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The Candy Valentino Show
How This Broke Dishwasher Built a $250M+ Empire in Home Services with Tommy Mello
00:43:46
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- [00:00]
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- [00:31]
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- [01:07]
Candy Valentino
Welcome to the Candy Valentino show, the podcast for founders, investors and entrepreneurs where we have honest conversations about what it takes to grow your business, build more wealth, and create financial freedom.
- [01:34]
Tommy Mello
Well, Tommy, thank you so much for.
- [01:35]
Eduardo
Coming on the show.
- [01:36]
Candy Valentino
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
- [01:38]
Tommy Mello
So excited.
- [01:39]
Eduardo
I heard you at an event that you spoke at really quickly and I was like, oh my gosh, this guy's talking about numbers and KPIs and how to grow your your revenue without acquiring more. I'm like, this is my guy. We've got to have a conversation on the show. So tell everyone a little bit. I like to give them quick value and then we'll unpack your story.
- [01:58]
Candy Valentino
So I'm a big fan of I don't really care what's going on. I don't really have competition on my own. Competition. We're setting the bar. I'm in the home service industry, so I think a lot of people, they don't really know what to focus on. Like they don't know their booking rate. That's the number one thing I see. They're not booking, they're not fighting for every client that's calling in, coming in through a form fill online through an LSA ad. They don't know their conversion rate, they don't know their average ticket and they don't know their attribution costs, their cost to acquire a customer. So when you know those numbers, you know what to work on. And I I'm an employee first centric like that. We work for the Technicians and installers, the guy in the field. I'm obsessed with marketing. Like, marketing is everything. My personal brand, A1 garage door service. But, you know, if it really goes downhill, it's a buyer's market. I'm getting deals, buying companies at a discount. Like, no matter what, I'm going to win. And I look at it like there's a lot of victims out there. There's a lot of people that are like, poor me, woe is me. They focus on what they don't have versus what they have. They focus on the past versus the present. They focus on things they can't have versus what they have. And I just think, you know, God's been good to me.
- [03:12]
Eduardo
So you're kind of just looking at it as, where's the opportunity?
- [03:14]
Candy Valentino
There is always an. An opportunity. You look at the most wealthy people in the world, some of the happiest people, they learn how to make. In a buyer's market, they make the most money. I want the economy to do well. I love the United States of America. I love it when the economy and the global infrastructure is doing great. But I don't, like, it's not going to affect me. I'm going to find that silver lining.
- [03:39]
Tommy Mello
Yeah.
- [03:39]
Eduardo
And I love the industry you're in. I personally, my dad was a mechanic, so I love home services. I think there is massive opportunity in the industry and I think it's. We're not even scratching the surface of not only acquiring other businesses, but for really great businesses to stand out in the next five, 10, 20 years. Like, I think there is no better time. You've got everybody focused on, you know, having and being an influencer in YouTube. And it's like, no, no. Like, the millionaires to be made are in home service businesses. And so I love what you're doing. And I think that there's a lot of people, I have a lot of people in my nucleus because of my background that are also in that industry. And they listen in and they're like, okay, but do I grow? How do I scale? I'm. I'm one shop. I've got plumbers, I've got electricians, I've got, like, how do I really grow to the level that you are? And if that person's listening right now and they're like, okay, I know there's opportunity coming, what do I do with it? What would you tell them as some of the first steps that you would take if you were starting all over again with just like one location and a couple guys?
- [04:41]
Candy Valentino
Yeah, I Think leadership is a big deal. You build a team. If you look at Nick Saban or the best coaches of all time, I always relate to sports. You gotta be a great coach. Watches the tape. They, they recruit well, they understand the people are everything. And then you need. I read a book and I actually, my best mentor of all time, his name's al Levy. He's 70 years old, wrote a book called the Seven Power Contractor. And he's like, it all starts with manual standard operating procedures. Checklist your org chart, your depth chart, your steps of delegation. He came into my office in 2017, so 11 years into the business, I was 17 million at the time. And he goes, where's your, where's your manuals? Like, how do you, how does someone know how to win if they need a time off or if their truck breaks down or, or if they need to do a ride along or how do they move up in the company? And I'm like, I know all that stuff. But they don't. And so we worked together for years and it got to the point where he's like, it's going to get boring. You're not going to be a firefighter. There's going to be a system behind everything, a process that's written down and read every day. And people are going to initially going to know the manuals and manuals sounds so bad. Like, I'm like, manual, I don't want a man. And he's like, no, no. It's just your guide how to win. Like in golf, if you want to win right now, the Masters, like, how many fairways did I hit? How many greens and regulation did I hit? How many putts? And then a coach, a golf pro will say, here's where you, here's where we can fix your game. Here's the biggest hole in your game. And so I think getting the standard operating procedures, checklists, the steps of delegation, and then it's really understanding marketing's everything, making the phone ring, but then converting those leads into clients for life and giving that raving fan experience.
