← School of Hard Knocks Podcast
School of Hard Knocks Podcast
Tommy Mello | From Garage Doors to a $300M/Year Empire, The Billionaire Who Got Rich From A Normal Job
00:57:49
Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door, scaled his home-service company to more than $300M in annual revenue and over 1,100 employees. His journey spans two decades of failures, rebuilding, systemizing, and mastering leadership. In this episode, he br...
Loading summary
Transcript97 lines
- [00:00]
James
What did a one garage door do in revenue this past year?
- [00:03]
Tommy Mello
Little north of 300 million. I love to win, but I hate to lose more. There's no second place trophy. I guess it's shake and bake, baby. If you're not first, you're last.
- [00:10]
Jack
I know you're a big reader. What are like some of those must read books?
- [00:13]
Tommy Mello
There's so many good books. Here's one thing I'll tell you guys. You don't need to read a lot of books. You need to read the same books a lot of times. There's a book called. It's a little book. Every single one of the people in my business get that book.
- [00:24]
Josh
You think everyone is cut out for entrepreneurship?
- [00:26]
Tommy Mello
No. Very little. It's the old saying. Everybody wants the views, no one wants to take the hype.
- [00:30]
Jack
Is there a route where Gen Z should be getting into home service businesses and learning that trade?
- [00:34]
Tommy Mello
I got a 23 year old, he bought his house, he's got two cars paid off. He's getting ready to buy an Airbnb rental house. 23, no college debt.
- [00:42]
Josh
Younger Tommy, what are three principles you would tell him on how to grow the business that you have today?
- [00:46]
Tommy Mello
Get into the right circles, you look at your inner circle. If you don't get inspired, it becomes a cage.
- [00:51]
James
I mean, if me and you died tomorrow and you had one more guiding principle that you could leave with the younger generation, what would that be?
- [00:57]
Tommy Mello
I'd say the most important lesson that you'll ever do in your life is.
- [01:03]
James
What'S going on, everyone? And welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. I'm James and I'm here with Jack and Josh. And we are out in Phoenix, Arizona with an incredible guest for you all. The garage store mogul, the home service mogul, Tommy Mello. It's great to be here with you today.
- [01:19]
Tommy Mello
Pleasure to be here. Thanks for coming out, guys.
- [01:21]
James
Let the people know right now, what did A one garage door do in revenue this past year?
- [01:26]
Tommy Mello
Little north of 300 million. And revenues for vanity, profits for sanity. The main goal that I want people to understand is you. You can't take revenue to the bank because you got to pay great people. There's expenses. So the bottom line, we always shoot for over 20% and we're murdering that goal.
- [01:43]
James
So this is going to be a masterclass for everybody, hopefully. But, but, but I want to, I want to touch on this though, before we get into it. $300 million from garage doors. The young people think that they have to go out and Build the next Google. But you did this in the home service business.
- [01:58]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, well, listen, I was around the right people. And I think it's not who you know, it's not what you know, it's who you know and getting in the right rooms and actually doing the work. I think people overestimate what they could do in one year and underestimate what they could do in five. I've been doing this for two decades and I failed over and over and over. I mean, if it could happen, it did happen. I was writing checks out of my equity line. I got my mom to move out from Michigan in 2010. My stepdad was doing payroll. I had people stealing from me. I had the cops show up several times. I've had a cars flip over. I had a guy throw a cigarette out of his window going to Tucson, whole car lit on fire. If it could happen, it did happen. Murphy's law. But the big thing is wake up the next day and figure out, what are you going to do about it.
- [02:41]
James
I want you to take me back to 2007. Right now you're standing in a garage, sweaty, exhausted. You're doing the jobs yourself in there. What was that moment that clicked for you that this is not going to be another, you know, small home service job. This is going to turn into a nationwide empire. What clicked in your mind that day?
- [03:01]
Tommy Mello
Well, I was actually pre dental and I interned with a dentist. And he said, you know, Tommy, before you go, take your DAT. And this was around the same time I took 60 credits of biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, organic chem, advanced calculus. And he goes, there's another guy that owns this practice. I'm 47 years old, I'm still in debt to my ass. He goes, if you want to do what you want to do, you're going to school for eight more years. He goes, if I were you, I'd learn about business. I'd go take your GMAT and get a master's in business. Because the guy that owns this practice is a business specialist. And that's what changed for me. I said, huh, It's a garage door company. But no one's really taken the next steps to make it like go buy all these companies organically grow and just really become a specialist. I'm not a generalist. The only thing we do is garage doors. I know a lot of guys that are worth hundreds of millions that mow lawns. They started out mowing lawns, but then they figured out the systems and just the right software and how to hire the right People to scale that business. So you could do this. If you become a specialist, you could do it in anything. People do it owning, selling candy. I mean, Mr. Beast, that was a different approach, but you could do it in anything.
- [04:17]
Jack
I think a lot of people, and we've even seen it kind of growing our own businesses where we've tried to, you know, we have a really broad audience. And so even with our community and even our agency, you know, sometimes we're trying to service everybody, and it's just not working because there's no clear promise, no clear avatar. And when we kind of refine those, we ended up seeing way more success. And people like to say the richest are in the niches. Was there any time when you were building a one garage door that you were like, hey, what if we go over and do this? What if we go over and do this and add this to the table? Or were you always focused on garage doors the entire time?
- [04:50]
Tommy Mello
Well, I've made a lot of mistakes, and I got basically not focused. And my buddy once told me, I'm like, dude, I'm a hustler. I like to put my eggs in a lot of baskets. He goes, what if you put all your eggs in one basket for three years? What if that basket overflowed into other things? And that changed my life. Uh, I think the quote I came up with a few years ago is the hustler had to die for the leader to be born and go all in. And if you look at Richard Branson, what he's done is he goes, builds companies top down. I had to start your first company's bottom up. You're the janitor. You're doing payroll, you're doing inventory. A lot of times you're going out fixing problems. Then eventually you start hiring people smarter than you and specialists. And when you can hire top down, the greatest people in the world will build their own teams. And you got to be able to delegate to elevate. And so, yeah, there was a lot of times I became unfocused, and I got great people around me to be like, dude, quit turning over there. Go back over here. And it takes time. And compound interest could be working for you. And now it's like, there's not the same problems. I don't worry about people showing up to work sober. Now it's like, how can we go dominate in another market, another area? And not to mention, we buy better than anybody because we spend $70 million just with our manufacturer, so we've got buying power. And I think that that's the difference is who could work out the best negotiations with their vendors and who could attract the most talent.
