Starter Girlz Podcast

From Ivory Coast to Real Estate Mogul: Paul Loubao on Mastering Sales and the American Dream

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 6 • Episode 57

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Embark on a journey of ambition and resilience with Paul Lubell, a real estate investor whose life story embodies the American dream. From his roots in the Ivory Coast to conquering the Dallas real estate market, Paul’s path was marked by challenges he overcame with sheer determination. In this episode, we uncover his transformation from a hopeful stockbroker to a thriving entrepreneur, showcasing the critical role of communication, sales skills, and mentorship in his evolution.

Takeaways from this episode:

  • The American dream is achievable with resilience and hard work.
  • Sales is not just about closing deals; it's about building relationships.
  • Understanding people and their needs is crucial in sales.
  • Setting clear expectations can lead to better outcomes in business.
  • Learning from failures is part of the sales process.
  • Qualifying clients is vital for high-ticket sales.
  • Mentorship can provide valuable insights for success.

To learn more about Paul and his work, visit www.pclhousingcommerce.com.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girl podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girls podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girls podcast. Wherever you are tuning in today, we are so thrilled to have you. I am your host, jennifer Loading. I'm so excited about my guest today. So let's paint a picture. Many dream of building a life filled with opportunities, success and fulfillment, a vision often synonymous with the American dream. But for many, this dream can feel elusive, overshadowed by obstacles and uncertainty. Yet there are those who embody resilience, grit and unwavering belief in possibility, proving that the American dream is not only alive but within reach for those who dare to chase it. And so I'm excited to chat with my guest. He has such a remarkable story, I think, of all of this that I just kind of summed up in this paragraph. But before we get him on here, I do need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

This episode is brought to you by Walt Mills Productions. Need to add excitement to your YouTube videos or some expert hands for editing? Look no further. Walt Mills is the solution you've been searching for. Walt is not only your go-to guy for spicing up content. He's the force behind a thriving film production company with numerous titles in the pipeline. Always on the lookout for raw talent, walt is eager to collaborate on film and internet productions. With a background deeply rooted in entertainment and promotion, walt Mills leverages years of skills to give you the spotlight you deserve. Want to learn more about Walt and his work? Head on over to waltmillsproductionsnet and let your content shine All right, and with that we are ready to bring our guest on today.

Jennifer Loehding:

So my guest today is a shining example of this spirit. Born in the Ivory Coast, he arrived in the US as a student visa, barely speaking English, and faced countless challenges along the way. Through hard work, relentless determination and a steadfast belief in himself, he rose from humble beginnings to become a highly successful real estate investor, entrepreneur and founder of PCL Housing Commerce LLC, so I'm excited to chat with him today and talk about his incredible story and all that he has done, and so I want to welcome Paul Loubao to the Starter Girlz Podcast. Paul, we're so excited to have you here today.

Paul Loubao:

Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Loehding:

This is going to be so much fun, absolutely, absolutely.

Paul Loubao:

Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you for having me. This is going to be so much fun. Absolutely, absolutely, thank you for having me. You have such a remarkable journey. I went back this morning. I remember talking to you the first time and thinking, wow, you've done some incredible things. But I went back and read your bio again this morning and I'm like, wow, having come here and not speaking English, I know a couple people that have come here from other parts of the world that kind of done stuff like that. I think that is just so remarkable to have to go into another country and learn a language you know, Right, yeah, absolutely, Absolutely.

Paul Loubao:

So yeah, I came. I mean, when you say Burlesque, I wasn't able to speak English at all, so I started by the foundation, like A, B, C, D. You know all of these, so you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah. And so you came here as a student and that's not an easy thing to do. The english language is not an easy language and you know it's funny because I took french in school when I was young and so I can, I can if, if I listen, I can kind of understand some of it. Um, but to me, I mean as an adult, it is so hard to like learn languages. You like we get so accustomed into our, and then I will meet people that know like four and five languages and I'm so impressed. I'm like, how do you keep them all straight? Like I would just feel like I'd be mixing them all up, you know. So it's awesome. So tell us a little bit, because you've done a lot of things I want to talk about. First, a little bit about what you're doing right now with your LLC and your business, and you're here in the Dallas market as well with me. So walk us through a little bit about what you're doing with your customers and how you're helping them.

Paul Loubao:

Yes, yeah, just to give a little bit of background. So, as you present and you did great on it I'm from Africa, so I speak French. I came here eight years ago. The main reason why I came here I came here to become a stockbroker. That's why I moved from France to the United States. So when I came here, I took one year to learn English and two years to get my MBA in business, and then after that I moved from Oklahoma City to Dallas where I started to apply for a job and try to become a stockbroker.

Paul Loubao:

But what I did understand is that the foundation of becoming a stockbroker wasn't only about calculation and formula and do the math. I was supposed to learn how to sell and how to communicate and how to present a product. So this situation shaped me or allowed me to go learn how to sell life insurance. So I was a life insurance broker. So I started to learn how to communicate, how to speak to people, all of these and then, for some reason, I never came back to the stockbroking stuff and I transitioned to the real estate game. So what I do right now I'm a real estate investor. That's what I do. Number two I'm a real estate coach. I have a school where I inspire people. I show people how to start in real estate with you know, with their own money or with some money, yeah. And then also I'm trying to launch a new career of speaker, so I would like to do some event next year. All of these to inspire people, yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

Awesome, Wow, and you know it's interesting no-transcript. And now you're trying to do speaking and think about that, Like when you came here you spoke no English and now you're trying to be a speaker.

