guess, okay, you still make more money than I am, so but I don't care, but anyway. So they would say we'd like to, you know, meet a redhead tonight or a blonde, and I'd go out and, actress, you know, hon, chris Jericho watch you behind like the curtain and he would really like to, to meet you, to hang out with you later. So I would take these women back and let's just say that scenarios were created to build my confidence And because of that it started changing my life. And I took that confidence and I went back into the home improvement industry and I really loved like selling, but my true passion was I wanted to train and educate.
Chris Lalomia:Okay.
Paul Burleson:So I took an opportunity with Alcoa to be able to travel and to be a trainer and educator, and then they got sold. So I ended up at Ply Jim and then I was a trainer and educator for them And then I got recruited by Crane and then owned to Roy on Westlake. So my role now is as a consultant. I actually consult 235 of the top remodeling organizations in the world US, canada, australia and I write their sales scripts, i do their canvassing programs, i create their lead generation approaches, i ever aspect of their presentation tools in the home. So now I get a chance to truly impact. And what I love about my story, that started bad, now it's in the good, because I teach people to do it the right way to be legitimate, to actually be more of a consultant, of a selling professional, sell the solution more than a product and help people.
Alan Wyatt:So Chris shouldn't be knocking bricks off of chimneys.
Paul Burleson:No, I would not suggest starting that.
Alan Wyatt:Man you should write down Red Heads Build Confidence. Yeah, i'm definitely picking that one out.
Chris Lalomia:And I want Paul Diamond to go to. hey, paul, i need you, hey Mones. I want little people running that shorty bar.
Alan Wyatt:You need a good nickname. I work on you, i do, i write. I call Rick Flurry. You said you hung out with him twice.
Chris Lalomia:I have twice. actually He could give you a nickname. Actually, the first one was he was sitting in my way. Oh, was he really? I don't see one.
Alan Wyatt:He had a shot gun approach. I have a feeling.
Chris Lalomia:He did Yeah, So you've stayed in the industry. How many? so when's the last time you were in a house actually working with somebody selling it?
Paul Burleson:So I was in Long Island. I tried to get in the house at least three times a month because I got to keep a pulse on the chain.
Chris Lalomia:I was in the house a month. All right, that's key right there. That's a gold nugget. That is a gold nugget because here you are, you could be big fat daddy going. because you're not, because he's bones. You can't see this in the podcast. He really is skinny. He's not obese. He's not obese like I am. By the way, i had to go back in.
Alan Wyatt:Ass or skin. No, no, no, no, he's doctor.
Chris Lalomia:He's medically diagnosed as obese, so I went in for my physical last year and she says, oh, we're going to get you checked here. He went and sees a little high. I said, oh, what's it been before? She goes oh, we haven't had to check it, but now that you're obese we have to. And I'm a big guy. She was on the table. I'm like, do what? Whoa And I was coming at her like this. She goes if you lose like 10 pounds, you'll be solidly overweight, solidly overweight is your aspiration.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, that's my workout thing, because I work out like four or five times a week, so I'm going to get a shirt that says striving for solidly overweight.
Paul Burleson:Yeah, listen, yeah, yeah, go, baby, go do some body Arm math. Oh man, yeah. So I have abs and I'm like scaring. Even the losers need a leader. You got to believe in something Here we go. But so so I want to back up a secret and I want to tell just a few more key, awesome 10-man stories that will absolutely blow people's mind. When the greatest sales Practices that I was tall was the sandwich clothes.
Chris Lalomia:Mm-hmm, all right, if we're cooking, we're closing. Now We're sandwich clothes, all right right.
Paul Burleson:It's clothes, right. So you walk into the home at first and say, mrs Jones, where's your kitchen at? Oh, it's right down around the corner. Okay, so you walk in and you just, and the old days, people kept bread in the refrigerator. That's what they did, i don't know. That's where it was right. So you just open the fridge, right, i just start making a sandwich. If they don't kick you out, you close every time.
Alan Wyatt:That is completely different than what I was thinking a sandwich clothes was. I thought it would be start with a negative and then you get the.
Paul Burleson:Oh no, that's what sandwich means today. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a huge here.
