Episode of My First Million with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri.
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Kind: captions Language: en We’re going to spend 4.3 million this month in marketing. And here's what I've learned. >> Tommy Melo. >> TOMMY MELO. >> The founder of A1 Garage Door. >> You're doing this blue collar thing, but at this really big scale. And I love that combination. A1 Garage. We fix, we repair, we maintain, and we replace garage doors. A1 from day one. The original valuation was now the business is north of 80 million of you. >> No [ __ ] I've read hundreds of books on sales and even more on marketing. >> So, ring ring, I pick up. What are you telling them? You never say the cost, you say the investment. You never say the most expensive, you say top of the line. You never say the cheapest, you say builder grade. These words matter. Tommy, giving us the sauce. >> What other businesses have you seen in the services industry that you are shocked at how big they are? >> Most of what I've done is repeatable. It's not like this crazy thing that only works in garage doors. Don't over complicate it, >> dude. I've known you for 27 minutes and I love this guy. >> Tommy, what do you suck at? Where's your weakness right now? >> I was going to go broke. There was a stripper living in our Dallas warehouse with my manager. >> We were doing so well and then Tommy went to jail. >> There it is. There's the weakness. >> Tommy, have you ever uh listen to MFM My First Million? This podcast? >> Yeah, we listen. I I listen to a dozen. >> What do you think? I I love the come-up stories and like I hate how every single guy is pushing entrepreneurship cuz it's cut out for 45% of the population. Like you won't be able to handle this. The the rejection, the failure, the 5 years, the taking a loan against your house, the people that quit and cheat and lie, the canceled appointments, the long drives, the the hard nights, the walking out of the movie theater to go run a job. Like I just I don't feel like everybody's cut out for it. And some people that invested in Bitcoin early like they don't know what it's like. >> So So who do you think is cut out for it? How do you know? >> Well, there's there's this thing called Driven. It's a book. My buddy Gary wrote the book. And it's actually if you're a hunter, it's in your DNA. It's literally a different chromosome. And there's so much more. Usually it's ADD. Usually you're dyslexic some people. But it just means you have a high tolerance for failure. You're you're you're okay working a lot. uh you don't ever mention the words work life balance. You're off balance on purpose and there's seasons of life and you actually have a bigger why. And by the way, you can't quit. The goalpost always moves. There's no like finish. There's no end zone. So if you're going to start from nothing, uh the chance of success is uh less than 10%. So you uh so for the audience, you started this thing called A1 Garage, which at this point I think does north of 300 million in revenue. You took some chips off the table. You sold about half or a little bit less than half of the business recently for I I think north of a billion dollar valuation. Is that right? >> The original valuation was about 540 million. We were at 27 million of IBIDA. Now the business is north of 80 million of IBIDA. So now it's worth close to 1.7. >> Wow. And how long ago did you start the company? >> Uh 2007. So the first 10 years were practice. >> And explain what is the company do so people understand who who you are and what you do. >> A1 garage doors. We fix, we repair, we maintain, and we replace garage doors. And we do this in now 23 states, 37 markets. We run on average 25,000 jobs a month. >> And give us the origin story. We don't usually like the origin stories uh because you can you know you can get those elsewhere. But I gotta ask I gotta know this is I mean the end point is so interesting. I got to know the beginning. You know when I was a kid my mom was a real estate agent. My dad had a transmission shop. He didn't pay the IRS so that got taken. They got a divorce. So I learned to shovel snowmo lawns in Michigan. I got a job when I was 12 washing dishes at 45 an hour. And I always had the entrepreneurial gene. I started a landscaping business when I moved to Arizona. And I was living at this house, 100 to paint per garage door, but you got to pay for the paint and the tape and the paper.” So, I was like, I had a G20 Infiniti in ‘96. It had 120,000 miles on it, and it was cheap on gas. And by the way, 2006, 2005, this is when the real estate market was booming. And so, I hired a painter, this old man, and I paid him 300 per door to teach me. He taught me on three doors. I went to Home Depot, bought a Magnum 5 paint gun, and I was off to the races. And I got good. I could paint 10 doors a day. I went through the yellow book and called every garage door company. I'd say seven out of 10 I became their primary painter. >> And does the garage door company mean like I install a new garage door or your garage door needs some type of service and I fix it? >> So the garage door company does both. They fix them and they replace them. So every time they replaced one, if it's an HOA property or a house paint match, I was the guy. They'd grind out a little section. They give it to me. Usually the owner would meet up. I'd get 10 from one guy, three from this guy, and I go knock them out. And I'd literally use Map Quest to build my routes. I mean, this is back in the day before GPS. >> You mentioned that you called all the garage companies and you became the primary for whatever, seven out of 10. So, what was the pitch? So, ring ring, I pick up. What are you telling them? And what what worked there? Because it sounds like just being a reliable guy who's going to do what he says he's going to do was a was a differentiator here. What did you say on the phone? Yeah. So, I mentioned the company that my roommate worked for. I said, "I've been paying garage doors for several months. I show up on time. I work the warranties if there's any," which is rare because I spend time with the clients. I'll pick up the samples myself. I'll pay for the paint. I'm only charging 100. Uh that includes drive time. And all I ask is that I get paid when I finish the work. I clean up after myself. I’m very reliable. And most of these guys didn’t have that service to offer. So I said, “It’s just one more thing. You could charge 300. Give me a hundred out of it. You know, this is another way to make money. It’s another way to go into HOAs.” And they’re like, “You sound hungry, kid. Yeah, let’s meet up. I’ll give you a couple. We’ll see how you do.” In Arizona, it was easier in the summer cuz it dries real quick in the winter when it’s kind of wet outside and it’s cool. You You got to go on real slow. It takes a little longer. And you got to tape the windows. If there’s windows, it could be a pain in the butt. But I got really really fast and efficient. And so I’m meeting up with these technicians and every technician because half the time I met up with the technicians to get the sample and they’re like, “Dude, I just made three grand this week.” And I’m like, “You made 150 per remote. And I’m like, “Who would pay go to Home Depot, pick him up for 10 bucks at the time?” So, my other roommate got a job working for him as a technician and he approached me. His name’s Gabe. And he goes, “We should start our own business.” And I was like, “Well, dude, I’ll form the LLC. I’ll get the EIN number. I I’ll get us going. I know enough. I can handle the marketing, but you’re going to have to teach me how to be a technician.” He didn’t know much because their training was crap. So, I I went to all the manufacturers and got trained. I had the business with Gabe for three years. Uh he also smoked about a pound of weed per month at the time. So that was like it was like he’d be eating and by the way he’s still my best friend but he he’d be like listen after I finish lunch I’ll give you a call back and I’m like I I watched him answer the phone. So every time he went out of town I take the phones and man we made a lot of money when I took the phones but I also ran all the calls because this is when I quit the bus boy job. All I kept was a bartending job. 2010 I gave him an ultimatum. I said dude you’re my best friend. You’re my roommate and my business partner. You take the business and the debt, I’ll start my own. Or you could give me the business, I’ll take on all the debt. You’re in the clear. He goes, I want to move to Montana. I want to be closer to my brother. I said, great. And at this point, just