Paul Loubao:

Yeah, that's crazy and funny on the same time. Yeah, absolutely so. I've been here for nine years, so it's part of the journey and you know every year is get better.

Jennifer Loehding:

So yeah, and you're speaking very well, by the way, for nine years. Uh, I mean, you're like flowing right in, you know, I think it's great, well, and you know it's interesting. I think when you get kind of submerged in that you have no choice. I mean, everybody that I've met that has told me they've been in that position. You sort of just you know you do. It's like what's that saying? When, in Rome, do as the Romans, you got to jump in and learn the language right.

Paul Loubao:

And also you don't have any choice, like when you come to become a stockbroker. I think the right thing for me not the right thing, but the good thing for me was my target was high. You know, I came, I said I want to be a stockbroker. So I didn't see myself be at Wall Street without speaking English. So for me, master, the language was immersed, you know, no matter what. So, because my target was high, that's why I think I did everything, right, right.

Jennifer Loehding:

No, I think it's remarkable and, you know, and it's funny, I I joke about this all the time too. I may have shared this with you. I've shared this several times throughout the podcast, you know, like, um, obviously I have no problem with the english language. When I was a kid, I got in trouble for talking a lot. I did a lot of talking and I find it quite funny, you know, and I want to ask you this question in just a minute.

Jennifer Loehding:

But it's interesting because when I was little, I sort of kind of had this where I've gone back and, like you know, when I was little I used to do a lot of this stuff, like back in the days, you know, like we used to have the cassette players with our little boom boxes and I'd put my cassette in there and I would record myself talking and teaching, like teaching people things, which is kind of really what I do now in my grown-up life, and I would create things, and so I think it's kind of funny how we sort of I know I had a guest come on one time that said our strengths find us, they catch up with us. So I guess one of the questions I want to ask you is when you were younger, did you see yourself in this position where you would be training other people and maybe leading and kind of mentoring and being in this place that you are now?

Paul Loubao:

Not really, but what I can say is that as a high school and elementary school student, I had always this desire to help other students. You know, understand something. So I was always the one who went to my friend and said hey, do you understand that? Okay, let me explain to you. Come over to my place so we can work on it together. And I was enjoying explaining stuff and coaching people on the same stuff. So when now my friend discovered that I'll become a coach, he said oh yeah, we knew that, because you know he's been doing that all his life, even at school yeah, you had that kind of helper, helper, yes, I had it.

Paul Loubao:

So, uh, I didn't plan to become a coach like I came here to become a store broker. So my journey was, on my mind learning the game, learning english English, learning the culture, go to school and also, at the same time, work in the hedge fund or private equity fund and then go open my own company. That was my plan. So this road of sales and coaching and real estate life put me there.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, definitely, right, right, no, I think it's a remarkable journey and there's so many things about it that I think you know having gone through and weathering, you know, moving from a new country, coming and learning and adopting the culture and the people, and all of that, I think, and then the languaging, and then not only that getting your mba, I think there's a lot to be in a very short time. You, you did all this like really fast. It's not stretched out forever.

Paul Loubao:

Absolutely Like for the NBA, was pretty easy for me because you can ask any African or French people to school back. There is way harder than here. Okay, so here, as long as you like, you learn the language, it becomes just easy for you to yeah, just to give an example. For example, in France or in Africa, there is no study guide. Here, before doing the test, they tell you, okay, chapter one, chapter three, chapter four. In Africa, if there is 20 chapters, they don't tell you anything?

Paul Loubao:

You need to memorize everything and come to the test. Wow, when I came here and people said, hey, you're going to be tested on chapter 8 and 10, I say it's over so getting an. Mba wasn't very difficult for me. Learning the language was difficult. When I mastered all the communication skills, writing skills, listening to all of this, it was pretty easy.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and then I also learned understanding people like right, like OK. So I'm going to tell you, I've been in, I was in the network marketing space for 20 years, meaning I worked with women for a very long time I think you've got to be a master at this Right to come in and I was helping them basically build their business, kind of like what you're trying to do in your world helping people in the real estate. So I was helping them in that space. But it's interesting. Doing all that, I learned a lot. I probably I learned a lot about people.

Jennifer Loehding:

But then another turning point was when I started doing the podcast, which I've been doing this particular show since 2019. So I've been podcasting now for over five years, which means I've met a lot of incredible people like you. And it's interesting because when I was in that network marketing space, I was kind of in a bubble, so to speak, because I was in that world and we didn't network much outside of that world. And when I came out of that, I started networking with a lot of different people people in insurance, people in finance, people in this industry, in this industry and it really opened my eyes to a lot of more different people. You know what I mean, and so the and you're probably finding that you know in the years, now that you've been working. The more you work with people, you start learning the different things. I start finding that there's patterns with people. They do a lot of similar things, right, like they have different reasons why they do them, but the baseline's always the same, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

So you learn a lot about that. You know interacting with people, about them and how to do the different things like selling and closing and how to navigate that and stuff, and so it's remarkable because I think you know having to learn the language and navigate those are like two different things. You got to pick up. You got to pick up right, what is it like the soft skills space, basically Learning soft skills, right, and then you got the language. Two different things you know.