Chris Lalomia:Give me two positives of the negative in the middle. Yeah, but no, so they literally a little sandwich grab it, the refrigerator, pull the handle and start making themselves, which is so ballsy.
Alan Wyatt:But if you didn't get kicked out by the way my accountant wife, she would know the breads in the fridge.
Chris Lalomia:Well, it should be.
Paul Burleson:Yeah, that's what we did back in the day All right.
Chris Lalomia:So let's go back. But if, if salesman actually came in here, can you imagine I? you know what she said she's a docile, very nice lady. I think she'd bludgeon the dude. Chris, i challenge you. I'm thinking about doing that because I Actually I gotta go meet Ellen's wife to sell her a little something else. So I think I'm gonna go right to the Sand. We're gonna right in the kitchen go. All right, i'm coming in, i'm gonna start making myself a sandwich. You see, i think I think her jaw would absolutely drop going. What?
Alan Wyatt:what are you doing? She doesn't take jokes Well, but I would be willing to pull that one on her.
Paul Burleson:I got two more than a class Here we go sandwich clothes, that's price We're going.
Chris Lalomia:If we're cooking, we're closing for sandwich closing, keep going raccoon clothes. Can't wait to do this shit. Oh, my god.
Paul Burleson:The raccoon. So you're in a house in the wooded area, right, and you, they got like wood raptors and everything and you're like this is John's. I don't know if you notice, but I noticed some teeth marks up there around your gables and everything. You got raccoons. I don't think I got right, cuz I think you got raccoons. I saw tea marks. I said you really need a little imissotting up there to keep because these raccoons will get in your house. I don't really things and no, they will. They get in your house. So what you do is you. In the old days we worked in teams of two all the time, like one guy would Sit in the living room. I sleep, the kids, one person be high-pressuring Husband, wife but it was always two guys in the home.
Paul Burleson:Okay that's the way it was in the 80s and 90s.
Chris Lalomia:I don't, i didn't remember that. How about that? Who we have to work. All right, so you get a working team six hour pitch.
Paul Burleson:Right, this isn't a two hour tour. I mean we're bringing, i would bring.
Alan Wyatt:I want to talk about overcoming objections in the 10-man world.
Paul Burleson:But I would bring sleeping bags home safe. I didn't close the night, boss, that I'd sleep here, but anyway, you know it's about sitting that present. So we're gonna raccoon clothes, so we get them in the living room and everything and you say, mr Jones, you can't, i get a glass of water. So I have one guy you know kind of keeping their own eyes And so I'd go in the well, this say I wouldn't, but somebody would go in the kitchen to get a glass of water.
Paul Burleson:I don't want to implement myself absolutely so it would go in and You see a loaf of bread. So now you take the bread and you tear it up and throw it all over the floor, right, and you come in. Miss Jones, you gotta come in here. Those raccoons, i told you had raccoons. They got in the house. They got the bread.
Alan Wyatt:Oh, My god and people fell for that and you had.
Chris Lalomia:Exciting. I want to lose them. Soffits, i want the whole thing. Exclusion, that's the. I want to eliminate them. Fence, oh my god the time all right, raccoon clothes raccoon clothes.
Paul Burleson:The next one, which is a legendary clothes, and It was actually created by a guy here in Atlanta. I cannot say his name because he would whack me, because he's crazy like that.
Alan Wyatt:I thought you said we were past, they were all dead well, except this one. Let's sit back to back. Chris, you look up those. All right, that's right.
Paul Burleson:This one's called the gun. This is called the f? you clothes.
Alan Wyatt:Oh, that's right up your alley. Oh, this is my favorite one, yeah.
Paul Burleson:So you go in the home and you say, let's say, this home's 12 or square feet right Should be 13 grand. And you're like mr Jones, this job tonight's gonna cost $28,000. What it'll cost $28,000. No, it's. Oh, yes, it'll cost $28,000. I'm not gonna pay. Yeah, you're gonna pay it, oh no, oh yeah, you're gonna pay it. I'm not gonna. Yeah, you're gonna pay it. Get out my house. I'm not gonna go Get out my house. Nope, can't make me get out my house. I'm gonna call the law, all right. So you get the door and she's trying to go. What You may have said, some other words, you know, attached to the F, and she's like what? and like you, always the car. You're double F in her right and you get in the car and you leave. Well, the next day the lady in the office calls and says mr Jones, paul was in the house last night. I'll change my name. Protect the innocent right and.