- [06:23]
Eduardo
Is there anything you do strategically now that you've like from doing all those manuals that is like, okay, when everybody calls in, there's one thing that we do to make the phone ring or one thing that we do to convert the call.
- [06:36]
Candy Valentino
There's a lot of things we do. We've got systems and processes for every single thing. But we really try to have a lot of empathy. We try to talk to them. Oh my gosh, my mom used to answer phones in 2010, she go, oh, my gosh, honey, I am so, so sorry to hear that. We're going to make your day so much better. Oh, I can only imagine what you're going through. She's like, we're going to send our best technician out there. And back then I was still running calls here and there.
- [07:00]
Eduardo
Yeah.
- [07:01]
Candy Valentino
And they'd go, who is that lady? Like, she is just. You were hands down the company we're gonna use. And so that was amazing. I always offer, hey, I'm stopping over Starbucks, could I grab you anything? And that's just like, no one offers that. Like, we play with the dog. Like, we gotta play with the dog when you go. And like, animals and kids are like people's favorite things. So, like, our rule is, like, cats, it's optional. But those are simple things we do. And then another big thing I'll tell you is the brand. I thought, like, man, you, you wrap your trucks, you might have a decent brand. And then I met this guy with Kick Charge Creative and he's done 2500 of the most elite brands in home service. And he does all this analysis like, who's your competitors? What do you stand for? What's your mission? What's your vision? What are your core values? How do you want the customer to feel? How does it stand out? You don't want Yelp and Ape plus BBB and Angie and every single thing that you do where it's confusing. Like, if you're a power washer, you probably power wash, you know, everything. Like, and don't name it your last name. If it's like Kirvanovic. Yeah, Kavanavic Garage Doors. Like, it's like, what does that even mean? So he helped me out a lot. We were 40 million when we rebranded. And all of a sudden Grade A people showed up at my door to work with us. Like my co workers. All of a sudden, like, clients expected the best. I started marketing more to affluent clients. That said we, we don't want Joe Smoke, we don't want discount services. We want Grade A, somebody we could trust that'll get the job done on the timeline. We want with quality, with the backed up warranty, with background checks so they're safer on our family and just not to have to deal. Like marketing to the fluid is a big deal because I don't care what the economy's like. Wealthy people are still going to be spending a lot of money because they're.
- [08:54]
Eduardo
The ones that are going to be navigating through that, making more in the down Times.
- [08:58]
Candy Valentino
Absolutely. They've already been through this.
- [09:01]
Eduardo
Yeah.
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Tommy Mello
And there's. It's interesting.
- [09:02]
Eduardo
There are four to five times. So I did a lot of research.
- [09:05]
Tommy Mello
For my prior book.
- [09:06]
Eduardo
Four to five times in our lifetime when we're not super young or super old, that we have the ability to acquire more wealth more quickly. And we're coming into one of them, which is for most people, like the third or fourth, depending on their age. So I think that that's so brilliant that you're so intentional about who your avatar is, how you're marketing to them. So let's take a beat for a second. And someone's like, okay, that's great. You have all these processes, you have all these systems, and they're like, I don't even know if I'm going to make payroll. I don't even know where my next customers are coming from. Can you talk a little bit about your story? Because it's not like you came from. This is your third generation, and you walked into this like you built this from nothing.