quick little to top it off, I had six employees full-time, two 1099s. And by the way, people were stealing toilet paper. Uh I didn’t have a real office, so I rented my first real office. We were working out of our house. And I was kind of like just at night just holding my hands over my face going, “What am I doing? I can’t I don’t trust anybody. So who do you what are you doing? You don’t trust anybody? You call mom.” So I called my mom in Michigan. I said, “Mom, I don’t know what to do.” I said, “I could really use your help, but I don’t have enough money to pay you good money. I can afford to pay you 15 bucks an hour. I can pay my stepdad 65 grand, which by the way, my mom’s best year in real estate, she sold 55 houses. So, she she’s done well. She’s like, “Tommy, I don’t know.” I’m like, “Listen, Mom. I’m your only son. I need your help. You think about it. I love you.” She called back in two weeks said, “We’re going to sell our house. We’re going to move our lives to Arizona.” >> Oh my gosh. >> Big move. Baller mom. Hey everyone, really quick. If you’re enjoying this episode on CEO stuff, so delegating, having hard conversations with your team, hiring, then I’ve got something for you. So the team at HubSpot, they actually went and put together a bunch of best practices that Sean and I use in our own companies and they put it together in something that’s really easy to read and understand. And so if you want to just save yourself 10 years of headache and heartache, then you should check it out. I wish we had this long time ago. It would have helped me a lot. But there should be a QR code on your screen that you can scan or a link in the description. So check it out. It’s totally free and totally awesome. >> At the time the business is doing what roughly? So, like, you know, cuz that’s a big leap of faith. >> It’s a million and a half bucks a year. It’s And by the way, like a lot of people have a tough time hitting a million, but >> I was the highest ticket writer for seven years. And then I finally started to delegate. Like anytime we weren’t going to hit payroll that my mom would call and say, “Hey, cuz I’m working on marketing and hiring and training,” she’s like, “I need you to go run two jobs today.” And then in 2014, I found a good integrator. The dude was super smart and he still tells me the stories. He’s not here anymore. He’s kind of retired now. I was younger than me. He goes, “You would pay me two grand one week and then not pay me for two weeks and then give me like 1,200 bucks the next time.” He’s like, “We we didn’t even have any type of payroll worked out the first year.” I was like, “Yeah, dude.” But 2017, we got on the right software. And man, all of a sudden, we were doing 17 million, but keep being hardly any of it. Next year, we did 30 million. Next year, we did 50 million. And we’ve never lost money in profit or revenue. Well, basically since the beginning, but 2017, we were just on a rocket ship. >> So, you were you made a joke that you the first 10 years were practice. So, on your 10th year of business, what was your revenue and profit? >> Revenue was 17 million. And that was out of grit. That was just like working nights, weekends, and holidays, just overwork. And I remember Al came in and said, “Let me tell you something, buddy. I’m looking at your P&L. I’m looking at your balance sheet, your income statement. revenue is for vanity and profit is for sanity. You’re not making any money. You’re just a squirrel running around in circles. He goes, “We need to figure out how to make serious profit.” So, I was 17 million. Everybody’s like, “Man,” and I’d puff my chest out everywhere and I’d say how much revenue we’re making. Revenue means nothing. I don’t even talk to anybody about revenue anymore. The name of the game is you got to make profit. >> Well, do you remember your profit on 17? I was made, you know, I was paying myself 150 grand, taking a couple hundred grand out. There was not a lot of money left. And by the way, we didn’t have a great CFO or controller at the time. It was it wasn’t super lined up. That’s one thing that changed my life is getting control of the money. >> When you said as you were growing, sorry, how many markets are you in to do that, you know, that type of scale to do 17 million in revenue? >> I started in Phoenix, then I went to Tucson in 2012. Uh 2014, we’re in Wisconsin and Las Vegas. uh Milwaukee and Vegas. And by 2017, I was probably in seven or eight markets, but Phoenix was just massive. By the way, I had to close down four markets a year later. I had to close down Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Tampa. And if you want to talk about somebody having to swallow their pride and basically say you’re a failure, but I was going to go broke these there was a stripper living in our Dallas warehouse with my manager. I mean, I just didn’t have the systems in place to scale as quick as I thought we could, >> right? >> And what I tell people now, they’re like, “What had to change?” I said, “The hustler had to die for the leader to be born.” And I truly mean that. Now I’m a systems guy. Now I sit down and I work on systems and processes. And if the system’s broken, either there’s no system, it’s the wrong system, or the system’s not being followed. And that’s like, I mean, I’m a student for life. I’m the most curious guy. I walk in, I take notes, I try to stay super humble and I’m always learning. I’ve always got three to five coaches at one time. I need help all the time and I extract and then I implement. So, I have a ton of questions on the courses and the seminars and stuff because you you’ve talked about them a bunch and and I’ll get to that in a second. But first, you mentioned four stories. So, the the technician who you used to coal call, your integrator, your mom, and service titan where you convinced them to do something special. Uh, were you always convincing or did you like have to read to get good with words? I mean, how how is like you the way you’re telling these stories, I’m like, this seems like a no-brainer. This also seems like this person’s incredibly persuasive. I >> I don’t necessarily know if uh I learned that my dad when when I’m 5 years old, I remember this day vividly. I was in Royal Oak, Michigan, and this the longest driveway I’ve ever seen in my life. And there was a yard sale or a garage sale. My dad always stopped at those. And I found this CB radio and I’m picking it up and I’m playing with the antenna and I got the little I’m like 5050. And I’m like just talking into it and I put it back and we walk back to the car and my dad looks at me and he goes, “Hey Tommy, you really wanted that, didn’t you?” I looked at him. I go, “Yeah, Dad.” He goes, “Here’s 20.” He goes, “I know. Go get it for five.” And it didn’t make sense to me. He goes, “Just go up to her. I want you to smile. I want you to point at me and say, “My dad and I were wondering if you take 5 for this radio?” And I go, “That’s my dad over there.” He’s waving and smiling and she gets down on one knee. She pulls out the scotch tape. She takes the five and presents it to me. And I’m telling you guys, the radio was awesome. But I walk back and I learned a lesson that you’ll never lose in life. Like don’t be afraid of rejection. You go up there, you ask. You you just go for no. And I think that he taught me at a young age, I watched him negotiate things I never thought possible. And just, you know, he used to say, “I wish I knew then what I know now.” And what he told me is like, “Don’t be afraid to ask the girl out. Worst case scenario, her loss. Don’t be afraid of what people think about you. You’re living in your own world.” He goes, “A lot of people are going to have contempt. They’re not going to like you. You’re going to be more successful. But don’t worry. This is the world we live in. Continue to run.” Like, look, hang out with people. You got a common future instead of a common past. Figure out how to get in the right circles. And so, and my mom, I would say my mom gave me more love. She said, “You could do anything. I’m going to get behind you.” Like, if I went to prison, she’d move next to the prison to see me every day. Like, my mom loves me. If I said, “Mom, I got in a really bad wreck. The person’s not okay.” She’d grab a shovel, be like, “How do we get rid of this mess?” My dad just was like, “I’m going to teach you sales. I’m going to teach you persuasion.” And so, the combination is just I think it it it turned me into like the belief system that I have somebody no matter what. That’s why my mom and stepdad moved out. And then my dad was just like, “You’re going to have the skills because you’re going to be around me.” And he was good at it. >> You said he used to negotiate things you didn’t think possible. What do you mean by that? >> We went to Mexico and there was a jacket for 250 bucks leather. He walked out of it for 20 bucks. And he’s like, “Watch this.” And he’s like, they’re like, “So, no, no, no. It’s meet me in the middle. 