Paul Burleson:Um, how'd he go? Oh my god, it was horrible. He came in and he gave me this crazy price and he told me to have myself what He did, what he told me to have myself. Ma'am, i gotta call the owner of the company. We'll call him. Mr J is not going to be okay with this and I'm telling you this is not our company standard. So mr J called up ma'am. I am so shocked with what I heard. So what did Paul say to you? He told me go after myself. Oh my gosh, what price did he quote you? Well, he was crazy. And, ma'am, listen, i sincerely apologize.
Paul Burleson:First of all, he's fired immediately. He is terminated, no question, he's fired. But I want to come over and I want to see your home And I want to bring you a special gift. So they come up with flowers, they come up with candy, they show up And he quote you how much? 25,000,. You know what, ma'am? I'm gonna sell you this job at haprice for $12,500, which is about what it should be. Anyway, they drop, close the deal every single.
Chris Lalomia:Work. I think it. That totally works. I love this idea. I'd all right, so I'm not saying again to keep everybody innocent. I have got a call and the guy says you know, i just want to give you a customer service experience.
Chris Lalomia:I'm just, i'm horrified of what's happened and I'm like yes, yes, yes, i said well, he's immediately terminated. Oh, I don't want anybody to get fired. Of course you do. You don't give two chips of my firing guys, or not? I'm like, oh, no, no, no, we're gonna do that. Can I send somebody else out there to make it happen and get this all fixed up for you? I apologize completely. Never have fired any of those guys. In fact, two of them have been with me for like eight years. They're great. But you know, it's just one of those things where you can't meet everybody. You can't meet everybody. But I like this in the sales approach, where they're just like absolutely putting the incendiary right there, boom, we're gonna light you up, girl, we're gonna light you up. And then when he comes in tomorrow, oh, i like him, i hate him, but I like you and that's what you want, right?
Paul Burleson:Because they buy an emotion and justify logically every time It was so many things these guys would do, like they would bring in their little briefcases and they would put baby monitors in their briefcase and then they would, you know, condition, the price, and they give the lady the price and their husbands someone got the car, get a warranty, i'll come back. And they would go sit and listen to the baby monitor. You see what he said to know to come back in and close them.
Chris Lalomia:Oh, I think it's called the baby monitor clothes. That's a great idea.
Paul Burleson:So, guys use this today with the iPad. So put an iPad in the home and put in their air pot And then they'll set up the car with their iPad in the home and it'll be out there. I'm just saying I hear that.
Chris Lalomia:I've heard. I've heard.
Alan Wyatt:This. I have a feeling that you're going to scrap your existing notes for your next sales meeting. I got some new boys. I got it Some new ideas. All right, Yeah.
Chris Lalomia:Look, so I pick up these great devices. They say their FBI approved.
Paul Burleson:I want you to start dropping them when you're walking around the house.
Paul Burleson:It was just a time like these guys would live for cons. I knew one like he traveled all the time. He would fly different areas, you know, to run cons and hustles, like Arkansas was a hot market, baltimore was a hot market, any of Alabama, any towns where it was like a very rural area. So he may fly in somewhere and it always keep a fake Rolex watch with him And he would go, he would go into the, he would go into the airport and he's like he'd just walk up to my sir.
Paul Burleson:I apologize, actually, just like I just had my wallet was, i must fell in my back parking the bathroom. Somebody stole that can't find it And and I needed just some money to get home. And like I don't have a lot of money, but I'll tell you what. I'll give you this Rolex watch I got And then you could just mail it back to me whenever you get home And they would kill me with this fake Rolex watch was like eight bucks or like $150. And of course, the people they never send the watch back. Right, they keep the watch. This is how they use seen money to go from place to place, oh geez.
Chris Lalomia:Oh, my God You can't make this up.
Alan Wyatt:No, you know what?
Chris Lalomia:This movie is amazing, did you?
Alan Wyatt:stay in touch with any of those guys, Like after you know they sent, they gave you the money to go to college, You made good. I mean, did you have any like special friendships with those guys?
Paul Burleson:Yeah, i mean there's five of them today that I'm very close with. A lot of them went to jail, a lot of them died, some of them were shot. That's just the nature of the business.