- [09:47]
Candy Valentino
Yeah, listen. Mom had three jobs. Mom and dad got a divorce when I was 7. And I figured out when I was a kid, if I wanted to get something, I didn't want to go to mom. She had blisters on her feet. She was a realtor. Her best year, she sold 52 houses. She used to knock on doors every FSBO she knock on. Super outgoing. Dad tried the best he could. My dad was my soccer coach, my baseball coach. Went through a lot. He was also a mechanic and still is a mechanic. He's still seven years old, works on stuff. And, you know, I mowed lawn, shovel snow. I'm from Michigan. And when I was 12 years old, my buddy's dad was like a regular ed at this bar. And he's like, hey, if you want a job washing dishes, be under the table, because you're not old enough to work yet. $4.05 an hour. I was like, yes. So I'd walk home from middle school, go to this bar piled up with dishes like crazy. I've created systems, and I, like, put on the. The apron and, like, just. I soak all the silverware. And I. What I figured out really early is, man, if I work hard, I can make a lot of money. But then I'm like, every time I go on vacation, I don't make money. And I'm like, this kind of stinks. So I said, I want to go into business, but I want to create a business that makes money when I sleep. And so I had a landscaping business when I moved to Phoenix, and it's a tough industry. I used to do water conservation analysis back before water was a big thing and get some big accounts. And I started painting garage doors, Started a garage door company. Made every mistake you could think of. And in 2008, I had a really good buddy introduced me to this cpa. And he goes, how much of a reader are you? And I go, well, I read To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies. It's been a long time. I'm not a big reader. He goes, read this book. It's called the E. Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. And then I brought that back. I go, this is the best book ever. He goes, this is called the Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. This is the one thing, I don't know if it was out then, but that was a great book. Gary Carroll Keller. I know. And then I read Richest man of Babylon. I read, you name it, Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Ciardini, all these books. Just became an avid reader, but I would actually read the book and do stuff with it. And so A1 kept growing, growing. 2014 founder and integrator. Amazing guy Adam Cronenberg. 2017 found Al Levy. Created the systems, got on the right CRM, right technology, and branded correctly in 2019. And right now A1 garage door service is in 23 states. This year we'll do 260 million. Most likely, depending on acquisitions, we could do more, we'll do over 250. But I'm more proud we're going to do 25% to the bottom line because of the systems and the structure. And a lot of people say they brag when they walk in a room about how much revenue they do, but when you find out behind the scenes they're not making money. And so I say revenue is for vanity and profit is for sanity. That's the foundation. And as things got more and more successful, we took on a investor in the end of 2020 to set a record for the multiple. I mean it was a great multiple. At that point we're at 27 million of EBITDA and I rolled half of it back in. And now we're out there just buying, buying companies and integrating them and green fielding into new markets, organic growth and learning a lot. This is a whole different dimension of how they raise money, LPs, understanding markets. But it's fun, it's challenging, but it's like I don't have to wonder if the guy's going to show up sober like, my old problems are not what I have now, but they're still no matter what size you are. There's nobody that's like completely figured it out. And time management has become a big deal for me.
- [13:37]
Eduardo
So someone that's, that's listening to that and they're like, okay, so quarter of a billion, you've got all of these other businesses that you're acquiring. You have massive teams, 23 states, about 800 people now, 800 employees. You don't have to worry about making payroll. Everything that you're doing at this point now is just gravy on the top. What keeps you up at night?
- [13:59]
Candy Valentino
You know, I figured out a lot of stuff for the business and then this money, a different dimension of money came into my life. And that's when I read buy back your time. Started working pretty closely with Dan Martell. And he goes, you did this with your business. Now we got to figure out who's. He goes, tommy, quit thinking in dollars and cents. Start thinking about percentages. He's like, you do not need to be involved anymore. He's like, you need to build your personal life up. Like we're, I've got this modern day butler starting and like, you're going to eat healthy all the time, but it's going to taste good. He's like, you're going to find workouts that you enjoy doing that, that you have to do. He's like, you don't need to do in this. Listen, I started from nothing, so I'm not, I don't feel bad about saying this, but you don't have to do laundry or mow your own lawn. And I haven't done that in a while. But he's like, set up the systems for your personal life. And there's still stuff that goes like, I care a lot about everybody I work with, so I want to make sure they're winning. I wrote a book, elevate called Build a business where everybody wins. Your vendors are winning, the clients are winning, my coworkers are winning. And so I like to see everybody kind of win. And keeps me up at night is like making sure they are accomplishing their dreams. They dream bigger. Like a lot of companies, they brag about charging less to their clients when their people are living in a small apartment, don't have a safe vehicle to bring their kids to school, barely putting food on the table, and they're suppressing everybody around them to give their customers a great price. I charge a really great value. I'm not the most expensive in town. But I'm definitely not the guy going to show up with somebody you can't trust in your, in your home. And I think that's important is like, everybody should be able to win. Like, they should have good insurance and they should have a safe car to drive and they should have nice things. And I'm big into meritocracy versus tenure. It's like, no one's like, granted, hey, you move out to this level now, you're indestructible. Like, if you come in, work hard, everything's performance, pay, you book more phone calls, you're going to make more money. Higher percentage booking, better dispatching. And like, it's not just commission for technicians, it's how many recalls did you have, how many 5 star reviews did you get? Did you drive safe, did you show up on time? So when you start paying attention to this stuff is you got to think what's in it for them.
- [16:20]
Eduardo
So I love that you're, you're strategically rewarding them for things that really matter and grow the business. But also in their own personal life.
- [16:29]
Candy Valentino
You know, these guys grew up a lot like me. You know, maybe they didn't have a father or maybe the parents were living paycheck to paycheck. Maybe they lived in Section 8 housing. Maybe they didn't graduate high school. Maybe they're just not happy with their smile and they need to get their teeth fixed. Like, that changes lives. And it's hard to manage these people because in school no one taught us how to budget. We didn't talk about credit scores. So teaching them just the fundamentals and I had to learn the hard way. And like, I'm like, listen, we're going to have great credit. We're going to take care of ourselves. Like, cold showers are a great way to start the day.
- [17:01]
Eduardo
Yeah.