Paul Loubao:

Absolutely yeah.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I love it. I love it.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I want to talk to you a little bit about you know kind of the entrepreneur journey, because a lot of the people listening to this are, I mean, we get obviously other people and it's not everybody's entrepreneurs, but a lot of people in our circle, because we're in that space, are people that are in business, that are looking to either start or they're in the middle of it or they're trying to advance their business. So I would love to know maybe, aside from the, the languaging cause you mastered, that you got that down but any other things you had to work through when, you like, started your LLC and really started getting into this your, your business thing, what you're doing?

Paul Loubao:

Yes, so I will. I will strongly advise anybody who would like to, you know, to start this journey of entrepreneurship, to master sales and marketing. Because at the end of the day this is what I say to my friend all the time I say the first line on the P&L is revenue. So that means you can have a good idea, you can have a very good strategy. All of these good products you need clients. So, by me, learning the sales game was pretty easy for me when I decided to become an entrepreneur, because the first thing I have to do is to get money, get clients, convert leads, convert deals. So I would say that sales was very, very, very important for me. Without sales I would not be where I am right now.

Paul Loubao:

Even in the real estate game, when I try to take a deal down, negotiate on the buyer or either seller side, it's all about selling yourself. It's not selling yourself, but selling to try to convince the person to take your price, and most people think there's a difference between that and applying for a job. When you go to an interview, you do a sales too, because you need to convince the person to do that. When you try to date a woman, you do a sales too, because you need to convey the concept to get that. When you try to date a woman, it's sales.

Paul Loubao:

Everything in sales, like everything in life, is sales. It's to convince somebody to take a position or control something Like when you negotiate with your kid, it might be sales. Understanding, listening all of these I think there is a big misunderstanding about what sales is. They just believe that, okay, sell is just like go lie to somebody to get some money. No Selling, you just learn how to listen, learn how to convey, learn how to read people. All of this is a sales game. So I think everybody should learn that, either as a 9 to 5 or either as an entrepreneur, for sure.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I would agree with you on this and you know what, one of the things that I always sort of? I heard this while I was in Mary Kay. She was a phenomenal woman and she said that it's just as honorable to sell as it is to buy. I have never forgotten that, and we used to joke all the time about selling, because we would say what do you do when? Think about women? When you buy a great pair of jeans, what do you do you tell your friends? When you go get a good haircut, what do you do you tell your friends when you go to a good restaurant, what do you do? You tell your friends that is selling, right, we are selling every day of our lives and yet we put you know, for a lot of people it's almost like they there's this just big fear around it, right. But I think, like what you're saying and I'm listening to you and I know we could probably talk about this because I'm a big this is like a big area of conversation for me as well.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think, when you get to a place where you feel comfortable about what you're, what you have, your product right and what you can do, and you also remove your ego out of the process. You get better at asking the right questions and not taking everything so personal, and then it doesn't become that taboo, right, like. It becomes more of a I have something I can offer you. Let's see if it is something you even really need, and if it is, then let's proceed. Right, it becomes less of that. I'm trying to like push something on you, you know, and so that was something I had to really work on. So I you know.

Paul Loubao:

And so, um, that was something I had to really work on. So, uh, I think I was kind of lucky to really understand that. For me, I knew sell was another game and no matter what I was expecting a no, I cannot. So for me I said, okay, I need to learn my number. I want to have three, four clients a day, or one, two, three clients a week. How many people should I talk to, knowing I would get a no?

Paul Loubao:

And I did a good job to, you know, dissociate myself, you know, to all emotion and understand when they say no is no, no to me is no, not right now, you know or not, Because for me everybody's a buyer. They will not buy with me, but they will buy something else, maybe the same day, or they will do that. So I always try to put on myself and say, like, if I don't close, I do understand that, okay, I cannot close everyone. But at the same time I need to work on myself and prove my skill, skill. But for me the know was part of the game. I never took anything personally.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, no, that's good. And you're talking about knowing your numbers and that's a lot of what I had to do when I was in that that position where I was selling those, like trying to meet those quotas. I knew my numbers and it you'll, and you maybe, do this. I even got to a point and for anybody listening to this it's really good, because I think this is important, especially when you're starting out is to track things, like really track what, what you're doing and that's what you're saying here. You knew your numbers. I would actually do like like I was. I didn't even type this out. I took a piece of paper and I would know, like when I was making calls to book, I would say how many calls I wanted to place and how many bookings I wanted to get. And I had a.

