From Stalled To Full Speed Ahead: Dominick Carruba

Feeling busy yet strangely stuck? We sit down with Marine veteran and sales leader turned trainer, Dominic Carruboa, to unpack why capable teams stall and how to build systems that actually scale. Dominic shares hard-won lessons from selling insurance in his twenties to leading 1,500 door-to-door reps and later rebuilding from the pain of losing a business. His throughline is refreshingly direct: if the engine can’t deliver the outcome, stop tuning and start redesigning.

We dig into the difference between stalling and hitting a natural plateau, then challenge the comfortable habit of tweaking tactics while leaving core assumptions untouched. Dominick walks us through a practical way to review your business at multiple zoom levels—daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly—so you course-correct before drift becomes derailment. From there, we explore the 10x filter and how aiming bigger forces clarity. Doubling often invites harder work for small gains; 10x requires you to discard non-scalable strategies, pick the right “who,” and construct processes that don’t depend on heroics.

You’ll hear why aligning people, processes, and platforms is non-negotiable for revenue growth, and how to choose or even ignore technology based on whether it clears the path for sales. We talk identity-level change—being, doing, having—and why ownership over results is empowering, not punitive. Dominic also shares how peer groups and mentors provide the perspective you can’t find in the mirror, helping you decide whether you’re on the right wall before you climb faster.

If your pipeline is plateauing, conversion is flat, or your team is thrashing between tools, this conversation gives you a clear checklist: clarify the aim, challenge the premise, choose the right engine, and review relentlessly. Subscribe, share with a teammate who needs a reset, and leave a review telling us which assumption you’re changing this week.

Transcript

Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_02 0:00

If you're stalled, it just means something's not working that you've not yet identified that needs adjustment. Just like an engine stalls or a plane stalls, right? The physics of motion and the way aerodynamics work versus the way a car works, all that stuff, right? Every there's a system and a mechanism to life.

Meet Dominic Carubo

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Welcome again to the Commission Code Podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to listen and join us here today. We're here to help you increase your business revenue and have time to enjoy it. I'm your host, Morris Sims, and I've been consulting and training business people for, well, let's just say over 40 years. We're focused on increasing revenue and having time to enjoy it. After years as a professional salesperson, I spent 32 years in the corporate world. I retired as vice president and chief learning officer of the sales department of a large insurance company, where we designed and built and delivered training for over 12,000 professional salespeople. Now I get to consult one-on-one helping people grow their business and organize themselves to make the most of the time they have. We also build online courses to support business owners in their work if they strive to build the business that they've always wanted. Our objective is really very simple. It's this we're here to help you get what you want from your business and your life. So, right now, let's get on with this episode. Dominic Carubo is our guest today on the Commission Code. Dominic is a veteran, a veteran of the Marine Corps. Dominic, thank you for your service. I had a good time. And we welcome you to the Commission Code, buddy. Um, tell us a little bit about you and what you do.

Early Sales And Leadership Journey

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Well, I started, I was telling you earlier before the recording started, I started sales at a pretty early age, and the hardest sales there is in the most competitive, right? And because my brothers thought it was a good idea to take me out of bartending and into not making money for a couple of years. So I sold life insurance and investment to people twice my age when I was in my 20s. Uh, I did that for a few years, left the Marine Corps to go in the Army National Guard, hated it so bad I got a commission as an officer because that's the only honorable way out. You can't quit. Decided to stay for a few years because as an officer, you can up the standards. And I did that. And um, but when I was in my officer training, desert a little little disruptance in the world called Desert Shield started. And that that disrupted my insurance business because I was away for six months anyway for training. Came back, there's a war. I didn't know if I was going or not. And I got in the phone business and I started enjoying my nights and weekends free, not working, as you know, in that business. And um, you know, built a sales team at a pretty early age before I was 25. I had 1,500 salespeople that I'd recruited and trained over five states, knocking on doors for the bell companies. That led to me owning a phone company, which led to me losing my first million dollars. So I learned a lot about the phone business, uh, the hard way. And then when I left that, the only thing I really enjoyed doing was training as an entrepreneur. Like all the things you have to do as an entrepreneur. I really love the training piece. So that became my career over the next 27 years. And in the last 10 or 12, because I trained a lot of technology, I really got into the technology side. So the people, the processes, and the platforms are my passion trying to help revenue grow with the people along with it and uh how they adjust the technology, adapt to it, use it, and even ignore it when it's when it's necessary. Because salespeople make everything happen. They just um are different breed and not everything's built for them. And I just love I love helping salespeople deal with what they have to deal with and helping other people try to understand how to make it better for them.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Well, I think you're right. I think that uh that pretty well sums it up and and gives us a place to begin. Dominic, you mentioned you see a lot of folks out there that you work with, that they're business owners or salespeople who have stalled at some point. Yeah. Why do why do people stall and what do they do about it?