- [06:17]
Josh
There comes a point as a business owner where you can't be worried about the price of the toilet paper anymore. You attribute a lot of your success to acquiring great talent. What are those things you look for not only when acquiring businesses, but also just acquiring talent onto your teams that have allowed you to grow and just build out their own divisions?
- [06:33]
Tommy Mello
Number one is integrity. They got to be like good people that take care. I'm from Michigan, Midwest. And I want great people that tell a great story. They smile all the time. I gotta test number one, what I work for them. Number two, what I buy from them. Number three, would my grandma, she passed away, but she was a great woman. Would my grandma buy from them? And number four, when I go have a beer with them and what I would, I laugh the whole time. Do they tell a great story? Are they confident and are they competitive? I love people that used to play sports because they practice in football. We, we did two a days, we practiced twice a day, five days a week to play one game. We practice 10 times more. Same thing as Larry Fitzgerald. He's like, I caught 20 times more great catches on the practice field that I did in the game, but I was prepared. So they got to fall in love with the game and the practice and just good, wholesome people that represent the brand, that go recruit on their days off, they're knocking on the neighbor's door, they're getting the HOA president, they're asking for three reviews instead of one. They sit in front. When we're in training, you know those things, it's hard to come by. It's hard to train those things. So it's just good human beings. We don't hire salespeople. We just hire people that smile a lot and do the right thing. One of the things we always say is, here's what you need to do, here's what you should do. If you were my mother, my mom worked three jobs. I love my mom more than anything on this planet. Here's what I'd be doing for mom. And you gotta smile, smile, play with the dog, get to know the family, diagnose the person before the problem. These are all important things when it really comes down to it, and it's hard to find that. But when you build a great company, people come find you. We get 600 applicants per week. And we right now, next door, there's 50 guys training this month. Next month is around Christmas, there's 50 more guys coming next month, and then we're planning on getting to 80amonth. Those are just technicians and installers. We gotta hire management, CSRs, dispatchers, warehouse staff. So we've got about almost 1100 people at this point. My co workers. The question is, how quick can we get to 2000? When we get to 2000, how quick do we get to 4000 and the doubles start to happen quicker?
- [08:44]
James
You mentioned a quote that was, the hustler has to die in order for the leader to be born. You mentioned that your mom also worked three jobs. You also, prior to garage doors, you had a couple houses as well. You know, you were doing some bartending, some other things. When was that entrepreneurial seed planted in you? Like, was it kind of in you from a young age? Did you always have that work ethic or what was kind of your turning point, getting into entrepreneurship from a young age?
- [09:06]
Tommy Mello
Well, a couple things happened. I went to a 5 years old. I went to a. A garage sale in Royal Oak, Michigan, and I saw this CB radio. It was an old one, but it was awesome. It had the police channel microphone. I'm playing with this thing, and my dad and I walked back to the car, and he goes, you wanted that CB radio. I was like, yeah, dad, that thing was awesome. He's like, do you remember how much it was? He knew how much it was. He's like. I go, yeah, $20, dad. He goes in his wallet, he hands me five bucks. I go, $5. I mean, I'm only five years old, but I still knew a five is a five, a 20 is a 20. And he goes, go, offer her five. And I'm like, but she wants 20. I mean, 20 was on the Scotch tape. And he goes, yeah, I know. Go offer her five. And it was like this slow walk. I keep looking back at my dad, and he's waving at me, and he goes, go get it. And I finally got like, the balls enough to go up to this woman, and I go, ma', am, I'm just curious. You know, this is my dad over there, and he's waving at her, smiling, and would you consider taking $5 for that radio? And she got down on one knee, peel the Scotch tape, took the $5 bill, and it was cool to get the radio. But that was the day I realized I could negotiate, I could build anything I want. And when my mom was working three jobs, she'd come home and she had blisters on her feet. She was a realtor. She bartended and served Tables just did everything that she's like, I'm not moving out of this house. You guys are gonna stay in your school. I'll get you in your sports. I'll let you do whatever you want. A great dad, too. I'm not going to discredit anything. My father's amazing, which. I know you guys got a good upbringing.
- [10:41]
But when I saw her with blisters on her feet, I said, I'm not going to ask my mom for money. So I started shoveling snow and mowing lawns. When I was 12, I started washing dishes under the table because you had to be 13. When I started making money, I was like, man, I could make money on my own. And so it started at a young age, and it was something where I don't have kids yet, but when I do, I'm just wondering, how do I make them get forced into a corner where they have to start providing for themselves? I want to give them the world, but I also want to give them that gene or that quality that they'll just go out and get it like you guys. I'll get it.
- [11:16]
James
Ultimately, you were able to grow the company to over 700 people. But a couple years ago, you know, there's a story about where you had one of your top performers, and you actually ended up firing that person because they were a cancer to the organization. And what happens is, when you have somebody who's a cancer in that organization, if you don't cut it off, it's going to spread quickly. But you deemed and you granted a lot of respect from the other people for doing that. Could you tell us that story and the lesson that you learned and having to kind of, you know, like Jeff Bezos say, sometimes you have to pay good. You know, sometimes you have to pay people to walk away.
- [11:47]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, it's really tough, especially when the business isn't doing good and you got a top performer that's great at sales and conversion rates. But they don't respect their peers, they don't respect their managers. And I tried my best to save him, and this hasn't happened once. This has happened over a dozen times. A top producer sometimes lets it go to their head and they start being disrespectful, talking down to people, not showing up to meetings, rolling their eyes. And everybody in the organization sees it, and if you let it happen long enough, they lose respect. So you got to put a hard stance on that stuff just because they're a great performer. You know, Kurt Warner looked at Larry Fitzgerald, and he told him on the field. And this is Larry's story. I know I talked about him twice. I don't know why this is coming to me right now, but he goes, I'm not going to pass the ball to you anymore. He goes, I don't trust you on the field. You're the most talented guy on the field. But guess what? You do not run the right play. If it says run 10ft and break, you're running eight and you can catch the ball anywhere. And Larry said, we had this conversation after practice in the locker rooms. And that changed my life forever. I had to have the right work ethic and respect for the game and my peers. And that's important. This is a team sport that we play. It's a business, but we always pretend it's a sport. People that show up for practice, Kobe Bryant took a thousand shots. Tiger woods connected with a thousand golf balls a day. It's not luck that they became the best. And I'm reading, I'm going to seminars. I'm literally working on my future self. One of my quotes is, I'm the best I've ever been today, but the worst I'll ever be because tomorrow I'm going to be 1% better. And so the law of the lid says I got to keep growing or the company's not going to grow. And that's important to me.