Jennifer Loehding:

The way I set it up was I either had to make X number of booking calls to get my bookings or I had to have X number appointments. So I give myself a time frame. This might be in a two hour window, it's actually I think it was three, because I did this three days a week. So I had three days a week and I'd say from nine to noon. That's when I was working. In that time I needed to either have 10 bookings on my calendar from that session or I was going to make sure I made over.

Jennifer Loehding:

I made a hundred attempted calls, like I had a number that I was following every time. I made those calls and that way, when I got done, I felt like I had a sense of completion. But I would track this. I would actually draw these numbers and I would line them through as I went through and then, if they booked, I would circle them. Then I knew how many booked. Then, if they held, I'd fill them in, like I'd go in so that I could track this, and then I would look at how many of those actually closed a sale. So that, like what you're talking about, I knew my numbers and then I could go back and go. Okay, well, I kind of knew that mine was about a half. So it was like if I booked 10, half would go through, half of that would buy half of that I would recruit and I sort of knew the numbers.

Jennifer Loehding:

So if I was getting less than that, I could look and go okay, was this the group selection or is this something I needed to work on? Right, but I would track it over a period of time and then I could kind of see what I was doing. So I think it's very good that you're saying that about knowing your numbers and knowing you know, but also you're saying work on you, figure out what you need to make all that better.

Paul Loubao:

Yeah, because at the end of the day, like I say, everybody's a buyer. So if I didn't close someone, there is a big chain that if I put somebody else next day, the next day you're probably going to sell. So that means it's probably me, or so I always put on myself like, always try to understand that if the guy is qualified, if this person is qualified, because if the person doesn't have the money you cannot sell it. Right, yeah, financially, everything needs to be on you. Now the person is qualified, he jump on the corner either. He needs something, he spent his time to come talk to you and he got the money financially and he cannot close.

Paul Loubao:

It's not him, it's you. You got to figure it. Yeah, that makes sense. So you probably, even if you find out, you will probably never close 100%, but your ratio of closing will go higher and higher by trying to improve yourself. I agree Again, sell is like a sport. You get better by doing, by doing. By doing Like I said to people, like when I was selling insurance, I was, so I become so good by also by volume and by talking to people.

Jennifer Loehding:

I knew what the person was supposed to say before saying that's what I was talking about when you get to know the people. That's what I was getting at in the beginning when I mentioned earlier.

Paul Loubao:

You start to know patterns, right like you know what's coming before they say this one, they want to, they want to, just you know, move and try. So I need to think about it. So I was. It's, it's like, it's like sport. You need to do that every single day, or multiple times, to master the game.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's it it's good that you say that you know and and that's what I'm talking about it's that you've done it enough times that you know these, what the next, what these people? You see enough of these people that the patterns start to show up. Right, that's what I was getting at when I was saying that earlier. You start to know. It's like I used to tell people, like we studied the and you've probably done this too, I know you have we studied the disc model, which is the dog.

Jennifer Loehding:

Okay, so I could ask questions in the beginning when I would sit down with I could still do this. I can ask questions and pretty much within a minute or so, depending on how they answer, I can probably figure out how this person would need to be closed, like how this person, like how I need to work with this person, based on the like I would ask a question and we could do this because we didn't work for anybody. I know you can't do this if you actually work for somebody, but I could say to somebody Paul, tell me a little bit about yourself and, depending on what they say right there, like where they go if they start talking about their family, their accomplishments, you know, and where they've been, like I just would listen. I'd be like, okay, now I know this person. I need to stick to the facts. I need to present a lot of information. The classic example would be what do you want to know?

Jennifer Loehding:

And then I know okay, I know this is my high C person. This is the person I'm going to have to have a lot of details because they're going to be fact-checking everything I'm saying.

Paul Loubao:

And it's not a bad thing, it's good.

Jennifer Loehding:

You learn the skill, and I think it's what helps you learn to navigate, how to close people, market them and even how to proceed working with them.

Paul Loubao:

Yes, so me, I try to simplify the game, maybe because also I'm an immigrant and because of the language barrier. Also I try to simplify the game. I stop trying to read the person. I start to read the person only on the closing. Try to read the person I start. I start to read the person only on the closing. But for me, in my mind, when a prospect come on the zoom call with me and he's qualified, he's over. You know, for me it doesn't matter if he's a ebc person, you're just like it's over, I'm closing like he needs.

Paul Loubao:

Of course I will ask questions, I will ask you to understand what is the situation is. But always in my mind I say, paul, this guy needs something that way here, he needs something that way here, he needs something. So I need to just find what they really need and what is the urgency. Yeah, that's good. Now in the closing I start to read when I say, okay, I'm going to close, or they try, I need more time with them, I guess. But at the beginning in my mind I don't try to know if it's a B, c, e person, I just want to make sure they really need what they want.

Jennifer Loehding:

And then I just show them I can offer that. No, it's good, you're fine, as long as you're fine. Yeah, you're finding out what they need. I mean, that's the thing. I think it's as you know, it's about building relationships and I think we all sort of have our little style the way we do things, and I think it's you know and you figure out. I'm not wanting to tell people to change your thing. I'm like, hey, if it's working for you, keep doing your thing. You know what I mean. It's no, and that's the thing, because if I were to walk in the room and do it the way you would do, it may not work Right, it may not be a smooth right like you're too much. You know what I'm saying. There's a really good book it was interesting because I worked with this firm for a while and there's a really good you may have read. It's called Spin Selling. I liked it because it's really good for somebody who is struggling with sales, like the closing and stuff. Here's what I liked about it.