100.” And he’s like, “Tommy, we’re out of here.” And like he meant it. He’s like, “I don’t need the jacket. You don’t.” One day we we rebuilt a C10 uh truck. And I mean, I spent the whole summer sanding this down. We got it painted. Me and my dad rebuilt the engine. We put the transmission in. And it was sitting in my front yard. And I said, “Dad, a guy came by offered me 10 grand.” He’s like, “Take it.” He’s like, “You haven’t driven it in 2 years.” And I go, “Dad, me and you did this together.” He goes, “Take a picture of it. you’ll remember it. We could do another one. He goes, “You’re not driving it. Sell it.” And I loved that because I was like, man, I was all sentimental about it. He’s like, Tommy, it’s just material things, dude. You could buy another one. We’ll do another one. Take a picture if you want to remember it. But that’s just always how he is, you know? >> That’s awesome. You um you were telling the story and I feel like the story had like the the humble origins and figuring things out and then it was like zoom, we’re doing 17 million, 13 million. It it sped up real quick. So, I want to I want to go back to that cuz you seem to me like a guy who if you don’t have the answers up front, you’ll find a blueprint. You find the guy to train you to do the garages to how to how do you paint the garage? You find a coach. You you’re So, I like this word blueprint a lot because I think that people underuse blueprints. They exist. You can follow them. You can build your own thing, but it’s very helpful to start with a blueprint. What were blueprints you saw? because it didn’t sound like any of the people around you initially were doing hund00 million, you know, garage repair. But at some point, you got that idea. At some point, you started to figure out, oh, I need to scale this thing. I need to do this. I need to do that. What were the blueprints that made you think that? >> Well, I’ll give you real quick example. We’re getting ready to expand into St. Louis. I’m like, my good buddy Chris Hopkins is in he’s been in St. Louis for a long time. In fact, his parents started in like the 80s. So I said, “Chris, can you jump on a call for about an hour and give me the good, bad, and the ugly about the marketing, what’s important in St. Louis?” And by the way, worst case scenario, he says, “No.” But he’s like, “Tommy, absolutely.” He goes, “I’ll even give you my heat map. I’ll tell you what zip codes to stay out of. I’ll show you stay out of the the east part.” He goes, “This north area.” And he literally gave me the keys to the city. He saved me a year of mistakes. And so what I’ve always said is success leaves clues. If you want to find out how to be number one on Yelp, go find an HVAC or roofing company. Pick the phone up and you call them and you say, “My name’s Tommy Melo. I want to let you know I’m super impressed by your company. I read your book. I’ve used your business. I wanted to buy your whole company lunch today. Might cost 400 bucks, right? You you buy get them Chipotle. If I could get an hour of your time, I promise I’m not going into your industry. I got a lot to share with you as well. seen a couple opportunities, but I want to understand how you dominate Yelp. Then you do that with Angie’s List, Thumbtac, Google, LSA, PPC. Success leaves clues. They’re right in front of you. It’s right around the corner. All you got to do is ask. So, my favorite three letters in the world are ASK. So, I did this. I learned how to sell memberships. See, when I had the podcast, I could get the best of the best. I started it early 2017. This is before podcasts were a real thing. So, I’d be like, “Man, I’m having problems with payroll.” So, I’d find like the top person that wrote the book on payroll and I’ I mean, my podcast was simply selfish. It was like, “Man, uh, I got a question for you.” Uh, if you got a W2 versus a 1099 and they they need to show up to me and they’d be like, “Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.” And then I’d get like, “Okay, what happens cash versus acrruel?” I get a CPA on. And then I go, “Okay, what happens when you want a green field versus buy a company? What’s your integration checklist?” And I don’t know why, but almost everybody was excited to just give me everything. They’re like, “Dude, you’re just in the garage door industry. They’re like, “Sure, take it. You could have it.” And I’ve always just been super humble with especially like the people that have been where I want to go. And I walk in and I’m like, “Man, I am so impressed. Like, I will do whatever it takes.” They’re like, “You you really are like you’re not like most guys that come up like you’re you don’t think your [ ] doesn’t stink.” And I’m like, man, I come from very humble beginnings. I’m just trying to get ahead. I care a lot about my family. I’m just literally I’ll do whatever it takes. If you need money, if you need me to introduce you to somebody, if you want me to come mow your lawn, whatever you need, I want to learn from you. >> So, I told Sean a story about a buddy of mine from my high school who um and uh bought his parents’ HVAC company and has since blown it up. And Sean made fun of me. He goes, “You’re not even the most successful person from your high school.” Well, that person is Chris Hoffman. uh the person you just referred to, Sean, uh he’s done the same thing where he’s like blown this up um these services businesses. But what I’ve noticed actually about Chris as well, but I’m actually Chris has this trait and I’m inspired more so that you have this trait, Tommy, because our listeners of MFM are are like Sean and I and and we have this attitude where we’re really good at starting stuff, but sometimes you stay scrappy and you stay as a hustler. And unfortunately after some type of mark, I don’t know, the 10 million in revenue range, the five million, the 15 million in revenue range, that hustle, that scrainess, that like just go and get [ ] done, that actually kind of holds you back. And I’m going through that right now with my company of like being systems focused. And you have done a really good job of showing how a person goes from like being a hustler to systems and scaling and hiring a good team and being an executive, I would say. And you actually have this really good quote. I think you said that in order to scale, I had to kill the hustler inside of me or something like that. >> Yeah. Yeah. The hustler of the day for the leader to be born. And and I’ll tell you, I I delegate to elevate. People are always like, “Dude, I’ll outwork you.” I remember Ed Mylet saying I could work three days in one day. My my day starts in six hour increments and I work three of them in 18 hours. And I’m like, “Dude, I don’t respect anybody that works harder. I know there’s people shoveling poop somewhere on a field that are working way harder than me. I look at skill way differently. There’s certain people I hire that can handle the task of three people, 40-hour work weeks in 10 hours. And so I came up with paying for performance and paying for outcomes. And I will be very transparent that I am the dumbest guy on my team. I mean, when it comes to the seauite VPs, directors, I’m just the visionary. I dream really, really big. I love sales and I love marketing and I love relationships and culture. I am not going to be the specialist. I live in a different planet. I don’t live within the walls of this company. I I’m creating a personal brand. And by the way, there’s 62 guys training next door. 50 of them found me on social media and said, I want to work for that guy. So building a personal brand for your business really matters. And you know the thing I ask now is would I work for you? Would I buy from you? Would my grandma buy from you? And would I go have a beer with you? You tell great stories. You don’t have you don’t shake my hand like a limp fish. You make eye contact. You smile a lot. You’re interesting. I’m going to ask you tough questions to see how you figure things out. There’s no right answer. And so the I started thinking about this about 5 years ago. It’s who, not how. Who is the right hire? Not what’s my strategy, not what system. Systems are super important, but what’s the next hire that I bring on the bus that’ll take me to the promised land? And when you start thinking like that and you feel you stack