In this episode of The Goldmine Podcast, we sit down with our friend and entrepreneur Paul Galushkin for a wide-ranging and inspiring conversation. Paul shares his journey from immigrating to the U.S. from Ukraine as a child to building multiple successful businesses with his wife and partner, Tatyana. We explore the pivotal moments that shaped his mindset—from working with his hands as a teen to launching a real estate brokerage, flipping homes, and most recently, opening a wellness center.
The conversation digs into themes of faith, family, fatherhood, personal responsibility, and how entrepreneurship often requires resilience, stress tolerance, and choosing the right mindset even in uncertainty. Paul also opens up about his Christian upbringing and how it fuels his sense of purpose in business and in life.
Whether you're a business owner, aspiring entrepreneur, or just someone seeking to live more intentionally, this episode offers wisdom and perspective on building a meaningful life—one decision at a time.
Paul Galushkin grew up in Sacramento after immigrating from Ukraine at age 8 — one of 13 children. He started working in high school to buy his own car, eventually built a flooring business with his dad, got into real estate with his wife and business partner Tatiana, opened their own brokerage in 2011, and has since expanded into general contracting, new construction, and a wellness center franchise. His story is one of consistent forward motion — building on each business without abandoning the lessons from the last one.
Paul and Tatiana made a deliberate choice early on that they wanted to be present parents — attending games, doing school drop-offs, being involved. When their first son was born, it became a hard deadline. Paul describes holding his newborn in the delivery room and feeling the full weight of responsibility land in an instant. That moment didn't slow him down — it focused him. He and Tatiana began thinking about how to build businesses that worked without them being present around the clock, rather than just building high-output jobs for themselves.
Paul spent nine months at a credit union before getting let go in a situation he describes as strange and unexpected. His first instinct was to fight to get the job back — even though he hated it. By the next morning, the clarity hit: this was the door opening he'd been waiting for. He got into real estate in 2010 when almost no one wanted to touch it — foreclosures, short sales, a collapsed market — and he saw exactly that as the opportunity. The lesson he takes from it: the ending of something you didn't even want can be the beginning of something much better.
Paul didn't set out to have multiple businesses. What happened is that real estate naturally split into three distinct income streams — buyer/seller commissions, house flipping, and new construction — and he started treating each as its own business with its own principles. Once he understood that most business fundamentals apply across industries, the mental framework was there to consider other opportunities. When the wellness center franchise came along, he wasn't looking for it — but it fit his values around holistic health, had a proven business model, and gave him a chance to apply everything he'd already learned about systems, staffing, and customer service.
One of the most honest moments in the conversation: the night before the wellness center was set to open, Paul couldn't sleep. Hundreds of unresolved items were racing through his head — licenses, insurance, equipment, staffing, a lease payment starting in days. His own internal monologue was: what have I gotten into? What helped him turn the corner was a simple reframe. Instead of catastrophizing, he asked: what's the actual worst case, and what's one phone call I can make tomorrow to handle it? That shift — from spiral to action — is something he credits to intentional reading and the influence of his faith. He didn't pretend the stress wasn't real. He just chose not to let it drive.
Paul shares a reflection he had while washing his truck — thinking about why so many people from Ukraine and the former Soviet Union ended up in America. His family came from a context where Christianity was persecuted and faith was dangerous. His grandfather was beaten in a classroom for being a Christian. Paul's conclusion: people who came through that kind of adversity carry a set of values and a strength of character that thrives here — and maybe that's the point. Not just to enjoy freedom, but to model and share something that gets lost when life gets comfortable.
The closing stretch of the conversation zeroes in on attitude as the root variable in almost everything — health, business, relationships, society. Paul's practical take: you don't have to climb the whole mountain today. You make one small decision that points in the right direction. His example is literal: open the pantry, reach for pistachios instead of chips. Not because it's a big win, but because you know where you're trying to go, and you don't want to feel regret tomorrow. Self-denial isn't only losing something — it's planting a seed. The return is indirect but real.
Paul recommends Power vs. Force by David Hawkins — a book about the energy behind thoughts, decisions, and attitudes, and why certain approaches to life produce fundamentally different outcomes than others.