Jennifer Loehding:

You will read it and you'll probably do like I did and go oh I'm doing a lot of this stuff, but it actually puts names. Like it's got these are techniques. Like it's got a name for these techniques that we're already doing. I've been doing them for years. I never thought about it quite that way until I actually read the book and I'm like this is really good, especially for somebody who maybe has like an engineering mind, and it's like I need a step process to doing this, right Cause eventually you just get to a place where I think it just sort of becomes a natural thing because you're not thinking about it so much. But sometimes people in the beginning they kind of need that, like step by step. You know. Anyways, it's an old book, it's been around forever, but I thought it was really good for people that are trying to, you know, like just learn how to do the selling, the closing, like get to that part, you know I mean me, like, like, like you.

Paul Loubao:

As you say, each one of his own style. Me, my style is very, very challenging and not aggressive, but very challenging, and I set the tone right away. I know a lot of people disagree with me and say, don't do that, but I put my expectation right away. I know a lot of people disagree with me and say, don't do that, but I put my expectation right away. I say, hey, today my goal is to have to get business with me and then I hope we're going to do that, you know so I set up everything at the beginning right the way. So I know about.

Jennifer Loehding:

that's actually good. I read I don't know if that was in that book or where. I read that, but they were talking about when people, when people set the expectation from the beginning, there's a lot. To me it's better because when you, when you come, if you come to me and you say to me, my, my goal today is to do business with you, then I know you're trying to do business. And if I decide not to do it with you, then it's okay, because you've already been clear with me. It's cheesy, paul, when somebody calls you up and they're like hey, how you doing? And then they're beating around the bush and then they come out with, oh, by the way, I'm doing, I can. I hate it because you are just wasting my time. First of all, you wasted my time. Just cut to the chase, tell me what you want, because I think a lot of people would rather have a selling process where they sit down and they go. It's straight up, honest, my job is.

Paul Loubao:

I want to earn your business, yeah me. I don't do any reports. I do report after the closing you.

Jennifer Loehding:

And then they slide an email in your dm afterward and you're like whoa, why did you just? You had me on the phone, why didn't you like to be there at the networking event? You slide it in my dm now and I'm like no absolutely and also I would think I would.

Paul Loubao:

I would say the good thing that I did that worked for me is challenging people on the decision making. When they have they know that they have to. We all agree that they have to make a decision.

Paul Loubao:

They all agree that it's going to work for them. But there is something that block them because, as you know, you know, when you sell, when you sell high ticket price, there is some time like a mindset to move someone to go get this card or put this card. So I, my goal was to challenge everybody, you know, during the closing, say hey, like we all agree that it's going to help you. Everybody you know during the closing say hey, like we all agree that it's gonna help you. So let's be, you know, clear. If you don't do that, then we're still going, then we're still still like that.

Paul Loubao:

So do you want or you don't like, very challenging people and be very because they need to be pushed? And I don't understand. Some people need a lot of people need to be pushed and they just like to put, like, push something back where I need to procrastinate on it. Challenging people was something that's, you know, work for me. I know some people cannot do that. On the self process, yeah, to follow up all of this me. I want to close the same day, if I can, you're coaching and to be a coach, you have to do that.

Jennifer Loehding:

You have to be able to challenge people.

Jennifer Loehding:

no-transcript you're going to have a little bit of mental stuff that's going to come up in that conversation in the head, you know, and your job as a salesperson is to help take out the fear of that and the threshold to make that decision. I'm with you on that, I'm with you. I think it's a different, we're doing a different product, but I get that, that mindset of moving. You know, and I had a really good mentor that I worked with. I say I've had a lot of mentors and a really good mentor that I worked with for two years that he he was instrumental in helping me build out my high ticket course.

Jennifer Loehding:

But one of the things his whole selling process and you'll probably appreciate this was really about creating almost this FOMO. It was almost creating this taking everything away so that you did not want to move forward. You got to a place where we got to the end and I remember this is no kidding I remember at the end, when he was, he never told us the price of this pro, this mentorship we were going to go into and I kept thinking it was going to be like 20,000. I ended up paying 10,000 for this for this year deal and then I did it two years in a row, but I thought surely we got to the end. He's going to say this is like $25,000 for this mentorship, right? He comes back and he says 10 and I'm like, oh, we got this. That's how good he was at creating this process to where he got, to the end.

Jennifer Loehding:

He never even had to sell us. We were sold, we were bought into this thing and we were like sign us up. Do you know what I mean? He took all the stops out. He was really good at getting all the stuff out, Absolutely.

Paul Loubao:

I would say the most challenging for me on the high-sell ticket was qualifying people. Yeah, when I want to sell 6,000, 8,000, I need to make sure they have the money, because if they don't have the money it will not work.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, it's not going to work, I agree.