the deck with A+ players, your job gets easier. like it’s gotten so easy and whenever it gets easy we explode. The business explodes. So you go through these peaks and valleys and I’m like I will tell you guys we did 315 315 million and I’m like there’s no reason we can’t be at a billion in two and a half years and so I got to set that vision and people are like dude you’re crazy and then I got to map it out and show them this is all that would need to happen. The average technician at 700,000 now. And so what would need to happen for us to do this? We would need to have this department this department this department. We need to make sure we got trucks on command. We need to make sure we got a good green field strategy. And you start reverse engineering your goals. You create some accountability and consistency and all of a sudden you wake up and it’s there. >> Dude, that’s awesome. I love hearing you talk. >> I get excited, guys. I I love entrepreneurship and I run towards failure. Uh I don’t really care what people think. I’m not going to lie to you guys and say I really do care what a lot of people think. I care what my parents think. I care what the people I work with. I I’m not the guy that just says I don’t care at all what anybody thinks. I’d love to pretend that’s the truth. But I guess now I think I’d rather be respected than loved, but by a lot of people I choose love first. >> Yeah. But do any of your employees actually think that you’re a dick? I mean, you don’t seem you don’t you come off as like a a pretty caring, empathetic person. >> I’ve known you for 27 minutes and I love this guy. >> Yeah. Like who like who thinks that you’re disrespectful or rude? You might be a guy who says, “Look, it’s not working out unfortunately.” But I think they would still have love and respect for No, I don’t fire anymore. I I had to fire five people that were direct reports to me this year, this past year. But I when Adam started in 2014, I said, “You’re going to be the bad cop cuz I’m not good at it.” But I do have to have these fierce hard conversations with people and it’s not easy, but it’s for the best of them. Like if you think about who changed your life was there like I I had a coach that literally made sure I got a warm mill. >> Like I I respected him. I mean, he literally told me I’m not going to play. like if my grades weren’t good, if I didn’t show up and give it 110%. So, he didn’t play me two games, but he made sure, listen, three nights a week he was going to buy me a meal with dinner because he knew my mom was working three jobs. And I found out I respected him more than I loved him. But the the respect turned into love. And that was a lesson for me is I got to be straight up. I’m going to tell you what you’re doing great, but I’m also going to tell you you’re not living up to your potential. I see something better in you. And it’s my job to pull that out of you. and I’m either going to pull that out of you or I’m going to force you to quit or you’re going to not have a job here. I’m going to give you the invitation to go work for one of my competitors. >> Me and Sean were talking about uh like these inspirational leaders and stuff last episode and I think we we I told the story about how I had a cross country coach that was like this year you’re going to learn how to be better men and we’re going to do it via running. And that’s kind of the same energy that you have, which is uh you know, you young technician, uh you’re going to learn how to be a better man this year. And I’m going to do it by teaching you how to smile when you meet a customer, how to say yes ma’am, no sir, how to, you know, like it’s like more so we’re going to learn how to live great lives and be great highass people, but we’re going to do it via, you know, serving the customers wonderfully. >> It’s 100% right. I used to find fours and try to make them sevens. Now I hire sevens and try to make them tens. And so now I’ve got a much harder way to get into the company. So I did orientation yesterday with 62 people. And I said, “You should feel proud because it takes 50 interviews to even get one of you to this room.” But now the hard part starts. And we got a bell you could ring if you tap out. We get about two people a class that just say this is we don’t they got to clean after they’re done. They got to show up. If you’re late one day, there’s a good chance we’re sending you home. >> There’s a bell. So during training, anybody can just go literally ring a bell and quit. >> It’s the same as the Navy Seals. >> Are you ex-military? You have that vibe? >> No, I’m not in the I never was in the military. >> Okay. You mentioned this guy Al in passing. You said my mentor Al. And I’m always curious about mentors because I think everybody wants a mentor. I think few people ever end up with that special kind of relationship with a great mentor. But one of the great things is when somebody has one, they can kind of share a story that you know it kind of becomes our mentor too. And so can you tell me a great Al story? What did what did this guy kind of make you realize or or teach you about? So he was the second guy in my podcast and he wrote a book. It’s on my shelf over here. It’s called the seven power contractor. Explains the different stages of the home service industry. And he’s he had gone through every master class and just studied how to build a business. and he had a business with his brothers and his father. And one day they just got fed up. And his daughter, he had his camcorder on the back of the room recording his daughter at a play. And his wife comes up to him and says, “Al, you know what your daughter says she wants at school today? She says she wishes her dad was around more.” And he goes, “Natalie,” and it gives me goosebumps, but he goes, “Natalie, I’m going to disappear for about a year. I’m not going to be around as much, but I need to systematize this business. I need to get SOPs. I need to make sure that I can spend time with my two daughters and you. And so, we’re going to go on a vacation for 2 weeks in one year. And I’m not even going to look at my pager. I mean, this is back in the day. And Al, he met me for lunch and I handed him the book I was working on, The Home Service Millionaire. He flipped through it and said, “This is garbage.” He goes, “You need to rewrite it.” And I said, ‘Okay.’ And he he goes, “The thing that I wanted to work with you originally, Tommy, is you brought a notebook and you wrote down everything I said.” He goes, “That’s the only reason I thought about working with you.” He walked into my shop that day. He goes, “Can we go do a shop tour?” I said, “Sure.” He goes, “Why do you have all the calendars on the wall? Haven’t you ever heard of Outlook or Google Calendar?” 2017. That was around then. It was early stages of uh Google uh calendar. He goes, “I tripped on a cord that you had a microwave plugged in at.” He goes, “Dude, this is not organized.” And he goes, “I could have stolen your whole warehouse. The garage was open. No cameras. Your forklift was sitting there.” He goes, “Show me your manuals. All I had was this like onboarding manual.” He goes, “Well, how does anybody know how to win?” He goes, “How do they how do they know? Are you allowed to get tattoos on your face? Are you What happens if your truck breaks down? Like, who do you call? what happens uh if you lose your gas card. What happens if you need PTO for Christmas? He goes, “How do people know this?” He goes, “It’s all in your head.” He goes, “What I’m going to ask is you’re going to pay me 150 to give him. I had to take an equity line out of my house. So that’s why I had to pay attention. And when I walked in there, if I started talking or talked about a book, he goes, “Stop. You’re going to listen to what I’m going to teach you or I’m going to quit. You’re going to figure out exactly what I’m going to teach you and you’re going to do this perfect. You’re going to stop reading books. You’re not going to do stuff any other way than what I teach you. You’re going to turn your cell phone off when I’m in this room. And you’re going to get your two top guys. We’re going to sit here. We’re going to work through each and every scenario, every manual. And then you’re going to read these manuals out loud with every employee. Have them initial every single one. And then you’re going to read a page out of the manual every week in your meetings. And man, I was ADHD. I still am. And he’s like, “You are going to focus. You’re going to be all here and we’re going to sit in this room for eight hours three days a week.” The dude drove a Mercedes. He’d he’d pull back in the same spot really slow. It was always detailed. And every time he left, I’d get 43. 