I met Dominick because, well, he said ‘Hi.’ That is one thing you have to love about someone who writes upbeat, motivational books with humor. They are nice and motivated!
I know this blog is usually geared toward fantasy, but running into Dominick felt like karma pointing me in this direction. He and I share some common experiences from life in Pennsylvania to waiting tables. He’s had some real set backs and he’s scaled the heap of problems to come out not only on top, but smiling too! It got me reflecting that maybe I’m such an optimistic person, pretty much assured that life will work out because I’ve gotten slammed down, skinned my knees, and crawled right back up to realize ‘Hey, I learned from that! And I survived. Cool!” There is something about having gone through the rough patches full of all the things like to scratch you up and coming out on the other side with a handful of raspberries, whistling a happy tune.
When you meets those sort of people, you just know they are someone you’d like to know. Dominick is definitely one of those people.
Plus, I get to help him celebrate publishing his first book Don’t Double Bread the Fish, out now through Motivational Press, but it was only last weekend that his website went live! Talk about a great time to sit him down and have an author interview!
So without further ado, I’d like you to meet Dominick Domasky:
1. You are the author of a forth coming motivation book called Don’t Double Bread the Fish being published by Motivation Press. There has got to be a story behind that title? When will the book be available?
Honestly a few things led me directly to the title. One, I’m a big fan of motivational authors and the greats who have come before me like Zig Ziglar. Like Zig, I write short chapters each with a unique and hopefully catchy title. Don’t Double Bread the Fish is a chapter in my book and double breading is a restaurant reference. Now I’d love to tell you the story but I’m sworn to secrecy by my publisher so you’ll have to buy the book. I’m a big fan of Artie Lange, Howard Stern’s old side kick, and he had a book called Too Fat to Fish. I enjoyed reading it and thought his title was catchy. I figured maybe I could pay homage to a few authors that paved the way for me while using a phrase that was close to my heart
I’m pleased to say the book is now available for order on my website www.motivationchamps.com and in the next few days it should be up on www.barnesandnoble.com and www.amazon.com
2. Tell me a little more about yourself and your personal journey, which you’ve said has been quite difficult at times.
I’m a father of two, a supporter of JDRF, a loving husband, former business owner, inspirational writer, and a cold calling commercial insurance salesman. Difficulty is all in the eye of the beholder I believe. You say difficult, I’ll say seasoned. I grew up a skinny runt with buck teeth and an affinity for getting punched in the face. I worked in the fields of my father’s landscape company where I learned the value of hard work through hard work and also I learned that success didn’t happen overnight. I took those early lessons and applied them to everything in my life, the only problem was I failed over and over.
3. Tell me a little about what inspired you to write this novel? More specifically, what do you think has inspired you to overcome the obstacles in your life?
I really think it was the perfect storm of multiple things so to speak. When I was young and dopey my dad bought me an inspirational book about persistence that he believed in. It was by the famous author Og Mandino. I didn’t necessarily understand it all at the time, but that was definitely my introduction into positive thinking. Years later after a few setbacks I arrived at a job in sales being penniless and broke. My new company and management team was big on positive thinking and even bigger on writing your goals down. Once I put my pen to the pad to write my goals, I thought, Hey, I have something positive I need to say. I wrote first book on the front of that notebook and poured my soul into it. Eight years later Don’t Double Bread The Fish is here.
4. Could you describe a time that when you were going through it you would have said it was the worst thing that had ever happened to you but now, looking back, you realize was one of the things that has come to most define you?
Somewhere in my DNA, somehow I’m a guy who has always been able to believe in himself. Believe it or not it can be a blessing or a curse. As a young man I convinced my loving wife to come along for the ride and help me open a restaurant. She came along, our business collapsed and I dragged our family about 500,000 in debt. We lost everything we had. My wife got a second job and third job and I got a paper route. We got sued more times than I can count or care to remember, I borrowed money from everyone with a pulse and I even had a warrant out for my arrest. I have a chapter in the book and a belief that no failure will ever define you, unless you let it. You ask looking back does it define me, I say, Heck No! Mold me, shape me, inspire me; Yes. Define me, never!
5. You have overcome many obstacles in your life. What is your perspective now? Do you seek out new challenges or are you seeking a place of contentment?
Now days I see challenges as opportunities. If I see something that intrigues me or something that I want, I’m no longer afraid to tell the world my goals and go for it. As Winston Churchill said, Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Content never.