Paul Loubao:

If somebody makes 4,000, 5,000 a month or $3,000 a month, they cannot pay. They will not, Even if you put it on a payment plan. They will stop after two or three months.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, so what do you feel like has helped you in that process?

Paul Loubao:

Like, is it you got better, like at the line of questioning, like really probate, put any qualifying questions, and I was asking the qualifying questions on the Zoom. But now I'm changed. Now I ask the question of the qualification Do you have more than that? There you go. You get disqualified right away. Say hey, maybe later we can do business together. So I make sure. Everybody I talk to I make sure. But some people lie too. They do. Some people lie and then you discover that they're not very motivated. So it's part of the game.

Jennifer Loehding:

Right, right, no, but this is good and I love that you're saying this because, again, this is part of the process. Right, we progress, right, but you do enough things for a while and then you realize that ain't working. So what do you do? Change? You figure something out, right, it is a process to go through this and I love that you're doing that. And, interestingly, it's kind of funny because this is sort of when I was building out my high ticket, I had an application for this as well and I still do. I just engineered back to get my funnel, kind of like you did. But now it's interesting because I'm going through all that process where it's like I'm looking for a certain type of client, right, like we're looking for a certain, because there's, and I don't.

Jennifer Loehding:

If you're going to sell a ten dollar item, that's a different kind of client. Right, if you're going to sell a thousand dollar item, that may be a different client. Now, there may be some here that work to this level. But initially, if you go to a ten dollar client, say I'm selling you a thousand, but initially, if you go to a $10 client and say I'm selling you $1,000, no, that ain't going to happen. So you better. This is really where I think it gets down to finding your 20% of your market, finding your right market, because when you find the right market, selling becomes easier, right Because you're selling to the right people.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, that's absolutely right yeah absolutely, and so we shouldn't be. This goes to anybody listening to this. Really, unless you're selling like window cleaner that anybody can buy, most of us have a specific niche that we're trying to hone in on, and so the objective as a marketer should be really to find out, make sure you know what that market is that you're trying to get to, and find out what their pain points are and how you're going to target that and figure that out, because then you can figure out those specifics. So I love that you're doing that. Absolutely. It's working. Good for you, good stuff.

Jennifer Loehding:

I had no idea we were going to get into this whole sales call, but, thank you, that has been my like. I was in sales, for I mean, obviously I'm still in sales now, but it's very different. You know, when I was in the network marketing space, we were punching numbers and stuff. So I had to keep track of that and I had to train people on this stuff. And you know I used to talk about scripts because we had them and I would always tell them.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know, like the scripts are good. You need them when you start out, but eventually you've got to get to a place where you keep working at, like what we're talking about here, that you get comfortable enough that you don't need that anymore and you can kind of be human, you know, because if you're always following that, then you get to that spot where they throw that stump question at you and you're like, oh, where's the script? I don't know what to do. They got off script. You know what I mean? And all that just comes from the practice of practice that you are doing. Obviously it sounds like you've talked to a lot of people.

Paul Loubao:

When I was selling insurance I was buying about a 100 leads a week. I was calling, tried to call 100 people. I was maybe talking over the phone to 80 and then booked maybe 20 appointments 25 a week.

Jennifer Loehding:

You were doing like I was doing, see.

Paul Loubao:

So I was sitting with 10 to 15 people every week for two years. So good for you 20 people like a week for two years. You master sales, that's it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, you've done it. See, you've done what I did. I did that for many, many years. I used to call when I first moved to Dallas in 2004. I was part of a like welcoming neighbor thing and I used to get the leads and I would call those. That's how I started.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's how I built here in Dallas, cause I came from Houston, from Houston, I didn't know any. I didn't know a single person when I came here. So I had to. I was, I had became a director down there, so I had clients still down there, but when I came here I didn't know a single person. So I basically had to start all over again and do exactly what I did there and I ended up building it up and I did okay here, you know, and, and but I a lot of what I did in the beginning is what you're talking about was those calls and week after week after week, and I hated it. I absolutely hated it. But I I liked the results, I liked what I was getting, you know, on the other side, and I like the results.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, absolutely yeah and I had no kidding when I left um. I left the company in 2022 I still had clients. No kidding here that I had met in 2004 when I started and I still had clients. No kidding here that I had met in 2004 when I started and I still had clients in Houston when I started in 99. That.

Jennifer Loehding:

I did from those initial. Yeah, it was hard. When I left I was actually sad because I found, you know, like I hooked them up. But I was kind of sad because I'd done all this work and I'd had these people that for so long that I built these relationships, like I saw their kids grow up and they saw mine, you know, and and then I was like, well, I needed to, I needed to go into, I'd gotten what I needed from that was a season and I needed to do some different things and I knew that that was just kind of it was becoming kind of a burden. So I learned a lot of great skills while I was there.

Jennifer Loehding:

So, yeah, well, exciting. So some fun things. I want to ask you, I want to know what you have learned about yourself in this eight years, this journey.