43.38 was how much he paid in gas. I'd get a bill for it like this. I mean, he was just high Ceay personality dialed in like it's my way or the highway. And that's what I needed. He was tough. And he bring in a consultant to get us our financing figured out that he trusted. And she's like, "I don't know if I want to work with this guy." I said, "Listen, I'll be quiet. I'll do whatever you say." And he goes, "Trust me." He goes, "He'll do whatever you say. I'll make sure of it." And that's what I needed. And it was tough love, but he set me up for a lot of success. Was he are are you now I I've never heard type C personality. Uh, but are you are whatever that personality type is of just paying attention to the details. Are you It sounds like maybe you're a three out of 10. What are you now? Are you like really high or are you just improved? >> Well, well, I I was predental, so I love math. I took advanced calculus and I got obsessed with geometry and uh calculus and and algebra. So, I'm a numbers guy. I've always been, but I'm still a macro guy. I still look at the big picture. I'll dive into certain areas. I always say I live on Mars. I look at Earth for volcanoes and earthquakes, but I'm still not the details guy. I don't I love my CFO and my controller, and I love my HR team, but I don't really interact with them very often. I am working on operations and marketing and culture and and and always driving sales. And quite frankly, I don't want to be good at these other things. I want to take I want to go continue to be the best at what I'm great at and continue to hone these better skills and delegate the rest. I don't want to be well-rounded. I never want to be good at that stuff because it tortures me to have to do that stuff. Like for me to do payroll, which I had to do for a long time, I mean it was like pulling teeth. So the first thing I got rid of, if you set up your org chart and you've got you wear a lot of the hats, first thing you do is circle what you hate. So now when I come into work, I love coming to work. I'm like, man, I'm on a podcast right now with you guys. Everything's getting handled. I just got back from Costa Rica for 10 days. You think we lost money? You think when the owner, founder, CEO left that things didn't go right. We set records the whole time I was gone. Like, I don't need to be here. And that's what we set up is we go on the pinnacle trip. My whole seuite, all my directors, my area managers go. My top 40 technicians and installers go on this trip. Do you think we lose revenue that that that week when we leave? We've never lost >> We've talked a lot about in this systems. I think if we're playing a drinking game and somebody said, you know, if you're taking a shot every time we said systems, they're they're dead now. Um but but I but it strikes me that you really harp on this cuz that's what was hard and broken for you and you really had to put in work to get great at that. And it's kind of like you feel the the benefits of having not everything on your shoulders, but it I I got to believe that in order for your company to succeed, you know, you don't you don't grow because you have a great operations manual, per se, right? You grow because you're great at sales and marketing. You sort of survive and thrive if the operations can back that up. And I'm guessing it sounds like that the sales and marketing were more things that were more in your core competency. you did a good job of early on and you you haven't been as demand constrained, but I want to know more about that. So, I want to know what did you do to kick ass in sales and marketing that was different than the average service company? What were the things that you did that made you guys rock and roll in terms of demand? >> Well, step one was naming your company A1, so you show up first and they get white pages, right? >> Yeah. Well, that was stupid because there's 93 other A1's even though got an irrevocable and contestable U trademark. So that's my my biggest mistake was being A1. Honestly, you know, sales cure everything. And to get sales, you need good leads. And I'll tell you this, I'm not afraid. We're going to spend 4.3 million this month in marketing. Not afraid to spend a lot of money. And here’s what I’ve learned. I was 30 million. I met a guy named Dan Atelli that Al Levy, my my coach, he referred me. He goes, "Tommy," he goes, "I think your raps are garbage." wraps as in uh car wraps, trucks, >> the the vehicle wraps. >> Yeah. >> And he goes, "The best way to do it is I took a picture of your truck. I made it black and white. >> And tell me what pops out of you." He goes, "That's the best way to see like what pops out." And you got Angie's list, Yelp, you got your phone number, your your your everything. You got springs, rollers, cables, bearings, all this crap. He goes, "I want you to go to this company called Kick Charge, and I want you to use Dan Anteneelli to redo your brand." I call Dan Anteneelli and he gives me an estimate. Guess how much it cost me to get a new logo and new brand on the trucks. 35,000. And at this time I’m going, I’m 30 million. I'm like, dude, it's working. Why would I switch? And I just I trusted L and I bit the bullet and I did it. And then Dan called me, this guy, and we got a character like the the logo is awesome. He studied every one of our markets. We don't want to look like any other thing we want to pop. we don't want our phone numbers or or website on it. You don't even need any of that or Angie's list or what we do. It's just garage door service. And uh he goes, "I want you to change all your email signatures with this. Every one of your yard signs, every one of your coupons, every single thing needs to be this brand." And I remember 3 weeks later, there was a line of people that wanted to work for us. Like I was like, man, this is like, you know, I'm putting everything on the line, all my time, energy, effort, but I had such a crappy brand. And now now I spend a fortune on TV, radio. Yeah, that's >> So this is the before. >> That's That's what it was. >> Oh yeah. >> So >> look at how crappy that is. >> What is that? I can't even see it. What is on what above your above the uh the red wall? It's like the bricks of a garage. It's like the the outline. >> Yeah. That's that's like a two garages that are carriage style with like like brick rod white on white text. >> That's horrible. >> And then you go to this. >> Yeah. So I said, Dan, I want that oldfashioned feeling like the May tag in the 70s when you trust the guy to come out and it's like it just it it pops and it's trust trustworthy. And so if you walk in my place, Dan designed, we brought the brand inside. So we've got all the brand inside of the building, too. Like we live and breathe the brand. And people don't talk about this stuff, but like Nike is a brand. That's why they pay Tiger Woods and Roger Federer and like like the brand is what you could buy a t-shirt the same as Nike for 20 bucks, but you're willing to pay 120 because of the brand, >> So what does our brand mean? It means my dad taught me you could do three things in business. You could be the best, best warranty, best technicians, best quality, best, you know, everything. You could be best timing. If it happens today, you bring your car in, we can fix it today. Or you could be the cheapest. He said, “Pick two out of the three. You’ll never be all three. You can’t be the cheapest, the best, and on their timeline.” And I got this guy in Milwaukee, best mechanic I’ve ever met. He’s the cheapest. He does me right. Right now, he’s four months out. I can’t use him. He’s 4 months out. So, I called him up. I said, “Hey, why don’t you triple your prices? I’ll pay triple because you’re honest and you do great work.” But this is the hardest thing for people to learn. You You want to start out and be the cheapest, but then you realize you don’t have enough to hire people or pay for the right software or buy new trucks or invest in great inventory. And I’m not saying like one of the things that I learned a long time ago in sales is I don’t give yes or no. Like if I walked up to you, I’d say, “Listen, these are the three options of what we have for Springs. We got the one year, the 5year, and the lifetime.” You might say, “Hey, that’s too much.” I say, “Let’s just pick another option. Let’s make something that works for you and your family. I’m here to earn your business.” And then I shut up and I’ve got other options of everything we do. I don’t give yes or no questions because that’s stupid. Either you’re going to say yes or no. I’m going to say, “Listen, let’s