Alan Wyatt:Shot by homeowners.
Paul Burleson:Or their wives or jealous husbands or boyfriends. I mean, these guys were womanizers. This was not a life to be proud of. It's not some I'm glamorizing for any means, but it's all I had. I didn't have any influences, i didn't have a father to play baseball with me, i didn't take vacations. I worked seven days a week And my work ethic today is I will outwork anybody. You will not beat me because I can't be beaten, because I don't know anything but to win. And that's what I took from the bad and turned to good. And I spent the past two days training sales organizations about.
Paul Burleson:there's a button inside of you that I don't know where it's at, but you got to make that decision to push it. You got to find out your cookbook or what your recipe is is to make you great. It's about how much you want to, how hard you want to work, how important it is to you. It's not somebody else's fault. I call it the honey badger mentality. right? Honey badger is the fiercest animal in the animal kingdom. He will bite the head off a cobra, drink his venom, take a power nap, get back up and buy the angry cheetah, because it's what he does. It's that mentality to win.
Chris Lalomia:You know the button. I can only lead you there. You're the one who has to push the button. That's another golden nugget. We talk about this all the time. They either get it or they don't, and when they don't, it's just time. You can't push them. You can't push a rope. In this case. I can't find that button You're going to push. It's up to you to find that button. I'm giving you all the skills. I'm trying to train you as best I can to build your skills up. It's up to you to go out there and execute. And if this is not for you, this is not for you. And I'm saying it's the same in the sales thing, but I'm still going to go out there and start chipping bricks. But that's a different story. That's my biggest golden nugget of this whole thing. I got my sales guys already. I'm already arguing right now with the deadl picks.
Paul Burleson:You know it's about being humble And what I do is my style is different. I don't come and talk to you about the fancy cards. I don't want that life. I don't need big houses, right? You know I've got everything I have, but I'm committed to this business to give people a chance to be able to do better for their families and know that they can succeed and be anything they want if they just believe. They just have to believe. I want them to look at me and hear my sad story and say if he can do it, so can I. If he can do it, so can I.
Alan Wyatt:So let me ask you this So you were trained, as you said, you started in the bad and now you're working for the good, but you're in three homes a month.
Paul Burleson:They love me, They love me the whole. you know why They love me baby.
Chris Lalomia:Hey, i love that. You know I just got done soon I think, because I went and did a basement remodel estimate with one of my guys. you know again getting out there working with the guys doing it.
Alan Wyatt:And they love me. Well, i'm assuming that you're not making a sandwich. I'm assuming that you're not throwing bread on the floor, So how, yeah? So what's your sales?
Paul Burleson:I'm sick and I'm the expert. I wear my lab coat, my stethoscope and it's my job to write prescription to make your home healthy again, because that's what a consultive selling expert does. You may have issue a trap, moisture that can lead to black mold, mildew, termites all these things that can be detrimental to your own safety, your own happiness and the health of your pets in the home. What are the little things that are going on? if gutters pulled away from the house, that's a $400 fix, but now the waters run down, we're rotted, all the wood fascia and down in the baseboard is a $12,000 repair. What are things going on in the home right now that we cannot ignore to discover and find a solution, expose the pain and close the solution to make it better.
Chris Lalomia:And there you go, michael. That's the one I wanted you to hear, because I told you I couldn't tell you the better way to say that, and that's why you're listening to it. Who's Michael? by the way, one of my sales guys who said What do you mean? I said When you see a hole in a sill and you're sitting there going you, we can replace this sill and it will be 450 bucks, maybe $500. Oh, that's too much money. Or we can let it sit there for another year And then you can run out your basement, run out the entire house that you've got, and then we can come in and we can remodel this whole thing for you and the entire basement. And we're talking about $35,000, $85,000. It's just up to you. He's like All right, when's this episode coming out?
Paul Burleson:I said Don't worry, brother, it's coming out in July, so he can't wait for this one The price is a price is a price, like the price doesn't matter. Price only comes in when there's not enough differentiation in the value proposition.
Chris Lalomia:Bingo.
Paul Burleson:That's really all it's about. When I get done exposing the problems you have, the solution is a solution. Whatever may cost is whatever may cost. It doesn't matter. If I don't make these problems go away, you're going to have bigger problems.