Paul Loubao:

I think what I learned about myself the most is I'm a big competitor. Big competitor I I I like here in the United States, is like this country week, my uh, the fact that I've challenged myself. I really want to be the number one. You know, I know I'll probably not never be the number one of our country, but at least on my end issue my circle I always want to perform well. So I know some people will probably disagree with me on that, but I compare myself always to somebody in order for me to reach, you know, my target. That's kind of a target.

Jennifer Loehding:

I see what you mean.

Paul Loubao:

So I study people but also, at the same time, I watch. You know what they do and how can I get to their level. You know, I don't challenge myself. I don't compare myself to me, like people say, oh, compare yourself, compare this journey to yourself. No, me. I compare always myself to someone. I say, okay, if this guy made that, I want to make that too. What should I do every day to get it? And I become obsessed with the process if I don't make it. You know now. I know it's not for everybody, because you need to have a very strong mindset to try to challenge somebody who makes 10 million a year if you see them Stuff like that. But it's one thing that I had. I mean, I never had the chance to explore that and it's something that now I have on me. I like to compete. I feel that I'm like a sportive. Right now I'm in business.

Jennifer Loehding:

I don't think there's anything wrong with this if it's serving you well, because I even like, when I was in that mentorship, the guy that I was working with we talked a lot about like Warren Buffett, elon Musk and like and Jeff Bezos, and I mean all of these. You know, charlie Munger. You probably are familiar with all of these.

Jennifer Loehding:

We talked about Ray Dalio. We talked about all I would have never known I mean other than, like I know, obviously, elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. I would have never known about Ray Daly or Charlie Munger any of those had I not been in that program. But he talked about this, talked about studying these people. And here's the thing in all the years that I was in sales, we were always told to go up to people that were above us. Right, because if you're trying to grow and you're talking to people that are on the same level, it's great to have them for, like, maybe, accountability or a peer group, but they're where you are.

Jennifer Loehding:

And you're only ever going to rise to the people that where you're going, right, you always have to put yourself in a circle with people that are ahead of you of where you want to be. Because you're that's, you're going to keep rising to that level of the people that are in your circle. So if you're the smartest person in the room, you probably need to go into a new room right and find, I don't know that that's bad, what?

Paul Loubao:

you're doing. So what do you say to people who say okay, you need to compare to yourself, do one step at a time. Don't watch anyone get better. Your competition is yourself. What do you say?

Jennifer Loehding:

to that. Well, I think it depends, and you might agree, maybe do or don't. I think it depends on the person you have a fire like. I have a fire Like me. To look at people that are doing better than me inspires me. It kicks me in the butt because I look at them and I think what are they doing? What do they have Like, what is it they're doing? And I want to study it and I want to figure out, and I do the same thing. I find people that are doing what I want to do that are better, and I study what they're doing and try to think what is it that people are like, attracted to, that like?

Paul Loubao:

you know what I mean and it's not because I devalue myself.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's because I value my work and I like the competition and I like the learning.

Jennifer Loehding:

But I think it depends on the person you know what I'm saying because people like you or myself which I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like that, we thrive on that, right, we fight everything. Well, yeah, yeah. And for us would be like, if you put us in a circle with people that are doing what we're doing, it's great, we're going to talk about what we're, but we're not going to be inspired, right, because they're not where we want to be. They're where we are. We want to be somewhere else, right? So you know, then, I guess that's where they, and I'm not I don't want to say it's a bad thing. That may be what they need. You know what I'm saying, and so I think that's and you're probably figuring that out as coaches that we serve, there are people that that like us and they what we say resonates, and they're going to be like yeah, paul, what you're talking about, right on, there are other people that are going to be like I can't do that Right?

Jennifer Loehding:

I had this, I had this conversation with so I had a sleep coach on the show one day and we were talking about these watches. I have a sleep watch. She said okay, so me personally. I love this thing, but whenever I am not sleeping well, it makes it stresses me out. I have to take it off because I will start seeing red lines on my watch and.

Jennifer Loehding:

I get more stressed out now because I know that I'm not well, but the watch is telling me that too. It's like reiterate, so I have to just take it off. I take it off. And she was talking about how, for her it's like I forgot the word she said it becomes sort of kind of like a um, like an accessory, it just kind of. And for me most of the time it does Right, right, but there are times it doesn't. And she said for other people it stresses them out, she tells them just take your watch off, just take it off. So you see what I'm saying.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think we I think the point we have to know is like know our, our strengths and our weaknesses, whereas you and I know that we, we are going to thrive in an environment where we're with people that are where we want to be, everybody, everybody. I feel like we all should be doing that. I agree with you, I think we all should, but I don't think everybody. I think to do that, you have to be willing to accept where you are All right and your weaknesses. You got to be honest with yourself, because you have to be okay with saying I'm not where I want to be because I'm not doing what I need to do to get there. That's it, and that takes a certain amount of honesty right, absolutely.

Paul Loubao:

You and I are on the same page. This is what I say to my prophet. I say where you are right now is just based on the way you think, or the information that you have To move to the next step, something new to change, no matter what. So right, there's no secret sauce or magic or stuff like that.