just pick something that makes sense for you and your family.” And I’ve studied I’ve probably read I’ve read hundreds of books on sales and even more on marketing. And that’s where I go to all the Google events. I show up to different offices. I like I speak on a lot of st like I live and breathe marketing and sales. And honestly, I hate I hate that word. Honestly, I shouldn’t have said that. I I always say that’s a no no. I hate a lot of words, but you never say the cost, you say the investment. You never say the most expensive, you say topofthe line. You never say the cheapest, you say builder grade. You never say you could cancel at any time. You say you have the right of recision. These words matter. But what matters more is the way I say it. When I’m making eye contact, would you go to a doctor if the doctor walked in and just looked at you and said, “Hey, here’s your medication.” No. The doctor walks in, he smiles. He says, “Let me ask you a few questions. How’s the alcohol? What’s the stress level? Are you are you any recreational drugs? How much are you working out? I’m going to run a few tests here. We’re going to look in your eyes. We’re look up your nose, your ears. I’m going to have you cough. We’re going to run a few tests. And then the doctor says, “Listen, what’s what’s better for you, CVS or Walgreens? All right. Here’s your prescription. Here’s what’s going to make you better.” Do you ever go, “Uh, I’m going to need a few estimates, doc?” No. Because they’re the authority. They diagnosed the person before the problem. They spent the time, they asked the right questions, and they nurtured you along the way, and you believed them, and they didn’t say, “Um, like, you know, well, uh, but um, no, they said, here’s exactly what we’re going to do to fix you up.” And we’re the doctor the minute we step in that garage. And that’s what that’s what I train the guys and I go over and over like, “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you because you don’t seem confident. You don’t either you don’t believe in yourself or you don’t believe in the products or you don’t believe in me and the company. Which one is it? And let’s work on let’s work on it. >> you >> you this is I could do this all day and I love I love training guys because I’m like smile more, offer coffee on the way, play with the dog, get to know the clients. If they love Bernie Sanders, talk about Bernie Sanders. If they love fishing, ask them what kind of fish they like and what kind of pole they have. But you got to be genuinely interested. Don’t fake it. If you hate babies, don’t talk about babies. You know, find something you love and you correlate well to to them with and and you’ll enjoy every minute of your life. >> Dude, play with the dog is so true. I I’ve had a couple guys uh come over to do some work and they the ones who play with the dog instantly I’m in on them because they’re in on me and the most important thing that they saw in the house so far. I had a guy come in to to do a repair and as soon as he walked I have a tiny dog, like a eight pound dog and he goes, “Whoa, killer.” Then he goes, “I don’t want no I don’t want no problems.” And I just immediately loved the guy. He could have sold me anything. He was like there for the heater. He could have sold me a washer and dryer if he wanted to. >> No, that’s great. I always say, “Listen, we don’t we don’t ring the doorbell because strangers ring the doorbell. Friends knock. These simple little things. Listen, uh I’m sorry. I’m have a 7-Eleven. Can I grab you something? Get you a coffee?” No. No, no, no thanks. Listen, you come to my house, my fiance’s going to cook for you. Don’t make me guess. You like Green Monster. Should I get you a coffee? And I want to bring you something because no one that ever fixed your house brought you something. Wait, so you guys order coffee for or you you you have like a system for ordering drinks or or whatever. >> So they could order I got guys that order donuts and apple cider in Michigan and and Wisconsin. And all you do is expense it. You take a picture of the receipt and it comes back on your check that next week including the taxes. So you could buy I mean we try to say keep it under 30 bucks but literally I don’t we don’t really check like my goal is that every single person gets offered something on the way. >> Have you seen the average customer value or a customer order go up because of you? So what what you’re saying by the way is like a world famous uh it’s the rule of reciprocity. It’s Robert Chaini’s book, Influence, which is basically like I if I do a favor for you, so if me and Tommy are next door neighbors, I go, “Hey, Tommy, can I borrow a cup of sugar?” And you give me a cup of sugar. The next day, Tommy comes to me, goes, “Hey, Sam, could I borrow your car for a day?” Because of the rule of reciprocity, I feel in debt to you, and I will do something even if those fa two favors are not equal, I will do something to get back to so we’re even. Because we want to feel even. And so the idea here is if you bring a customer a coffee, even if it’s a 500 in garage doors. And so my question is, have you seen uh the average order value go up just because of that simple chart? >> It goes up dramatically. And it’s not a question if you’re going to use this, it’s how much are you going to spend? Robert Chadini became a good buddy of mine. Him and Bob, >> no [ ] >> There’s seven rules of influence. I got I studied him at U of A in my M’s program when he’s an ASU professor. They’re arch nemesis. I got to meet him. He comes to the house now. My COO and head of sales just went to his conference here in Tempe, Arizona. And the more we could apply those seven principles, we’re always looking to apply more and more. And it’s not to manipulate people. By the way, he says, “You got to use these for good.” And I mean, I ask him questions all the time. He needed a garage and I’m like, “Dude, this one’s on the house, you know, like it’s going to be the Taj Mahal, too.” And uh that that’s just he’s just the one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. >> One of the the many interesting things about you is basically a lot of times that um courses kind of get [ ] on. People make fun of like courses and people make fun of seminars and stuff like that and books fall in that category. It seems like you are prolific when it comes to hiring coaches, hiring consultants, uh taking courses, taking seminars, things that people would say even at 17 million in revenue, they would say, “But Tommy, you why are you paying money to go come to this course?” What courses uh and books have like uh really moved the needle for you in your life? It sounds like you’ve consumed a lot. >> Well, I’ll tell you the the the latest one was Buack Your Time. And Dan Martell, he goes, “Let’s just do this.” He goes, “When when do you think you’re going to sell?” So, we wrote it down. He goes, “How much do you think you’ll make?” And I wrote the number down. He goes, “How many hours do you work a week?” I go, “Probably 50.” We did the math. He goes, “Do you know how much you make per hour?” And it’s like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. And he goes, “You’ve got a great business mind.” He goes, “Tell me you got a good chef.” And I’m like, “A chef? I don’t need a chef.” Like, he goes, “What do you normally eat?” I’m like, “Uber Eats.” He’s like, “Tommy, you don’t understand.” He goes, “If you want to become the best for your people,” he goes, “you have a driver, right?” I go, “What? Why would I I me a driver?” He goes, “How often do you drive a week?” I go, “About 11 hours.” He goes, “What if we could buy back 11 hours for you to be productive?” And he got me to look through a whole different lens. He br he got me. So now I got a house manager, we’ve got a chef, we’ve got a driver, our dogs are walked twice a day. They go to doggy daycare. Huckleberry and Finn are our dogs. Um, and uh, you know, these mentors, Dan Martell was a big one. Uh, I go to very very I I go to the all the home service ones, but you know, most people sit in this this procrastination and indecision. There are softwares I’ve used that were crap, but you know, we just got on one. It increased our conversion rate on door sales by 18% and our average ticket by 3%. and it picked up an extra 5 million of IBA because it eats the dealer fees because I heard about it from a buddy of mine. We were on it within six weeks, but to not do these things, so many people are like, “Man, one day I’m going to get started. Right after the wedding, I’m going to be on the diet. Right after uh the golf tournament, and they they live in this world of