- [13:29]
Josh
I feel like a lot of people watching this. When they start to grow a company, they start to have some success. They get stuck in that technician role, whereas the company's growing. I have more responsibilities on my plate. I have more to take care of. And I just can't seem to find the time to actually, actually work on the business. What have you run into in your experience on how to actually fix that? And how can someone remove themselves from being a technician?
- [13:52]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, well, read the E. Myth by Michael Gerber. I mean, working on the business is so important, but I think people forget there's 168 hours in a week. You sleep for 50, you work for 60, you work out for five. You still got about 65 hours left. 55 hours left. You could watch your favorite Netflix video, scroll a little less, which probably isn't what you guys want, and start to figure out, what can I do? If you were to take a journal for two weeks and see how many minimum wage things you're doing in the business? Like, if you're looking at emails, I don't remember the last time I logged in to look at an email. I've got an executive Assistant who runs circles around everybody. She's hiring her own executive assistant. So you got to be more deliberate with your time. You got to plan your time. You got to start out the day right. You got to have a plan, time, block your day. And you got to ask yourself, so I figured out how much I make per hour, and going into a transaction, how much is the company worth? And so anything I could pay somebody under that hour, but I can't pay somebody to say, hey, Tommy really respects you and values you and appreciates you. I have to do that. I've got to run meetings. I do the orientation. I do the C suite and VP level interviews. I do the acquisitions where I'm getting talking to the other owner. So, yes, I could pay somebody, but it's not the same. So my best time is telling people how much I love them and care about them. It's extracting the best out of them. I always tell the guys are in orientation, listen, I'm going to give you every single opportunity you could get. I've got a guy averaging 4,000 a week. The question is, do you love yourself enough to accept it? And, you know, the mass drops down on the plane, put it on yourself first.
- [15:29]
Don't do this for your family. Don't get in shape for your family or your kids. Do it for you. Everyone's like, I do this for my family. I do this for my mom. I'm like, what about if you did this for you? What about if you said, I'm worth it? And a lot of people just. We get raised in a world where it's in comparison and. And we're trying to compare ourselves to everybody. What if you just try to be the best version of you and you say, I'm worth it. I'm gonna go all in, and I'm gonna live the best life ever. I wrote down six Fs. I used to just care about how much money I had. Coming from a broken family, generational curse of. Of. My mom got money from the church and help from the church. We. I have, like, 27 Bibles because that was my Christmas and birthday present. But what about family and friends and faith and getting in shape and having fun and be, you know, investing in your future self? So I said, listen, I'm going to sacrifice every relationship I have. I'm going to focus on work. But I let myself go. I got a little chunky. I stopped really going to church and praying. My buddies all gave up on me. So trust me, success comes at a cost. And now when I have a kid I don't want. Tommy was the best garage door company in the world. On my casket, I wanted to say, best dad ever. So I just, the one prayer I have is, listen, I think every dad wants this in every parent, but just let them be healthy and let them have a great mind to go out there and find something they love to do.
- [16:58]
Jack
There was something that you said in that answer about how the tasks that you focus on is with your people. You're on the ground telling them how much you appreciate them. You're the ones doing the training, running the meetings. And when we first came out to your headquarters here, I remember when we first walked up, I guess there was an orientation. You had like 50 guys in a room that were training and, and you were the one leading the seminar. You introduced the hard knocks group to the, to the, to the training staff. And you were just like, man, like, I could just see how even though they were like your new recruits, like, you were just so proud that they were there. And we recently interviewed Gary Vee and he said one of the most unscalable things that you can do as a founder, but it's going, the ROI is so insane, is like, let's say if you had, you know, taking time out of your day to have dinner with people that have been in your company for three years plus. And so what, you know, I just want, you know, how do you emphasize for those out there that like, those are the moments that make or break your company, dealing with your people. Why? Why do you do those things?
- [17:59]
Tommy Mello
Well, if you're a great leader, you're going to have people that will ride or die for you. They'll follow you into the pits of hell. And really what it shows is are you loyal to them? It's hard because I used to know everybody by name. Their wives, I used to know their birthdays. We created a software where I communicate now with birthdays, anniversaries, work anniversaries, and I got scorecards for every single position in this company with more than five people. And if somebody's not doing great, I send them a message. My assistant Ashley, she'll video me. And I say, listen, man, I'm not calling you out, I'm calling you up. I know what your potential is. I know your family's relying on you. And now I have their wives name in this software and their kids names. And I say, listen, if you need help, if you want to go to that next level, all you got to do is my favorite three letters, ask so don't be shy. You got to go for. No, you got to ask. And we're going to find a way, because your family and you deserve more than this. And here's where I think you should be focusing right now. And just let you know, I care about you. I want to be making this phone call. I want to. So here's a question I had on one of my podcasts recently. Do you want to be respected or do you want to be loved and think about anybody that's changed your life? I had coaches that changed my life, that made sure I had a warm plate of food at night.
- [19:20]
They called me out, they said, if you're not getting good grades, if you're missing class, you're not going to play in the game. And everybody who's made an impact on my life gave it to me straight. My cousin Rachel called me. She's got a doctorate in basically working out and physiology and anatomy. And she goes, hey, Tommy, we're so proud of you. This is like two and a half years ago. She goes, we love you. She goes, you're the biggest success in our family. She goes, why don't you love yourself? And I go, what are you talking about? She goes, go in the mirror right now, take off your shirt and tell me if you're proud. She goes, you look blotchy. I'm guessing you're drinking too much. And I took off my shirt, and I wanted to tell her, you don't know what it's like. You don't know how hard I work. But tears came out of my eyes, and I was looking at myself, and I said I could do better, and I should start respecting myself enough to be a role model for the people around me. And I had somebody in my life that was willing to call me out, and most people don't have that. Most people are like, dude, what happened to the old you? Let's go have a 12 pack. Dude, let's. Let's go smoke a bowl. What happened to my friend? And here's the deal. I hang out with people. I got a.
- [20:30]
Common future instead of a common past.
- [20:33]
James
I want to touch on this, though, because, you know, you brought up how you know you'll have some of those top performing salespeople in the company, they'll have some success. They let it go straight to their head. What is just some of the things that you've done as the founder of this company, having 700 people work for you, how do you stay grounded? What, like, where does the humility come from? The fact that you're still willing to have that personalized touch where with a lot of the people in your company, because there's a lot of ego driven businesses which ends up killing most companies. So what is it that you do on a regular basis to keep you so grounded in the company and let yourself know that, hey, at the end of the day, you know, even though you've done something significant, you still have that mindset that, hey, I'm still just insignificant.
- [21:10]
Tommy Mello
I'm.