6. What are your hopes for the future? Do you have another book in the works?
My hopes for the future are first that my kids grow up to understand in this world anything is possible, whatever they set their minds to they can achieve. As for me, I hope people read my book Don’t Double Bread The Fish, laugh, maybe shed a tear, reflect, and say, “I can get through this, I can do this.”
As far as my next project, I’m working on a book I’m calling The Grunt. It’s about every job or task I ever had from cleaning the bottom of the barn to owning a restaurant and what I learned from it.
7. Tell me a little about working with your publisher? I’m solely an indie author, so that is an entirely different world for me. Have you enjoyed it? Did you ever consider going Indie?
Working with a publisher has been awesome experience and a learning experience, up until now I’ve shoveled ditches and sold insurance so selling books was completely foreign to me. I knew I had a story I needed to tell the world, but I also knew I lacked the expertise and the finances to make that happen, so as for going Indie that was out of the question. When I started trying to find a publisher I didn’t know the first thing about the process. I didn’t know what a manuscript was or a book proposal and I had zero connections. I sent emails, made calls, and came across the publisher Motivational Press. After a few conversations and some negotiating we realized Don’t Double Bread The Fish and Motivational Press were a perfect fit for each other and from the moment we signed the contract things went full speed ahead.
8. I’ve seen messages posted by authors on numerous social media sites where they are worried their work isn’t good enough. There is often a hopelessness to what they say. Is there anything you’d say to these authors that are struggling with self doubt?
Write, write, write, and write some more. My grammar may not be the best and I may not have written a million books, but I know about persistence. If you work hard, believe, and do anything long enough, eventually you will be good at it. Don’t ever give up!
9. You are also launching a new website. Tell me a little about it and the process to get it up and running.
I never expected to have a website because I tried that about 7 years ago and that went the way of the buffalo too. This time around though my friends at Motivational Press gave me a clear guideline of what a successful author should have on their site. Easy said, me and my wife two college graduates tried to set one up and after about four hours of pain had one misshaped text box on the screen. I called in a favor and asked my dear friend Lynn Wagner for help. I had purchased a package from GoDaddy and she did an excellent job helping us put together something I’m very proud of.
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Thank you so much not only for the interview, Dominick, but for saying ‘Hi.’ It’s been fun getting to know you and I wish you all the best with your first book!
A little more about Dominick:
Dominick Domasky is a loving father of two beautiful children and a devoted husband from a small town named Greensburg, right outside of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Dominick is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh in business management, a supporter of JDRF, an inspirational author, a motivational speaker, and a successful cold calling, door knocking commercial insurance salesman. The loves of his life are his family, business, telling stories and basketball.
Mr. Domasky arrived at inspirational story writing and motivational speaking with a unique background. As a boy Dominick learned the value of hard work pulling weeds and doing odd jobs in the fields of his father’s landscape company. He took that knowledge, placed it into his passions, and carried it throughout everything in his life from basketball to business. The only problem was he failed, over and over.
In 2002 Dominick quit his job to fulfill his lifelong dream of owning a restaurant. Three years later he was nearly a half a million dollars in debt, jobless and wanted by the law (business related of course). His wife was pregnant with their first child, that his family had struggled to have for years, and he couldn’t afford to feed them.
Dominick rebounded from this setback. With ever present persistence and no sales experience he was able to find a job in sales. Lack of experience meant nothing because Dominick believed in himself all along. Dominick found joy in meeting and helping new people in turn his numbers were great and he had soon found himself a career he loved.
The sales company he worked for was big on writing your goals and in a tiny spiral notebook he began to put his pen to the pad. Soon goals became sentences, and sentences became paragraphs. Before long Don’t Double Bread The Fish was born.
Don’t Double Bread the Fish, Dominick’s 1st inspirational book was not written from a pedestal, but from the trenches of digging ditches, picking up cigarette butts and overcoming countless failures. Don’t Double Bread The Fish is not about Dominick, but thirty nine chapters of the modern day lessons he learned along the way. Dominick will never pretend to be an Olympic gold medalist or business titan, he’ll be the first to admit he’s just a guy who has failed, been benched, suffered setbacks, lawsuits, punches to the face, and got up and brushed himself off. Dominick has no ill will of the past, but looks back and finds humor and strength. As the old saying goes, “That which does not kill us only makes us stronger!”
Dominick can be seen every day on Twitter @domd1000 sharing messages of inspiration.