like, we’re just not ready for that yet.” Man, I I’m like, “Let’s just fail. Who cares? Let’s let’s fall down a bunch of times. We’re going to fail a lot, but we’re going to figure it out before anybody. >> You said you guys uh sold sold a piece of the business and you were at like whatever 20ome million in IBIDA and now it’s 80 million. What was that big jump? Did you guys start rolling up other businesses or what what happened? What what went so well? So, it’s 3 years we bought 12 companies. We’ve grown I think it’s 78% organically and then the se the 22% was by buying companies and what we did is it’s kind of funny because I call my vendors and I say tell me how you win. How do you meet your bonuses? What is your objectives this year for like the vendors that I’m going to spend 6,000 of tools. We train, we train, we train. You know, when I played football, I played two a days. I practiced twice a day for 6 days to play one game. At home service, you say, “You’re going to go with our best guy for two weeks and you’re on your own forever.” Training is not something we do. It’s who we are. And we continue to train. It’s not just in sales. It’s smiling. It’s making sure you’re efficient. You’re showing up to your first job within 15 minutes. These new one-on-one forms I’m working on, I’m more excited about that than anything this month. So, one-on- ones with the technicians and installers. So, they’re very complex to get the data I’m looking at. But what I’m building is if this is where you’re at, it’s a series of things to get good at. If you’re not great at this, we got to get you good at this before we go on to the next one. And then there’s a recipe for each one. So, now it’s standardized. Now, in any market, this is the one-on-one form where you’re going to use and you’re giving the exact same thing across the board that you’re going to do ride alongs for 2 days. You’re going to go back to Phoenix for a refresher for 5 days, you’re going to do role play for one day in the training center, whatever that looks like. We’re building all that right now. And my expectation is it’ll increase uh it’ll increase revenue by 40%. >> Wow. What uh has AI changed your business at all yet? Have you seen any impact with AI? call center and dispatch and quite a few things in marketing, but call center obviously it’s it’s coming to the spot where this year right now uh yesterday my AI agents were at 87% booking rate, my real agents were at 92%. So it’s a 5% variance, but the AI continues to get better. And the goal is not to get rid of people. The goal is to go on a hiring freeze and keep the best. So right now I got 68 agents. Let’s say I go down to 40. They last forever, but I never need to hire another agent because now you’re just blocking and tackling. Dispatching. What our dispatch software does is regression testing. So, you could feed it data, credit card score, how much did they pay off in the home, how many garage doors do they have, and then it looks for outliers. And it knows what technicians do well on this type of job. And the most important thing is customer satisfaction, net promoter score, and my internal net promoter score. So, I’m not just looking to sell. I’m trying to create a relationship, build, you know, get you on a membership, which we call a protection plan, and be your garage door company for life. I’m not trying to go wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. I wrote a big ticket. Let’s get out of here. I’m trying to say, what’s right for you? You’re selling the home, Miss Jones. Let me make sure you pass inspection. We want to work on your new home. You know, that’s what’s important is we we need to build relationships. And that’s very rare in the home service industry. >> I never would have thought. And it makes it’s it’s it’s like uh obvious in hindsight, but I never would have thought that a garage door business could be as big as you and you seem like you have a ton of growth ahead of you. You haven’t even scratched the surface. What other businesses have you seen in the services industry um that you are shocked at how big they are or you think that most of our audience, which is a largely internet or tech based audience, would be surprised about? >> I’ll tell you my favorite one is uh pest control. >> Tell me tell us about it. Well, well, the fact is Pest Control is the only company that went public and right now they’re paying 22 to 25x Ebida. So, if you can get your business to make 2 million, you're going to get 50 million. And the best guys that do it, it started out the Mormon guys out of Utah would knock on doors door to door. They're very good at it if you sell religion and they'd all tell you this. So, you start out by door to door and then you get good at advertising on Google and radio and you just you optimize for routes, but anybody could do it. I mean, you're literally there spraying. You're looking out in Arizona. You're looking out for scorpions, spiders, making sure there's no pigeons, stuff like that. >> What pest control company is is public? >> What's the big one that went public? They they've bought so many companies, but uh Terminex went public. >> So, um All right, I'm looking up at Terminex. They have uh it looks like nearly a 5 billion market cap. So pretty shockingly big. >> Yeah. Well, that’s the deal. And then they have subsidiaries on top of that. And when you go public, it’s like how many companies can you buy? Because you’re raising capital from the investment pool. And it’s almost like you’ve got to eat. When you go public, you got to eat. You got to buy. I mean, that’s one of the prerequisites if you do an IPO. And there’s a lot of advantages, but then you got Starbain Oxy and all this other things. Like this is the kind of stuff I get really excited about. But you think about here’s something to understand about home service, home improvement. Is it demand generated? Like if your pipe breaks, you’re calling me today. You need it fixed. Windows, you know, I want new windows. Maybe a window broke. Uh I’ll get the glass fixed, but windows. So the multiple of a demanddriven industry where I need it done. And pest control is one of those that’s not necessarily needed it done, but because that company went public, they’re paying a lot more and it rose the market cap. But a a window company might get 8 to 12x, whereas HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage doors, there’s just these mustd dos are getting, you know, 15 to 20 when you get past 20 million of IBIDA. >> The I remember during like COVID those multiples were going in. Like if if correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears as though that there was like a pre and postcoid number. Like the postco number just exploded those multiples. >> Here’s exactly what happened is think about it. You’re a venture capitalist, your PE, uh you’re going, man, all of our hotels are failing. No one’s going to Airbnbs. The nail salon just shut down because people aren’t leaving their houses. The movie theaters went bankrupt. Where can we put our money? and they looked at this simple blue collar that we were like we were like secondass citizens and they go wait a minute these guys have predictable income they’re needed they’ve shown month after month year after year that they could continue to grow and they’re sophisticated they use things like PowerBI they use things advanced analytics and when they realized that the money started shooting in like crazy there’s miracle stories and the multiples are still really really high what they did learn is you got to keep the founder involved because the founder, you know, is kind of the glue. And if you pay the founder a lot of money, are they going to stay on him and get happy and keep the culture? Cuz imagine giving a guy that worked his ass off 12 million, bringing home about 300 grand. Within one year, they’re doing 30 million, bringing home 6 million. And a lot of these things are just turning the knobs a little bit and paying attention to some things you’re not looking at. The data, the KPIs will set you free. And the fact of the matter is, I I’ll come to you guys and I’ll say, “Hey, what do you think your booking rate is?” You’ll say, “Well, me and my wife answer the phones. We’re probably at 90%.” that I’m like, “You don’t understand. It should be a decimal place. It needs to be exact. It It should be by CSR.” Like, I know every single one of my CSRs booking rate. I know exactly what we’re training them on every day. I know exactly my technique. You should see my scorecards. I mean, these are worldrenown. Like, we spent millions of dollars to build this internally. And they are the baddest