- [21:10]
James
I'm another person just like everybody here.
- [21:12]
Tommy Mello
Well, I'm still just a little kid in my own head. I mean, I just bought Kit from Knight Rider. I got the original Adam West Batmobile coming. I'm just a big kid. I'm living the childhood I never lived. I. Right now there's eight people staying in my house because I lived a really lonely childhood. But I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm not complaining. I was very loved and my dad taught me a lot about competition. But, you know, I'm still the same kid I was from Sterling Heights, Michigan, and I'll never let that get to my head. And money's been great, but it's not fun being at the top of the mountain alone. Like, you want to bring everybody with you. And a lot of people, like, we created $24 million on the first deal. There will be a hundred on the next deal. And when you watch their lives change, it's like, it's not going to change. Really? The money's not going to change my life, really? I mean, how much? This sounds really cliche, but I'm going to keep driving on every One of those Fs I talked about, like, I. I'm not happy. If I had 8% body fat, I'm gonna go, how do I get to six if I'm not? But I'm off balance, I would say. Dan Thurman wrote a book Off Balance on purpose. You can't go all in on everything. There's seasons of life, but enough is never enough for me because I'm a hunter. And at some point it's just a game. And it's like, what do I do? Just stop trying? Hey, I've accomplished. I don't care where my goal's at. The goal post is always moving. It's always moving. Unfortunately, it's a blessing and a curse because it's almost like a plague. You guys have 18 million followers and you're like, dude, if I don't get to 30, if I don't get to 60 if I don't get to 120 million. And that's crazy. Some people would, like, do whatever it takes to get a million. And we're relentless. There's not. There's not a lot to explain this except there's a gene in our. Only 4% of people have it. And we're hunters, but we need farmers around us, and it's in our DNA and it's something that you just can't get rid of.
- [23:08]
James
What did your dad teach you about competition?
- [23:10]
Tommy Mello
Well, if I lost, I didn't get a trophy. I was on the field and he's like, boot it. We were playing soccer, and I just remember, and he's like, come on. And he'd be on the sidelines, running with me along the sidelines. And if I wasn't trying, if I didn't come prepared to the game, if I didn't show up to practice, there was no, like, we had a serious conversation afterwards. I watched my dad. We'd play softball with my uncles. He'd hit the ball over the road, and it was like we were playing soccer when we went from fifth to sixth grade. And my dad, I'm watching all these dads, like, their back pain, they're trying to run, and my dad's playing goalie, kicking it from the other side into the net. And he's like, we're gonna win this game and that. All my cousins and uncles used to call it TMU rules. Tom Mello University because he made up his own rules as we go to try to win. But that's the one thing in my family is like, I lost. I've won more from losing. I've. I've learned more from losing. But I'll tell you this. I love to win, but I hate to lose more. And that's the thing about our family is, like, there's no second place trophies. So I guess it's shake and bake, baby. If you're not first, you're last.
- [24:19]
James
So. So it's safe to say in the Mello household growing up, there were no participation. There were. There were no participation trophies.
- [24:26]
Tommy Mello
We didn't get anything. And, like, there was no glory. And I felt like I was really letting my dad down. I mean, if he watched me go bowling, I was in a bowling league. And he's like, we're gonna get you lessons. I'm like, Dad, 140 for seventh grade isn't bad. He's like, we could do better.
- [24:43]
Everything about it was.
- [24:45]
James
I'm sure that stayed with you in the Business, even in now, I go.
- [24:48]
Tommy Mello
Hire the best of the best. I'm getting ready to work with Patrick, but David, I'm getting ready to work. You know, I was the last guy to really work one on one with Dan Martell. I pay to play now. I want to get coached by the best, and I don't really need to learn about everything. I just need to extract 80% of what they know, build a lifelong connection, and then move on. And I don't mind putting millions of dollars into myself each year. And I had to build that into a lot of people around me. I'm like, my COO needs a personal coach. He works with Cameron Herald. We work with a lot of coaches because we got to be elevating our game all the time. And it's not just only about finance and business. It's about confidence, it's about breathing techniques, it's about clearing your mind, it's about journaling, it's about, you know, I go on the cold plunge four days a week. I'd love to go seven. That's discipline. I don't enjoy going into the cold plunge. I'll be honest, I kind of hate it. But it's like building that mental fortitude to go in it. If you start loving the cold plunge, it's no longer discipline because you love to do it. And that's one thing. If you talk about motivation, sales, whatever you do, discipline is a muscle that if you flex enough, you know, David Goggins, if you flex it enough, it becomes easy. Everything in life becomes easier.
- [26:02]
Jack
And I mean, just what you said you were, we would literally put millions of dollars into yourself. And I know, you know, people see like LeBron James at the level that he operates, like he, he puts a million dollars into his body every single year just so he can keep operating at this level. But I mean, obviously we see all the books here in the podcast studio and I know you're a big reader. What are like some of those must read books for everybody out there?
- [26:25]
James
Yeah.
- [26:25]
Tommy Mello
There's a book called Go for no. It's a little book. Every single one of the people in my business get that book. I go back to Dale Carnegie, how to Win Friends and Influence People. A must read.
- [26:37]
There's a lot of books, I think. Dan Martel. I had business pretty figured out, but I didn't have it in my personal life. So buy back your time. Time is the one thing that we would trade everything for at a certain age. We give away everything we have when we're, when we're 70 years old for 10 years. And so we were talking about that before we started, but there's so many good books. Unfortunately, all I read is self help. I want to start. I can't get into fiction. I just, I probably should. I'm not. My left brain is probably this big. Like my creative side, it's all about like, how do I get better, how do I get stronger, how do I learn from these people? Somebody took a lifetime. Napoleon Hill. Think and grow rich.
- [27:18]
I love the Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. I love the Richest man at Babylon was an amazing book. But look, here's one thing I'll tell you guys. You don't need to read a lot of books. You need to read the same books a lot of times and in different chapters of your life. They'll mean different things. And you don't need to take everything out of a book. Take one to two things, apply them and then read it again. Because there's so many life lessons in some of those classics.
- [27:46]
Jack
Yeah, I mean, when I was 18, I tried reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. And you know, it's like Eisenhower Matrix and like, you know, begin with the end in mind and you know, 18. I wasn't really grasping those concepts this past year. It was a game changer for us as we've scaled to 50 team members now.
