Paul, tell me your story. What has happened since you came to First Steps To Success 4 years ago?
Prior to First Steps To Success, I was trudging through life bored, shackled by debt, and my favorite part of life was sleeping. I was in a decent paying job, but my future was as a slave to my 401K, and in danger of being crushed should any calamities happen.

Because of the skills you teach, Dani, the company I work with created a brand new position for me in the midst of laying off 25-year employees. I make my own hours and control my own destiny. I’ve married the woman of my dreams, tripled my income, paid off $150K of debt in 4 years, and I get to help build orphanages around the world.

So tell me what it was like to work inside of your company while they were laying off long-time employees left and right? Did you think you were next?
Well, when you look around and you see people who have been pillars within the company, and they’re just disappearing, you have to question what’s going on. You have to question what’s going to happen to you. I KNEW I was next. I knew it was just a matter of time.

How did you fix it? How did you not get cut?
I used Job Domination. The strategies you taught in that training completely changed the way I looked at work… the way I looked at life, really. I started using those tools and it was so quick. It was amazing the way things turned around!

What is one tip you used from Job Domination?
The one thing that made the biggest difference was changing the way I thought about my position. If I were the owner of the company, how would I want this job to be done? What would I want this person to do? Once I started looking at it from that perspective and not from my own needs and wants, then everything changed.

It was no longer me trying to be served. I wanted to build the company and see it succeed. I wanted to make the changes I knew would be good in the long run. Instead of looking around, wondering why I wasn’t getting noticed or why I wasn’t getting a raise, I started looking for ways to help the company move forward.

Before, I was always looking for what I could get out of it, what am I doing, where am I going? It was all about me.

But when you focus on yourself, it’s really easy to start feeling sorry for yourself. I found when I’m focusing on a goal, when I’m focusing on moving forward, I feel better and it gives me purpose.

What happened when you started making these changes?
I’m a software developer, so typically I am in front of my computer. But I lifted my head up and started looking around for ways I can actually bring some money to the company and take the ideas I had and share them with people who can actually benefit from them. I started seeing how I could get the company name out there. I volunteered for company events, just to get the company out there and bring in some new business.

That’s something I never would have done in the past, because what good would it do for me to spend 4 hours volunteering for something and not getting paid?

But within a couple of months, I got a 20% raise! I got additional raises over the following year, and I actually doubled my income that way.

I was on the same path as those employees who got laid off after 25 years of working for the company, until I got ahold of Job Domination.

I have often asked the question, “God, why did I not have this training before?!” But I had to get to a point where I could listen and learn before I could get these results.

What else has happened?
Part of this journey has been meeting Heather, the woman of my dreams, and marrying her. We were both on a path where we had to go and learn and He put us together.

We’ve paid off $150K of debt. My whole family – parents, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews – has paid off over a million dollars of debt.

What would you say to those who are in the same position you were in just a few years ago?
The key is to just realize you’re not where you want to be. There’s no shame in not knowing something – you just have to start learning it and start walking in it.

Becoming part of a community like this, where not only are you learning and falling and getting picked back up, but you’re all walking the same path and you can’t help but to get where you want to go! You just have to show up, start learning, and you will be amazed how quickly things can turn around. You can change things you had no idea you even wanted to change! It’s all for the better.

Don’t accept the idea that things will never change. That is not what you were designed for! You were designed to progress and be happy and lead a family or a business, or whatever your calling is! You CAN get there! But you have to be willing to push aside all the things that are in your way of getting there. Just take the first step!