ass thing you’ll ever see in your life. Tommy, what do you suck at? Are you Are you What are you bad at? Where’s your weakness right now? You know, my my fiance might say I’m not the best communicator. I don’t talk about my feelings. Um uh I don’t really >> practice. We could be, >> like I said, I I I don’t like to piss people off too much. Fierce conversations. I’ll do it because I love them, but I’m not going to have these conversations with a lot of people. Um I would say with my family, I like to do stuff, but my mom wants to sit there and chat. And I love my mom more than anything. But when I was a kid, we’d go to a movie, we’d go bowling, she’d take me like she’s she got really involved. And I just have a hard time because sitting there and chatting, it’s okay to catch up on things, but it’s got to be something optimistic for me. I have a hard time talking about I I don’t go down this never anymore am I talking like I I’ll mention like what’s going on in Minnesota or Ukraine or whatever, but I can’t live in this negativity zone. So, I’m trying to be the best son I could, the best fiance I could, the best brother I could to my sister, and the best uncle I could to my niece and nephew. And I know I got a long way to go. Like, at least I could say that out loud and I recognize it. >> Tommy Melo is uh Tommy dialed in. I mean, you you you’ve got it figured out, man. Like, it’s it’s you’re you’re very inspirational. >> I’m a work in progress. >> What’s what’s the goal? You you are uh you’re wealthy. You did it. He you pulled it off with this company. Are you trying to buy the Cardinals? Like what what what’s the goal out here? >> You know, I was playing with Chad GBT yesterday and I would love to tell you there’s a goal. You know, we’re building a beautiful house in Idaho where we’re going to be doing events and then I’m building my dream home in Paradise Valley here in Arizona. But, you know, I got I got my life. I’m 42. I’ll be 43 in March. And I got my life at 45 on my casket. You know what I want? I don’t want the best entrepreneur wealthy. I want I want number one the best dad ever and I don’t have any kids yet. I’m a late bloomer. Luckily my fiance is 27. She’s worked with me for 9 years. Uh no no. Yeah. Yeah. 9 years cuz she was definitely 18 when I met her. I was going to say, dude, no public math, huh? >> Be careful. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> We were doing some well and then we went to jail. >> There it is. There’s the weakness. Uh definitely definitely nine years. And uh so so I I feel like for me the next journey is like listen I want to be a great dad. I want to be a great husband. We’re getting married next January 1st. And I want to live. I want to be where my feet are. I want to go all in. I want people to know how much I care about them. I want to communicate better. I want to make sure that it’s not always about money and finance. It’s not just working out. It’s just becoming better every day. Better your best. I always say I’m the best I’ve ever been but the worst I’ll ever be. because tomorrow I need to be a little bit better. And I can tell you guys, I I’m generally a happy person. I say once a month I kind of get down on myself and I’m like, why do I work this much? Or why don’t I do this or why do I do this? But you guys might look at people that are wealthy. I’ll tell you the most billionaires and I meet a lot of them. They’re not happy. Some of them are suicidal alcoholics, drug addicts. They got everybody chasing them because of their money. They don’t they’re not really good people. So be they begin to look at themselves and say, “I the only reason people like me is cuz I worked my ass off and I’ve got money.” And that’s not going to be me. I want to continue to be humble, stay the blue collar guy I’ve always been. Remember that I started washing dishes and mowing lawns and just creating the best rel I I don’t want a million friends. I want 20 friends that I want to be lifelong soulmates with. And and guys, it sounds really good and I do got a lot of great things going and I thank God and Jesus Christ every day. But I’ve got a lot of work work on every all the listeners just know that you might think being rich, famous, Instagram famous and influencer is going to solve your problems. But that’s not the answer. It’s it’s looking inside and becoming your best self. >> Have you ever seen the Savannah Banana? >> Yeah. Yeah. They were just at an event I was at. Those guys are awesome. So Jesse Cole came on um maybe eight weeks ago, six weeks ago, and Sean and I, he probably is in our top five favorite people that we’ve talked to. Very inspirational. And it’s so interesting that you guys look very different. You have incredibly different businesses. And yet there’s this spark that you both have that Sean and I find incredibly inspiring, contagious. Like it basically a conversation with you we probably leave feeling. Now I I know what a 10 out of 10 in terms of operating our lives are at. We have to step it up. >> Tommy, you said something earlier. You said, “I used to hire twos and try to make them sevens. Now I hire sevens, try to make them tens.” Me and Sam, it’s like the reason we do the podcast is you you find tens to make you realize, oh, you’re still a seven. Give you give you area, you know, break your frame a little bit and say, oh, that’s an area I could be better in. Oh, wow. he really had a certain spark or he had a certain point of view or he had a a habit that I’m going to pick up here. And so, you know, for me, that’s the biggest thing with this podcast is to is to just kind of continually surround ourselves with people who are excellent in some area of their life, hopefully multiple areas of their life, so that we can kind of realize, oh, you know, you’re actually a seven. There is actually much there are more levels to that thing that you’re you’re you’re trying to do. I I want to finish out if you guys allow me to just I want you guys to think about this going into this year. And and if you could I I recommend everybody write these down. First one is family and friends. That’s the first half. The next one is faith. And this could be in any order you want. The next one is fitness. The next one is finance. The next one is future self. And the sixth one is fun. And I want you to set goals for all these. If you’re if you don’t believe in God, you can skip faith. I I highly recommend you figure out what to believe in because I do believe we’re going somewhere great. And then I don’t want you to set a yearly goal. I want you to get Jesse’s big ass calendar. I want you to start journaling. And I want you to use a blue pen. There we go. Blue pen and a white piece of paper. And I want you to write your goals down. And I want you to put them in your shower, your vehicle, your refrigerator, on your desk. Four spots. And I want you to sign off on the bottom. And then I want next to each one of those six, I want accountability partners that you know are going to hold your feet to the fire. That and then I want you to put your why. And it’s Simon Synynic 101, but it better be a big ass why. And you better have people that are willing to tell you you’re failing and you’re letting yourself down and you’re letting me down. And I want you to post it on social media. I want you to come out of your comfort zone. And I want you to say this is what I’m going to do. And don’t set a yearly goal. Weekly or monthly steps. It could be calories. It could be body fat. You know, it could be going to church. It could be Jesse. Jesse answers. I’m going to time block time with my family. And that’s what I’m putting on here first. But these simple little tools, the accountability partners, and you better meet with those accountability partners weekly, and it better be hard conversations, and it better not just last through March and then fall off like most people do. And it’s got to be a strong the Chaudini talks about this. I got this bracelet. It says keep your commitment. You better commit and you better yell from the rooftop that you’re going to do this. And it better be a huge why. And and the only other thing is try to get into better circles. If you want to be a great golfer, go golfing with three scratch golfers. You’re going to be better. Get into the right circles. And you do what I’m telling you to on all six of those. Your life is planned on. It’s reverse engineered. It’s manifested. And it will come true. I’m going to run through a wall. That’s how I want to do it. >> Sam, anything we say after this will just make the podcast worse. Just do do the line and let’s end the pod. This is perfect. >> That’s it. That’s the pod.