- [28:05]
Tommy Mello
Well, he talks about what are people going to say when you die? Imagine this, you're walking in in that book. He says, you're going into your funeral. What are people going to say about you? And that's a life living by design. So I'm building a whole life at 45. I'm 42. What does 45 look like? I don't just wake up 45 and everything I planned on happens. It's, it's a three year process. Where am I spending my time? Where am I taking my kids? Who am I around? What gets me excited? So have you guys ever just sat in a room and said in a dark spot and say, what am I? Where am I really happy? Now a lot of us say work, but when you were 12 years old, you didn't say, I just, man, I want to work all the time. So you got to figure out what are those things that get you excited that you just love? That like makes the day so much better, that puts a smell. Like if I'm around my cousins and a few of my buddies, there's certain nights where my stomach hurts so bad from laughing so hard and I can't even Talk because I'm laughing so hard. Like that is like the best time of my life. So one of my things, I want to take like two groups of four, go to Idaho, go golfing, go on the golf simulator, go bowling, like go out on the boat and like have this two day event. Then we take the PJ back to Phoenix and do it all again here. And that happens twice a year. And so I'm doing it intentionally with a plan and I'm manifesting all these things. I want to go to Italy and spend a lot of time there. If you look at this schnauzer, I'm obviously Italian, so I want to go with, I got family out there. I want to do a lot of things that most people don't even comprehend. They don't even take the time to slow down, to wonder what it's all for. Like, some people are like, dude, I want what you did. I'm going to start a business. I'm going to go into home service. I want to do 100 million. I'm like, well, do you want kids? And a lot of people are like, yeah, I have kids. I'm like, you're not going to do what I did. That you will. You wouldn't be able to raise them correctly, number one. Number two, what are you going to do with $100 million? Tell me with the first. You're going to help out your parents. It's awesome. What are you going to do for them? I'm going to buy them a house. How much? Two million. Okay, so there's two. What else do you got? Well, I want two houses too, and I want these cars. Okay, so you're at 8 million.
- [30:17]
Why? So I've always planned on when's the next transaction, like have a goal, what am I chasing? Some people are like, I'm just going to keep running this business like a lifestyle business. I'm like, well, how does everybody in your company get the dream that they want? How do they win? Because you keep taking money out of the business. They're getting a small bonus every year, but they're still paying ordinary income. When you take, when there's a transaction, you pay capital gains, which is about 23%. And really the mega wealthy, the major game is tax avoidance. So I think everybody in the company should be talking about that and start thinking like an owner. We went from.
- [30:55]
$12 million of EBITDA to 27 and a half in 19 months because we did an equity incentive program where people had a stake in ownership of the business and they were all running like owners and it changed everything. Every private equity company does what's called profit units and they give equity to the major people in the company. We give that all the way down to the technicians and installers. Every public traded company does stock options. And that motivates people to think like an owner and run like an owner, but also take care of clients because reputation is everything. So when you're an owner, you're picking up the garage, you're cleaning your truck, you're handing cars out at a gas station, you're recruiting all the time. You're asking for, hey, check us out on next door. Let's leave a Facebook testimonial. Let's make sure we do Google and Yelp. Let's make sure we get the HOA president's name. What if everybody thought like an owner and that's who you want to hire, is people that think like an owner, that are entrepreneurs, that can make just as much money, but they don't want your 1 in 10 to succeed in business. But if you come to a company like ours, we got guys making well into six figures with a whole plan of retirement money with a transaction that'll make them rich. And we just keep doing it over and over and over again.
- [32:04]
Josh
Do you think everyone is cut out for entrepreneurship?
- [32:07]
Tommy Mello
No, very little. They, you know, it's the old saying, everybody wants the views, no one wants to take the hike. Very few people are capable of that hike. You see, I look over at this other mountain, I'm like, oh man, that's a way bigger mountain. I go down to base camp, I find out who's been to the top of the mountain. That's a seven day hike. But there's a guy down there that's been there in two days. I'm gonna go ask that guy for direction. My grandfather, my dad would never ask for directions. I'm like, please help me. I need your help. I'm an honest person. I've got a lot of humility. Teach me how to come to that up that mountain. In two days, we're going to be.
- [32:40]
James
Right back to the conversation with Tommy very soon. But I want to touch on something that Tommy said and what I noticed. With all the millionaires and billionaires that I interview, mentorship changed their lives. Having access to successful people in their fields, multimillionaires and billionaires is what enabled them to build out eight, nine and ten figure businesses. Now, if you're watching this right now, I want to give you access right now to become a Member of the number one entrepreneur community and network in the entire world. And inside of this community, known as the School of Mentors that I launched and built a year ago to become the number one most powerful entrepreneur network in the world, you get direct access to the eight figure, nine figure and billionaire entrepreneurs I interview on this channel every week. But you don't just join these calls and not do anything. No, you literally ask your specific questions to them, they give you the answers. They give me the blueprint on how to build companies, how to start and scale these businesses, how to invest and make your money work for you. Everything guys, the people you see me interviewing, the billionaires, the. The people that are selling companies for tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars, they're mentoring you every week on live calls. So that way if you have a bottleneck in your business, you get it figured out and you begin to scale those businesses to prosperity. So all you have to do to join is go down, click the link that is in the description of this video to become a member of the School of Mentors today. We can't wait to see you on the inside. With that being said, let's get back to the conversation.
- [33:55]
Josh
There was a saying that I love, and it was Walt Disney was an incredible visionary, but he couldn't put the pieces together if it wasn't for his brother to help him be an integrator. And you brought a CEO into your business to help you run things, and you kind of sat back as more as a visionary. At what point should someone look to bring in that integrator role into their business?
- [34:17]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, so there's a great book by Gino Wickman and Mark Winters called Rocket Fuel. And that's, I think, what you're alluding to. And everybody should read that book. Integrators you need right away. The first thing is an executive assistant to give all the stuff that you shouldn't be doing. The next thing is find an amazing integrator that could actually take your vision, take your dream. You know, Walt Disney saw what Disney World and Disneyland would look like. He was flying over Orlando when it was all swamp. And he had the vision, but he didn't know how much money was in the account or what a caterpillar lift to pull dirt out. He didn't understand that he was a dreamer. And a lot of us dream really big, but we have nobody to help us implement those dreams and break it down into small little actions. Now, I had to be both for a while, but I'm not a great Integrator. I mean, I get sidetracked. Most entrepreneurs have adhd. Our focus changes, so I need somebody to pull me back to reality. So we've got the North Star of what we're doing, and we're relentlessly prioritizing objectives and what we're doing with projects. And so we got our top 10, and we say, what brings us to the North Star the quickest? And so we got. I've got 287 projects on that list, and I've got a project manager and a CEO that are always like, dude, that's important. You just came up with another idea. Is that in your top 10 because you get sidetracked so easily? And so what's our North Star? You got to define that first. Where do you want to go and why? And Simon Sinek talks a lot about, it's got to be a big why. You know, I heard somebody talking about dreaming.