Chris Lalomia:I think we're going to give Paul an honorary doctorate. He's a doctorate of homes, so he's Dr Trusted Toolbox. Now, there you go.
Paul Burleson:I really love what you all are doing for the industry And that's why I wanted to come and share this story here, because I need advocates to get the message alive, because so many people they take this opportunity of this business for granted. They don't appreciate the chance they have to influence people and make a change, and to me, that's what I live and die for. You could take everything away. We were talking my friend and I were talking earlier today. how much money do you think you can make if you were selling the home? That could make $500,000 to $700,000 a year, but it'd be miserable because I couldn't make people better. It's not about me anymore. It truly is. when you project greatness out to the world, that's when it truly comes back to you.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, amen. I love that part. You actually hit on it because that's not what success would be. Can you go out there and ton it? Sure you could, But if you can teach people how to go out there and make a lifestyle for their families that works for them, boy, that's even more powerful And that makes you feel even better. Having 44 employees right now who can take care of their families and do their thing for their families has been amazing for me And I think that part's great.
Alan Wyatt:Haven't you noticed, though, over the time that we've done all these podcasts, there's a consistent theme of people who had a really rough start appreciate the opportunity they have, and they just hit the world like they've been shot out of a cannon.
Chris Lalomia:Right.
Alan Wyatt:And there's just no substitute for that. Somebody that grows up in the suburbs and they had everything handed to them. They just don't know where that button is.
Chris Lalomia:And we brought this up before. So my dad was first, he was a second generation born here. but my grandfather was the first one of his family born here And he worked his absolute ass off. And my dad often says now he says do you think your grandfather could even comprehend?
Chris Lalomia:the house you live in now. I said no, not even a chance. He wouldn't even know what his great-grandkids, which he actually got to hold one of them before he passed away. He had no clue how he did that. Yeah, so, but there's something to that, right, a little bit of fire in your belly. It needs to be there, right, and that's a phrase we don't talk about a little bit Right now. We're talking about well, you can't say fire in the belly. Well, i'm sorry, was that? not, that wasn't PC.
Alan Wyatt:Really, we eliminated that too, we canceled that.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, it might be. So that's the thing you know and that's what you can hear, that with Paul, when he's talking to me, he's obviously just so down.
Alan Wyatt:Yeah, I wish people could see him. I guess they can. You've got it. You're recording this right. It'll be on YouTube. He gets really animated, He gets fired up.
Chris Lalomia:You see it in the space. I saw him do his, and here's another thing I would tell you. So I got to meet him at this conference and I got to meet and interact with him off the stage, right, and so we're getting Paul off the stage. But I saw Paul go on the stage. This is sales 100%. You saw him over there and I've done that before because I've done presentations. You sit there, you get a clear head, you get yourself ready to go. You got to get in game mode and you got to go And he says I was talking for me because hey, man, i'm getting on in 15 minutes and I'm like I know exactly where it's on, right, leave me alone. You got to go And he got there, man, he delivered an awesome speech. I mean, he kept me engaged the entire time, telling great stories.
Alan Wyatt:You've got the attention span of a nap, so well done, paul.
Chris Lalomia:Yeah, that was hard to do, my friend. You have no idea, he is a human hummingbird. What? Where are we, hello Squirrel.
Paul Burleson:Shining object You know, i think you hit on something important. What I focus on people don't really remember what you said, these things. What they want you to do is give them a reason to believe. They want to know that there's a reason for them to believe that they can be successful. Because people come up to me afterwards and they say you know what, man, i had hard times.
Paul Burleson:I understand I'm going through something you talked about or I related to what you said, because I'm the guy that's approachable. I'm the guy talking about my Range Rover up there that sold my business for 20, 30 million Man. I'm proof that a loser can win. I'm proud to call myself a loser. I came from nothing And in my mind, i'll always.
Paul Burleson:You know, it's hard for guys like me to ever be successful because we're always afraid of being broken and like or again, and that will always be what will hold me back to be a millionaire, because I just I can't let go of that safety net. Right, because I had nothing and what I have now is great. But I don't really want to reach for more, because I'm covered with what I have. I have more than I deserve, but it's just about letting people know that it's okay. It's okay to not be a good salesman. It's okay to be a bad manager. It's okay to fail.