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Well, they get, you know, it's a good question. So, first, let let's define what I'm gonna talk. So sometimes stalling or getting stuck. I don't know if you're making a distinction about that, but I I think so. Even when we exercise or we diet, uh we it's I think it's natural that we stall or that we hit plateaus, right? I mean it's just it's an adaptation to a conditioning. Like if you eat the same thing every day, and in the beginning, if it's a low diet, you'll you'll lose weight, but then your body will adapt. It'll it'll consume those less calories better, and then you plateau, right? So you got to change things up. So I think I listened to uh a really great, I was having a conversation with somebody yesterday about it. It's not often that we challenge the results or we challenge the actions we're taking. Sometimes we forget to challenge the assumptions we're making that drive the whole thing, like to take a step back. And right, and in my life, I know I've done a lot of workshops, personal development, sales, you have to do that to kind of maintain the psychotic nature of being a commission-only salesperson. So uh anything I can do to motivate myself, and I've learned that a lot of times, you know, taking a break from what you're doing and reflecting and observing and challenging the things you know to be true as if they're not true. Another way to say that is I'm a contrarian by training and then I learn to challenge my assumptions because getting stalled is really just a pattern of results, in my opinion, right? I see that happen in sales, marketing, relationships, health, diet, all of that stuff. We that's maybe it's natural, but being stuck in it is forgetting that you as an individual, as a leader, as a human being, can actually stop and take a look and see is what am I really doing?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

What how am I really thinking?

SPEAKER_02 6:36

What am I what am I how am I being?

unknown 6:39

Right?

From Phone Company To Trainer

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Because being, doing, and having, if we looked at the three states of a human being, uh every once in a while you gotta you gotta put the hat on all three to take a look because if you're stalled, it just means something's not working that you've not yet identified that needs adjustment. Just like an engine stalls or a plane stalls, right? The the the physics of motion uh and the way aerodynamics work versus the way a car works, way all that stuff, right? Every there's a system and a mechanism to life. And if we can identify the patterns and I and clarify what is stuck, what is stalled, what what's not moving that we want to be moving, and then challenge really sometimes I challenge what why do I want this to move at all? What's what's good about it, what's bad about it, what do I want to have different? Why? What's important about that? Like so there's a there's a there's um there's a reflection that I think helps leaders if they remember to take the time to do it. But oftentimes entrepreneurs, I know what happens to me all the time is the ADHD leader, right? I just get in I get in high gear and I'm pedals down and I'm moving and I'm I'm making a lot of ground, even though I'm headed the wrong direction sometimes, right? You know, you gotta uh I think Stephen Covey said it. You you you climb that ladder only to find out you're on the wrong wall. Yeah, absolutely. And that was a brilliant thing that hit me hard when I read that book back in 1991, the first time when it came out. Um that was a that was that was a transformational line. That was a transformational statement. And uh I think I think a lot of times in my work I found a lot of people just forget to remember what and why they're doing what they're doing and see if it they're on the right track, you know. And that why just is is so important. Sure. As a matter of fact, I I last year I read a book, and now I've only read a few books in my life. I've listened to hundreds, maybe even a thousand more books. Because my the way I process, I listen better than I read. I read Tony Robbins' book, Unlimited Power, when I was in the Army Officer Candidate, uh Army Officer Basic Course. And then last year I read the book 10X is easier than 2X, and I read that book in two days. And it's not a thick book. It's a it's a probably a normal person can read it in a week, but they just read it, but I just I got it, I consumed it. And and what was in that book was again, it repeated if if you're doing something and it's hard, maybe you shouldn't be doing it. Like maybe there's something bigger that you know uh the 20R engine that Toyota made that was in my 1977 Celica was awesome, but it wouldn't win an indie race. So no matter how much work I do on that engine, its capacity is limited. But if I want to win an indie car race, F1 or whatever those guys are, I don't really know watch NASCAR. I'm gonna watch NASCAR now.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

But like I need something. Wait a minute, Dominic. You live in Atlanta, you must watch NASCAR. That's a requirement.

Why Businesses Stall

SPEAKER_02 10:02

I've been to the NASCAR races in Atlanta and Talladega. Oh, yeah. And uh I do like it, and I have followed my buddy got me hooked on it. I I do follow a little bit, and I can't wait till March. By the way, um Red Bull's doing an F1. Yep. And I found it, I found an F1 PlayStation here in town. There's two of them actually you can drive a simulated F1. I can't wait to do that. But the point of- No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to give us off track. No, that's I can get off and on track, no problem. But if it's bigger, it will if I have a goal that's 10x versus 2x, what I loved of that message is it creates a great filter for all the things that really won't move the needle anyway. Like to move the needle 2x is hard. To move it 10x is nearly impossible if you use strategies that aren't designed for that type of growth. So that led me to his other book, which is Who Not How and the other book, Gap in the Gain. And I discovered things about myself that I've been working on the last year. In order to have an impact bigger than what I can do on my own, I'm gonna need other people, which is why I'm reaching out and making myself known to the world instead of keeping all these ideas to one class, one company, one project at a time, where they didn't get traction because it was the wrong environment. So now I'm looking for leaders that are open to conversations about really moving their organization and then get those people, the processes, and the platforms aligned so that they're you're building a whole different engine, a rocket engine, instead of uh you know, really good four-cylinder Toyota engine that lasted for 30, 40 years in their in their process, in their production. That makes sense. I mean, that makes sense, right, Morris? I'm not talking crazy, am I? Because I'm all by myself. Who knows what I'm saying sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