- [35:55]
I literally dream so big. Like, I always say, why not me? I look at Jeff Bezos, and I'm like, that guy's incredible. So is Elon Musk. Why not me?
- [36:05]
I look at them when they were 42, and I think, I'm. I'm a little ahead of them. But I got to still continue to start sprint, so I'm at a slow jog right now. Compared there are, like, their lightning speed. They're on like, jet fuel. But I got to figure out how to continue to. To take this curve and go like this, the hockey stick. And it's not only in money, because literally, some of the best billionaires you meet. I met a guy the other day on a podcast. He goes, dude, most billionaires I meet are. They're so unhappy. They're so ungrateful. Their lives have changed. Everyone that is around them is around them because of their money. They're like, what can this guy do for me? And, you know, Jim Carrey said, I wish everybody was filthy rich and famous so then they would realize that's not the answer. And everybody thinks it is, because we see Instagram, we see TikTok. We're like, we want that life. But you don't know. You only see the glimpses of the good part. But then they're drug addicts, they commit suicide. There's so many bad things. So learning how to deal with the. The money is a different. Like, learning how to make money is awesome. Learning how to keep it is another thing. And then what people are going to think about you? Are people real around you? I don't really feel like that because I'm still around people I really trust, but a lot of times people stop trusting everybody around them when they start making a lot of money. And that's no life to live to literally know if this friend's really being serious, if they really want to know you. For you.
- [37:29]
James
You've invested millions of dollars into yourself, into your personal development, and you've learned a valuable lesson about a lot of different business concepts. I want to talk about branding for a second. Go back to kind of the origin days. You used to put a nice big picture of yourself on the side of your cars. I want to kind of talk about the lesson that you learned about branding from, I think, one of the first guys who was running one of the biggest home service businesses in the country.
- [37:55]
Tommy Mello
Yeah.
- [37:56]
James
What did you learn about branding and consumer psychology and how they react to that? That really fascinated you, you know, so.
- [38:03]
Tommy Mello
This is, this is our new truck brand. It's, it's. This happened when I was 30 million. And this is a company I work with called Kick Charge. And I didn't realize somebody buys a Nike shirt for $300 because it's got a stupid little Nike symbol on it. People say, when you succeed and you're at the top of Mount Everest, what do you buy yourself? A Rolex. You've done it. The brand. Like you look at the best brands in the world and they're just printing money. And what does our brand represent? It represents we're going to do the job right the first time. We're going to treat you like mom. We are not the cheapest, but we are the best. It's going to be somebody safe. You've got two young daughters at home and a wife. You're at work. We're going to come do the job right. We're going to give a real warranty. And if there's any issues, we're going to come out and put that ahead of everything. We're going to go nights, weekends, holidays. People want to pay for peace of mind. They don't want their garage door to break. You buy the cheapest. I never bought anything in my life for the cheapest. And it worked for a long time. It's an investment into my home and my family. So when I got rebranded.
- [39:06]
We changed our yard signs, our billboards, the whole company's wrapped interior. We believed in the brand. And the brand is so important. And I meet a lot of people that have stencils. It says discount garage doors, discount air conditioning. Who are you going to attract? You're going to. It's like advertising on Craigslist. You attract people. Hey, let's make a deal. I don't want to pay for that. I want people to just say, I want peace of mind. I want you to be safe. I want lifetime warranty. I want to make sure the job's done right. And when you own a home, you start realizing, you know, the guy comes home and there's a guy out there, he's sweaty, his ass is hanging out, and you're like, do you even have insurance? What happens if you make a mistake? If you cut into a beam in my ceiling, like, and I've seen a guy cut into a beam. And the top four started, like, literally, like, you get what you pay for. So we've invested a lot into the brand, and I've invested a lot into my personal brand because out of the 50 guys that come in, 40 of them have followed me, have found me. And people don't work for a company. They work for the leader, and they work for, you know, our CEO and our CFO and our growth officer Young. And they go all in, and they want to work for a company that cares, that actually puts them first and says, we've got a full time dream manager. And the dream manager is supposed to figure out your dreams and help you figure out how to hit them quicker. But the brand is everything. A1. From day one, baby, the garage door is the number one investment in your home. It's 40% of your curb appeal. We trademarked the garage door is a smile of your home. And I love garage doors more than anything. I really think, like, what do you. You want to know what someone does for fun? Go in their garage, their golf clubs or kegerators. They're meat grinders. You know, if they're. They're a hunter. It's just, I love it because there's so much to connect with the client on. And I go in one day I was in this garage, and we're talking over a decade ago, and I learned all about Bernie Sanders. Wasn't a big fan, but I sat there and listened and learned all about him. And I connected with this client. Another time I was with a World War II vet. I took the rest of the day off and sat with him on his porch for four hours. He took out his purple heart and just. I was like, man, you've done all this stuff for our country. We're just going to take care of you. I don't remember every job I was at. I remember the ones that just really made an impact. On my life. And I got to genuinely know people and build friends. I got invited to Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know how many people try to make me Mormon.
- [41:30]
Josh
You have to take that offer, by the way. You get invited to a client's Thanksgiving dinner. You have to go.
- [41:35]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, well, listen, this is way before I'm engaged now to. To breathe the love of my life. But, you know, I guess the best compliment ever was when a dad would try to, like, introduce me to their daughter when I'm in my 20s, when I was just like, greasy guy in their garage, and they were just like.
- [41:51]
Jack
Honey, come out here.
- [41:52]
Tommy Mello
Come on. Put on your dress.
- [41:57]
Yeah. So a lot of times, you know, Mesa is one of so Utah. Mesa, Salt Lake City. I moved to Arizona. I went to a mostly Mormon school. And a lot of times I was out in Gilbert and Mesa, and they'd be like, hey, dude, you got to come to church with us. And I'm like, well, I already go to church. And by the way, Mormon is a great religion. They're great people. So are Canadians. Canadians. Mormons. Amazing people. And they buy.
- [42:19]
James
You mentioned how 40 of the 50 people that come into the office, they. They know you in some regard. A lot of the times they're following you. They're tapped into you. They've seen you before.
- [42:29]
Why is it important for business owners and for companies to put that emphasis on their personal brand? We were just talking about PayPal earlier.