Paul Burleson:That's what you're going to do tomorrow. What you're going to do tomorrow, it's going to make you great. How much heart do you got? How much fire you got in your belly? Let's use that analogy right, and that's what I strive to try to teach people. I'm not the best looking guy, i don't have the fanciest clothes, i don't have the best car, but I promise you one thing I got more heart and I care about each and every person that comes, any person that wants to learn. I will spend as much time with them as they want to help them become better. That's what this business is about And that's the commitment we make, and we should make this business alive.
Chris Lalomia:I love it. We are taking care of people's number one asset in all their portfolios. I say that over and over. For many people It's their number one asset, not only financially in their portfolio, but 100% emotionally in their portfolio, because that's where you raise your kids, that's where you put your head in the pillow at night, that's your domicile. If you're an introvert, that's where you get to go hide from the world. If you're an extrovert, that's where you get to go entertain. This is your number one asset in your portfolio, besides your family, your faith and everything else you're doing. So this has been amazing And I hate that we're coming to the end. This has been amazing. So, paul, before we go into our famous four questions, let's talk about that book one more time, because that sucker's coming out And I am honestly. I got to be on that list. I'm on the early bird list. You got to release date.
Paul Burleson:Yeah. So this has been so hard for me. Like I have almost finished this like eight times and every time I get ready I pull back because I'm like who am I going to offend? Will I be black ball? Will people look at me different for exposing a business that's never been exposed, it's never been talked about? but here's the thing The message is not what they did that was wrong. It was what they did that we were able to take from and do better. That's the message. is all of that led me to be able to influence and change the world in a positive way. So I'm looking at a six month release date because I've got to get. I'm working on the artwork for the book a little bit, but this has been like it's very, very emotional for me. Like I've actually had a movie deal offered to me and I turned it down because I don't want to be a sellout. I don't want to be known as the guy that cashed in on a gift that was given to me to make money, because that's not what I'm about.
Chris Lalomia:So who are you working with so I can go steal that idea. so I'll cash out, Okay that's right, i'm kidding, all right. So do you have a working title for the book right now?
Paul Burleson:Tales of the last known 10 man Love it.
Chris Lalomia:All right, we'll make sure we put that in the show notes. We don't have the thing, but we will absolutely be 100% on board when that sucker comes out. So, honestly, i was looking in as the guy wrote a book.
Alan Wyatt:Yeah, go ahead, rub it in. That's a very big boy, thanks.
Paul Burleson:It's a great book, by the way. It's amazing, but I'm just saying the zoo, hook it up.
Chris Lalomia:I hear you. I love it, but I think this book is going to be amazing And I don't think, honestly, you haven't offended anybody. I think, because everyone who reads that or watches that movie or absorbs that in the industry or outside the industry knows that we got better from that. That's the way it used to be done, that's not the way it is done now, and so that's where I think I'm, i'm, i'm anti against that. I think it's 100%, because I love that. You know we get in sales meeting. I said, all right, boys who did the raccoon clothes last week, because everyone is going to go, haha, that's not where we are, because we're the trusted toolbox. We can't cheat people, exactly right, that's what makes us better. Right, let's go. So that's how we roll. But you could do the sandwich clothes.
Alan Wyatt:I'm, I'm well.
Paul Burleson:I can write some for you.
Chris Lalomia:Thank God Judy's not listed this, But yes, I'm going to go in there. I'm sorry, but you can see what you're doing.
Alan Wyatt:The coffee closes. You can go pour yourself a cup of coffee just to lean in.
Chris Lalomia:Oh my God, that's amazing. All right, Paul, thank you so much. How can people find you just to hook up and find out more about what you're doing?
Paul Burleson:Yes, so you can go to LinkedIn under Paul Burleson. I'm very fortunate. I have almost 16,000 followers on LinkedIn. You can connect with me Part of my experience with Westlake Royal Building Products If you use any of our products as a consultant with Westlake. I provide free training Consulting to any existing customers of Westlake Royal, which is a great deal, so I can come in and consult you, i can write a business plan for you, i can design a selling system and they pay the bill. Westlake.