Jennifer Loehding:

So yeah, that's the thing with coaching. You're probably figuring that out. I mean, I always tell people like I'm not the band-aid coach, like I'm the person that gets to the root of why I do. I do deal with the head stuff like why people you're talking about, why people get stuck on things. I work through the emotion of that stuff to get them past it so that they can create the change they want, whatever.

Jennifer Loehding:

But not everybody wants to get honest because that requires work, and so a lot of times what I find is I'll work with people and I always say we sort of had that, this coming to Jesus moment, where the real comes, and then I give them probably like you do where it's like okay, you have to decide, do you want to continue the same pattern and stay where you are or do you want to make a change? That's going to have to come from you, because you either cross over or you stay over here and you have to draw that line in the sand to cross over. So I say those are the coming to Jesus moments in life. So, anyways, I love what you're doing. Any you know. I know you probably have had a lot of mentors along the way, but anything that stands out in your mind, maybe a book that you feel like was like pivotal in your journey, or maybe a particular mentor that came into your path.

Paul Loubao:

Yeah, I studied with people when I came here. I started because one of the ways for me to learn English was to read a book.

Paul Loubao:

And instead of reading. You know different books. I started to read books from finance and you know people that can inspire me, so I started to study Tony Robbins. I studied Warren Buffett. This was my two firsts, right, I also studied Eric Thoma, which is a Mochison speaker also. I would say this top three was my first kind of mentor. Warren Buffett was more for entrepreneurship and finance. All of this Tony Robbins was also. As you see, my goal was, you know, still always try to become a speaker. So Tony Robbins was also because, as you see, my goal was, you know, still always try to become a speaker. So Tony Robbins was one of that. I used to learn how he start and how he start to inspire people and do all the motivational stuff yeah, good for you.

Jennifer Loehding:

Good for you. Well, whenever you're not doing all your your amazing work that you're doing, what do you? What do you? What's the fun stuff in your life? What do you enjoy doing here in the dallas area?

Paul Loubao:

oh, soccer, I'm a soccer fan, oh yes, so very cool, and watching soccer. Of course our friends we hang out, you know, go drink and yeah, most of my social stuff is all about business. So when I meet someone we, you know, I I don't, I will say that I don't have. I have old friend like friend, that I you know. But here in dallas I have business partner and we become friends. So when, when we hang out together, I would say in 90 is all about business and we enjoy it well and you enjoy what you do.

Jennifer Loehding:

So when you enjoy what you do, their work sort of kind of becomes your life and all that. So, yeah, I mean I get it. People always ask me, though, what do you like to do for fun? I'm like, well, I network and I I mean I do read and I do work out, but I mean I podcast and I enjoy that because I get to have these conversations. It's fun, I enjoy the conversations. That's my work, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

So it's good, though it means you're passionate about what you do and and that that shows and you need to be, because if you didn't enjoy what you were doing, then that would not be cool, right? Well, this has been good. I'm so excited. This has been a fun conversation and you dropped a lot of good information. We talked, got to talk about sales, which I think is important for everybody in business, so we got to have a really good conversation on that. If our audience wants to get in touch with you, maybe they want to learn a little bit more about your company, maybe they want to reach out to you, learn from you. Who knows, where would you like us to send them?

Paul Loubao:

Yeah, sure they can reach out to me on Instagram. It's going to be the best place to reach out to me. They can also go on Google and type PCL Housing Commerce. They will find my website and they can reach out to me. So I will say, as you know, there is two groups. There is a PCL housing commerce, which is going to be only for real estate. If anybody would like to buy real estate either commercial, residential or land they can retire to me. If they want to sell, I can help them sell as well, finding a buyer. And then for the coaching part, it's the PCL University. They can retire to me. Also on Instagram. We can jump on Zoom and I can show them how they can reach out to me also on Instagram. We can jump on the Zoom and I can show them how they can start in real estate and start to be wealthy now for next year, I'll be bridging two other courses.

Paul Loubao:

This one is going to be a crazy one because I'm going to combine business and real estate and then present this course to, most likely, reuters or anybody who would like to become a business broker.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it. Right, cool, I wish you much success on this upcoming adventure you got going on.

Paul Loubao:

I know.

Jennifer Loehding:

I feel like I'm kind of doing some, not that, but I feel like I'm sort of in this stage where you are too, where I'm kind of trying to build on. I've got these separate things going on, bringing them together and a lot of little pieces that you got to put into place, right. But I think as long as you keep your passion and you're focused, it'll all come together. So I wish you much success on that. I hope it all works out. You get to give your speaking gigs in.

Paul Loubao:

Yes, absolutely. If you don't know, probably next year or in 2026, we'll see.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, We'll make sure too, when this goes out, that we get you the links in there so people know where to find you and all of that good stuff too.

Jennifer Loehding:

So we appreciate you jumping on here and sharing your story with us and thank you so much. I hope it all, I hope all these amazing things keep running in the right direction for you. It's been fun. Thank you so much. Yeah, all right. And to our audience, we hope you have found this episode both inspiring and informative and, of course, you can head on over to whatever your favorite platform is, hit that, subscribe, like comment, do whatever, share it so that we can continue to share this awesome content with you. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another and we will see you next time. Thank you.

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