- [42:38]
Tommy Mello
PayPal just hired as a head of SE, so a head CEO of content. This is what you need to know. The job pays over $200,000 a year. The mission is simple. Make sure the CEO, Alex Chris, is visible and consistently posting. This is not about getting likes. It's about building trust with the investors, inspiring employees, and keeping PayPal top of mind against competitors like Apple Pay and Google Pay. PayPal is proving that in the next few years, including 2025 and 2026, the personal brand of the leader as important, if not more important, than the brand of the company itself. Here's the takeaway. Visibility is no longer nice to have for leaders. It is part of the business strategy. If your audience cannot see you, they will forget that you exist. If they cannot see you often enough with the right message, you shape. If they can see you enough with the right message, you shape how they think before you even speak to them. The difference between a CEO and who shows up online and who does not can be millions in talent, attraction, customer trust, and deal flow. And so my main job is to go out there and Trust me, there's certain days I don't necessarily have time to make content. So what I did is I built the content machine around me so I might come into this meeting. Obviously there's sensitive material. Clear it with me before we post. But that's the machine that I'm trying to build. Dan Martell does a great job of it.
- [43:51]
Jack
We were talking about earlier about, you know, our generation and, you know, not everybody's cut out for entrepreneurship. For those that are cut out for entrepreneurship for the next generation, do you see home service as an avenue for them? Is there a route where Gen Z should be getting into home service businesses and learning that train? Or is it like, hey, go the AI route. What do you think?
- [44:14]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, well, they told everybody to go into programming, into Python, Ruby on Rails, into understanding all this stuff. Now they're like, that's the worst thing you can do because AI is going to take that over the next five to seven years. Look really good for home service. It's expected to quadruple in the next five years. There's, there's people that are building data centers. They need electricians and air conditioning guys. I would say it's the best thing you could do. Listen, I was with a guy yesterday, he's got a master's degree, I got a master's degree. And I was like, did you learn a lot in your master's degree? He goes, dude, no. Like, I would have went straight into home service.
- [44:51]
If somebody were to go into home service. You could be. I got a 23 year old, he bought his house, he's got two cars paid off, he's getting ready to buy an Airbnb rental house. 23, no college debt. And he's working with me and he's got equity in the company. And I'm not saying if you're an entrepreneur, here's the best lesson I could give you is go learn somewhere, be around the right people, learn how to do the right meetings, learn how to give, teach people how to practice, learn how to recruit. The problem is if you get good at a trade, you don't understand what the EMOD score is with workers comp or insurance. You don't understand how to build leaders. You don't understand. So you, I really believe you should go get an apprenticeship, you should go work for somebody. You should do R and D, which is rip off and duplicate everything they know, have a plan, make enough money. Because most people are underfunded and they go into debt when they start a business and they know the trade. But they don't know how to answer the calls, book the calls, convert the calls, how to pay the right taxes, tax avoidance, accelerated depreciation. They don't know what a add back means. They don't really know the real comprehension of what EBITDA is or multiples, how they work. So I don't think somebody should just jump in at 19. Yes, you could do that. You could go mow lawns like I did. I used to do water conservation analysis and put drip systems in. Made good money. I was bringing in 30 grand a month. And then I realized, Look, I lost 10 years learning. The first 10 years were practice of my 20 years in this business. So if I could have got the right mentorship, I could have speeded that up by a decade.
- [46:21]
James
When you think of the home service businesses though, 90 plus percent of the people that are making millions in home service businesses, it's like they're in that 3 to 6 million dollars revenue range. What is the biggest bottleneck that you see with those companies that are kind of preventing them from leaving that 3 to $6 million revenue range?
- [46:39]
Tommy Mello
That they're, well, they don't trust anybody and they hire people dumber than them. They want to be in control. They say if I hire this guy, he could steal my company. And they're not raising their lid and they haven't created systems. The main thing I see in a business is it's not system oriented. So it's either there's no system, the wrong system, or the third is the worst. You build a great system, but the system's not being followed. So I think you gotta read Al Levy's book, the seven Power Contractor build manual, standard operating procedures checklist and make sure everything has an expected outcome. When there's problems all the time, who do you call? The founder. I'm gonna fix it. And the owner becomes the bottleneck. And they'll never scale past themselves. So when you go out and create a team and hire the right people and start getting out of the way, I mean, I'm out of town a lot. I'm learning, I'm investing in my people, I'm going to visiting markets and when I go out of town, guess what happens? We set a record. I love to say when I'm in town, we're always setting right. We're in town or out of town, we're still setting records, but I got to get the hell out of the way. Some people are like, dude, we love it when you leave because we want to impress you. We want to show you that we can do this without you. And that takes a lot of trust. The one thing in business you need is you need to be able to trust the people around you. If you don't have that, you don't have anything.
- [47:49]
Josh
I love. And one thing that you, you said earlier that really spoke to me is the fact that the first 10 years of your business, you were just learning. And I feel like if I could talk to my younger self, I dropped outta school, went full time into entrepreneurship and was just literally eating shit for years. And I, if I could just talk to my younger self, I'd be like, go work in a business and go learn the tools of the trade and learn on someone else's dime and get paid while you're doing it. So I'm curious if you could talk to younger Tommy, you're 26 years old, starting off in the business, what are three principles you would tell him on how to grow the business that you have today?
- [48:25]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, well, who? Not how. Be around the right people, get into the right circles. You look at your inner circle. If you don't get inspired, it becomes a cage number one. Like, you've got to be willing to ask and go for no and not be afraid of rejection. Don't care about being liked because you're going to be misunderstood, is what I tell young Tommy. I'd also tell him readers are leaders. Like, devour books and make sure you're reading the right books. And like I said earlier, hang out with the, the people in your future instead of your past. And be very careful who you let in, because most people have the wrong intentions. I'd say the most important lesson that you'll ever do in your life is be around the right partner, which is for you guys, hopefully a wife. Some of you guys may be a husband, but no, I'm kidding. But no dice. Either way. Either way. But yeah. And look at the end of the day, like, hire mentors and don't be afraid. I was writing Al Levy, my first mentor, in 2017, the first really great mentor other than my parents. I was writing checks out of an equity line. And he always reminds me of this. I mean, this is a personal checkbook, not a business checkbook, you know, that you flip open. And the reason I had to apply everything he taught me is because I didn't have any other choice. And he'd be like this, Tommy, I want you to stop reading books. I want you to apply these simple principles. We're going to get the manuals done, We're Going to fill out the checklists, and you have to do this perfectly, and then you can do anything you want. And that set me free because we built SOPs. Those are the important things. And I'd say, listen along the way, take care of yourself. Don't forget how great you feel when you work out. And don't forget you're a role model for everybody around you. And don't think people don't look up to you, because they do. And if they. If you say it's okay to have a messy desk and park in the handicap spot and not pick up trash in the. In the hallway or. Or on the parking lot, you say it's okay for everybody to do that. So always be. Act like somebody's watching whatever you're doing. Act like somebody's always around. And so what I do. Sometimes I think grandma's watching me all the time, and I want to make her proud in heaven.