Chris Lalomia:Royal, if you want to hook it up and get into business. A lot of us are out there trying to figure out which business to get in and where to go. I went to this conference and a lot of people have always said to me the concept is you started one, you buy one, and then you keep one, hold one. You know, hold one, sell one, hold one, sell one. So when I went up there, i just I got exposed to so many really cool people at the Davio Ho conference. Davio Ho, of course, just a legend was. He said he was going to be at DC, he was going to be in the Morial Day, and he was. He said he was going to be at the White House meeting with President Biden on Monday morning and he was. This guy is an amazing guy. So the fact that I got to meet you, paul, was amazing. But I've got to ask the last four questions, our famous four.
Chris Lalomia:Number one what's your favorite book you'd recommend everybody?
Paul Burleson:You know I go back old school to the book that changed my life How to Win Friends and Influence.
Alan Wyatt:People Dale Carnegie, dale Arnst.
Paul Burleson:Beautiful.
Chris Lalomia:Nice pull, All right. Number two what is your favorite feature of your house?
Paul Burleson:My speakeasy I built in the basement.
Chris Lalomia:Let's go.
Alan Wyatt:Tennessee. How does that work in your own basement? Does you have to let yourself in?
Paul Burleson:I took a door and I made it into like a library shelf and I can either push the book or get drunk and fall into the books and the door opens. either way It works.
Chris Lalomia:All right. One of the things that we're big on is we're customer service. Let's go When you're out there getting service, you know whatever a restaurant buying stuff, doing things out there. What is the customer service pet peeve of yours as the customer?
Paul Burleson:The fact that they follow their agenda of telling you what they want to tell and not listening to your needs, not asking you what you need. Do you want regular water? Do you want mineral water? Is the seat too close to the door? I mean, is this area quiet enough for you? Is this table accommodating you well? Could I give you something more? There's no needs analysis. It's about you're here and it's all about me, me. Me working towards the tip.
Alan Wyatt:I love that.
Paul Burleson:It's not about the focus, about making your experience rememberable.
Chris Lalomia:It's always got to be about the experience needs analysis, because you don't know what you don't know, and sometimes people don't want to sit there and they want to sit somewhere else and they want the backdrop And that's, but there are too meek to say something about it. Great, call on that one, all right. Last one, which is my favorite, being in the home improvement business And I do a lot of inside work, we do a lot of bathrooms and kitchen remodeling here in Atlanta. What is a DIY nightmare story of yours?
Paul Burleson:So I think there's like a thousand of them. That happened during COVID, because what happened COVID made people think, okay, i got to do this stuff. There's things here that need to be fixed So I can do them. I can YouTube how to install a window. I can YouTube how to put up siding. So, from an industry standpoint, during COVID, what it did was it created so much opportunity for the homeowner that they're not educated that they can't do this on their own. So it's spot cells at Home Depot, it's spot cells that lose. It's spot cells with power remodeling champion, home improvement window world window nation home fix all the big guys, because people don't understand what they don't understand And when the understand is too late. So the other thing that people got to understand about DIY, not marriage, and I love the statement I've said it twice in two seminars this week the sweetness of price is gone after the bitterness of poor quality remains. There we go.
Chris Lalomia:And we're going to love that one and let that marinate right over you. Just let that wash on over you. Write that down. You're right, you're in the car. Don't wear it down, because I don't want you to hit anybody. All right, you said it like I forget to just there. Don't do it. Are you there? Stop? All right, stop Now. Write that down.
Paul Burleson:After, the bitterness of poor quality remains.
Chris Lalomia:Bang, we're out of here. This is amazing. Let's go. That was amazing. Small, best. Let's go. Make it happen. Right, adventure team, you're going to keep going up that mountain. Top of success, whatever that is for you. You got to keep rolling, you got to keep driving it. You got to keep drilling for it, but you picked up some nuggets today, and if you didn't, that's shame on you, because you want to replay this sucker and watch it one more time. Listen to it one more time. We're on YouTube. Check us out on any podcast source you want. Don't forget, i'm begging man. Show everybody what we're doing. Tell everybody what's going on. Get that good word out there, because we're making a difference in the industry. Let's make it happen. Get out of here. We got to go. Cheers Paul.
Paul Burleson:Thank you, time's out.