I understand. I understand. So you're installed, you're on, you're on this plateau. First thing you got to do is stop and and think about what you really want, why you want it, and then look at how you're getting there. And are you looking at just trying to tweak it, or are you trying to actually build something significantly bigger? Is that did I did I capture that well?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Yeah, it might, and you know, it it might just it might just so when I went back to college in 2003 to get my to finish my degree. Remember, I dropped out early on at 21, I came back at 36, said I probably should finish the degree. So I went to UGA and I took this program, all master's level courses, so people like me who were corporate trainers could have their degree that fit what the world needed for corporate trainers, right? And it was all master's degrees, and I got it. And that's when I learned more about systems thinking. So yeah, you get caught up in the minutiae that down, right? So one times sometimes 10x is easier because because you can look at the bigger picture and then drill down to the mechanics of it. But if you don't stop and take a look to get perspective, you know, you're the best you're gonna see is a refle is a reflection of yourself, not necessarily yourself. Like you've never seen your own face, you've only ever seen a reflection or a picture of it, right? That's why we don't like looking ourselves in pictures all the time. I mean, I don't mind it, but some people don't like looking at themselves. Um we never see ourselves. We need perspective. And and that only comes from stopping and asking for it and getting it from people who can see something different. And that's why I belong to mentor groups, that's why I belong to, you know, places where I can watch others learn from them and and and in a community setting get some perspective. Well myself at my position.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. It really does. And it's something that uh I think you gotta do in the olden days, you used to be well, that's an annual thing, but in reality, you probably have to do that more often than once a year.

Challenge Assumptions, Not Just Actions

SPEAKER_02 14:19

I mean, if you uh think of it, I was I always wanted to be a pilot when Top Gun came out, but I never really was suited for piloting. Um when I found out later, I found out later. But I do know this if you don't constantly adjust as a pilot or a sailor or a driver, you're gonna go off course because that's the nature of life. Being off course, making the adjustment, right? And so if you only look at your adjustments once a year while you're driving to California, you might not notice that you're in Canada because you went from the south, right? Yeah. So yeah, I I always like I I don't know, I don't always do this, right? Because I but I try to tell people, look, there's there's a when David Allen wrote his book, Getting Things Done, the key ingredient was not the structure, it was the review. And Cubby talked about that a lot, you know, like what's important but not urgent is what you need to add, make time for, right? But you don't you won't until you look at what's in the way. Can I reflect? Sometimes I do it daily. I recommend daily looking at your week, weekly looking at your month, monthly your quarter, quarter your year, year your life. But you know, to take those times and respites. And and and and those are great theories. Just do what you can and reflect and go, geez, let me just stop and navigate a little and just stop, see where I'm at. It's when I learned how to do land navigation in the military, like it's reorienting yourself to the map, because the map is not your reality, but you also have to compare your reality to try to find yourself on the map. That's that's how you don't get lost. That's how you can keep moving in the direction you want to go and see if it's you know, if you're actually heading toward the destination you said. It also helps if you don't keep changing your destination. I've learned that the hard way, too.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Well, that gets back to what we were talking about. You've got to stop and take a look at things, but uh you don't necessarily want to do that every day. Once you make a decision and start moving toward it, you better focus on that and make it work, or at least try and make it work, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:31

At least making it work is a great way to say it, Morris. You know, is everything works. Everything works. But the question is, is that the result you're committed to? And here's the truth that nobody likes hearing every result you have in your life, except your hair and your height. No hairs now, I'm saying that, I don't mean that, but I have mine, you know. Like if I wanted a full hair of hair, I just gotta go make more money and buy it now, right? That's all I have to do is go buy, right? That's right. Your height, a little harder, but some people are trying it. Some things are immutable, they are the way they are, at least we think to what we have or know right now. Everything else is a result of a choice. You made all the choices that led you where you are today, whether you meant to or not, you did it. And the and the easy I used to uh I used to say this all the time to be the person you always want to be is as fast as deciding that who you are is it. But if you don't like it, well, shut up and do something about it. Are you asking? Why are you bugging me about it? If you you made all the choices to be who you are, to have what you have, to do what you do, to be who you be. All right, make a different choice. And the life and the world changes in an instant.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yep, it does. It is. We become what we think about. There's no doubt about it. No doubt about it. Now we think about it for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Not just what, but how, how often, when, all those things, right? All those things are oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

100%. 100%. Hey Dominic, this has been great, man. Thank you so much for being on the commission code. I've enjoyed it. It has been fun. It has been fun. Thanks again. Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the commission code to success in your business. Remember, go to MorrisTims.com for more information. And in the meantime, hey, have a great week. Get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes, I'm Morris Sims.