- [50:36]
James
When I first walked in here, one of the first things that I noticed was this picture of you. It looks like you were baptized a couple years ago.
- [50:43]
Tommy Mello
Yeah.
- [50:43]
James
Why did you get baptized?
- [50:45]
Tommy Mello
Well, I. This is a hard story. You know, I've always been pretty close to God, but my parents don't remember if they got me baptized, so I thought it was pretty important. I mean, I. I'm a believer in the Bible, but my dad, during COVID went through some serious hard times, and I was taking him from hospital to hospital, and I don't. You can't imagine what this is like, because, like, my dad's a legend in my eyes. When I was in second grade, this guy wanted to be Superman. This guy wanted to be Batman. I said, I want to be my dad. And so my sister called me and said, hey, dad's gonna die today. And he was on getting ready to put on a respiratory. Respiratory system, and his oxygen fell below 60. And I just remember I fell down to my knees and I started bawling. And I'm driving. I'm. I'm driving like a maniac to get to the hospital. And I'm praying and I'm pounding my arms on the steering wheel. And just like I prayed and I said, jesus, if you let my dad live, I'll always tell everybody that you. You gave me every success, every stage I'm on. I'm going to tell people about you, and I'll become a better son. I didn't spend enough time with dad. I got too wrapped around the business. I didn't make quality time. Now we shoot pool every Sunday. So I take his hand, and he barely looks at me and says, I'm not ready to go. And by the way, I was in the icu. I was buying the breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So they let me in the icu. I became their friend. I sat down with them for hours and talked to the nurses and doctors. I wanted to be let in. I wanted as much time as I could get. I thought he was going to die. Then he was on oxygen. He carried a tank around. One day, I see him and I'm like, dad, where's your oxygen? I run out of the car. He's like, God healed me. And anyway, a year and a half later, I'm in my office, and this guy calls me up out of the blue and he goes, tommy, listen, this is going to sound really weird. No one knew this story. Nobody. I never told this story. He goes, did you make a deal with Jesus? And I'm not kidding. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I got goosebumps. I'm like, who are you? What is this about? He goes, listen, I just. God came to me and he said, I pictured you on your hands and knees praying, and whatever deal you made, remember to keep your promise, because just as quick as he gave it to you, he could take it away. And I was like, oh, man. I was on stage next week, I'm like, I want to talk about Jesus. You know, I'm not going to be blind about my faith, and that's really important to me. I go to Impact Church. Pastor Travis is an amazing guy. We've managed to be able to donate to the church. Not near as much as I should and could and will, but time's important, too. So that's just. That was important to me. Me and Bri did it together, and that was a rebirth in. In the name of Jesus. I mean, and that's important to me because I know where I'm going. And guess what? I'm building two beautiful homes. You know where I really want to build a house forever is in heaven. So I love that.
- [53:47]
James
I want to build a house in heaven forever. Well, we like to end these podcasts off with two last questions for our guests, starting with me, and then Jack will cap us off. But, Tommy, if me and you died tomorrow and you had one more guiding principle that you could leave with the younger generation, what would that be?
- [54:03]
Tommy Mello
I guess on the subject I was on is, you know, when you become 18, you don't spend as much time with the people that took care of you that that mean Everything to you and tomorrow's not promised is along the success. Just remember where you came from. Remember the people. Your grandma, your grandparents, your favorite uncle, and most importantly, your parents. And even today, I got a lot of work to do is, you know, your parents just want to know you're doing good, I'm healthy, I love you, and things are going good. And if you could just make that moment to let them know that at least a couple of times a week. And one other thing is, there's a lot of people right now taking care of me. I mean, there's meetings going on next door is every once in a while, just remember gratitude. You know, I can move all my fingers. I wake up with energy. There's other people. There's 7 billion other people. There's a lot more than that. But 7 billion people that would don't have a house, they would trade their life, they would trade everything to have live in my shoes for a year. So just gratitude and just remember where you came from. Because sometimes you get so caught up and saying, it's not enough, it's not enough, it's not enough. Sometimes you got to just go, this is amazing. I live the best life. I travel, I do the things I love, I'm loved. And I got great people. I got Finnegan and Huckleberry, my two dogs that are my best friends, other, you know, for canines. And I just live the best life ever. And I think sometimes people live in this. This moment of just, they're not enough, they're not enough, they're not enough. And if you had to live one day in somebody's shoes in another continent, you'd say, man, I live the best life ever.
- [55:44]
Jack
And Tommy, on that point, you alluded to it a little bit earlier, but when it's all said and done, how do you want to be remembered?
- [55:52]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, number one.
- [55:55]
If I were to die tomorrow, I hope the. The funeral is outside and nobody's wearing black. There's a lot of people that said, when Tommy shook my hand and said he was going to do something, he always did it. He was the most curious person in the world. He was always learning, never cocky. He was confident, not cocky. There's a big difference.
- [56:17]
He gave more than he took and most of all.
- [56:21]
Not. Not yet, but I'm manifesting he was the best dad in the world, and he treated his kids with respect and taught them everything. He was hard but fair, and he wanted to pass the torch and make them 10 times better than he ever was.
- [56:38]
James
Beautiful answer and beautiful episode for everybody watching right now, be sure to like and subscribe for amazing content we've got coming every week. Because we're bringing you guys, the most incredible business owners just like Tommy Melo every single week here on the Hard Knocks podcast. Tommy, where can everybody find you on social media?
- [56:53]
Tommy Mello
Yeah, on Instagram. Official Tommy Melo. Here's what I'll do if you comment Hard Knocks on my Instagram, you don't have to like me. I'll give you guys a guide on how to hire. I think the hardest part is getting talent. And listen, this isn't about me getting likes. I took 10 days of deep, deep research, not chatgpt to put this together and it's about 80 pages. So if you go on Official Tommy Mellow on Instagram, I'll send that to you and tommymello.com you can find out a lot more.
- [57:24]
James
I love it. Well, we appreciate you, Tommy, being here. And lastly, for everybody watching right now, guys, if you go down and click the link in the description of this video, you can get access to enjoying the number one entrepreneur community and network in the entire world. With over 6,000 members, they get to learn every week from 8, 9 and 10 figure entrepreneurs that we have on our channel every single week. So we can't wait to see you on the inside of the school event tours. With that being said, we'll see you in the next episode.