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Candy Valentino
And you know, I was telling you a little bit about Profit first. Michael McKellar was for taking profit first all the way down to the employee level where they build. We work with them. Like, you want to buy a house, you want to buy a second house, you want to take your dad on this fishing trip. It cost 22 grand. We're going to build a bank account for the fishing trip, children, tuition, whatever your own dreams and dream bigger. And then let's figure those out. KPI driven. So you would need to do this at work. Your wife bought into this, your kids bought into it, or your husband and your kids bought into it. Your family knows what your goals are. Now. We're going to hold you accountable to that we don't need to do performance improvement plans. We don't need to threaten you if your dream's big enough, your why strong enough, we're going to make that happen.
- [17:46]
Eduardo
So anyone's listening is like, that's really great. I would love to do that for my people. Like, I would love to be able to give them more and help them with their goals, but I can barely keep money for my own family. I know that you're strategic about this, but I'd love to share with people how you've been strategic so that you can do those things. Because you have to run your business completely different. You can't just see what sales you have, pay the expenses. This is the profit I have to pay everybody. You're strategic about the build and you have been for so long. So how have you been able to make sure that you can sustain that level of care for your employees?
- [18:22]
Candy Valentino
Typically, there's three main ways I'm getting data. One's through the payroll system. I want to understand Turnover and do 360 reviews on the leadership team. Second one is your CRM and that's going to tell you the main drivers. Those are real KPIs for today. And the other one's financials tells you gross profit, your cost of goods. So I pull all that data into Power bi. There's domo. There's a lot of things you could use to kind of accumulate the data. And I run my life through data. I mean, the data spells out the decision making. Like you learn where every single person and business, you know what happens when you go to a doctor. They say they're gonna check your weight, your height. Then they're gonna do your blood pressure. They're gonna say, so how are things going? What's your stress? What's your anxiety? Tell me a little bit how you're feeling. Are you working out? How much are you drinking? How's your diet? How's work? How are the kids? And then they're gonna say, here's your prescription. Based on everything you've told me and what's going on in your symptoms, and it's not one size fits all. And I think everybody needs every business. First you got to know like, some people are like, yeah, my booking rate's probably 90%. I'm like, it should be a decimal place. It should be exact. And your data needs to be accurate. Checks and balances data. We have a whole data integrity team. Because I can't make decisions as a leader. Like, if I'm going to Call a play on the field, I better know what's going on. Like, if you look at the NFL or NHL or any team, they know how to call the plays. They've watched the tapes, they know the defense and offense, they know the special teams. And I think a lot of people are driving blind. They're like, yeah, it must be easy for him to say no. I ran every call. I literally left the movie theater. I got up at the 2am to run a call. I started from zero. I always say I started from the bottom. Now I'm here.
- [20:06]
Eduardo
So that's really great. Obviously you're speaking my language because I'm all about data and people that for whatever reason, it's not the sexy thing, right? So people want to like scroll, scroll past that. They don't want to necessarily pay attention to it. But it is everything. Like the numbers and the data is how you can create the science and the equation of your business. Was there something that happened along the way of your build that was maybe a mistake or a challenge that made you start paying attention?
- [20:32]
Tommy Mello
Because most people don't just wake up.
- [20:33]
Eduardo
One day and like, I'm going to start paying attention to all these KPIs unless they're either forced to or inspired to.
- [20:41]
Candy Valentino
You know what it is, is I was really good at math. I love math and I love numbers, but I was not good. You know, I ended up getting a master's degree in 2012. And I never really loved financials annual reports. So I've learned to be the master of what I'm great at. Like, I want to be the best, the best, but I want to hire for everything else. So build your org chart. Find out what you hate doing. Like, first of all, if you're doing minimum wage stuff like emails, and I know people are like, I can't live without emails. But, like, you should have a great ea. Next thing would be circle the thing you can't stand and find the very, very best. Like my cfo, fifth CFO is a ninja. This dude, he's from England. And this dude could write, but he enjoys what he does, he loves what he does, and he's damn good at it. And he helps me out to make critical decisions and I could rely on that. So I think a lot of people, they try to be this jack of all trades. I'm going to get good at marketing. I need to learn that. It's nice to have an overview and at least know what you're looking at and kind of know how those numbers are derived. But you should not have to live in QuickBooks or intact all day long. And you should not have to. If you hate that stuff and you don't enjoy it, you need to recruit the talent around you. And I just say like, some people hate payroll, some people hate the HR side of things. And like that's the first person you hire. And why would I work for you? I read this book by Darren Hardy, the Compound Effect, and He wrote down 100 things that he wanted in the Perfect woman. And he wrote down 100 things and he reads the list out loud and goes, I don't think I can pull this chick. She's probably too good to be. This is like I. So he read this list and said, I better write down what I need to become to even be honorable. Like to really be worthy of a woman like this. So I read that and I wrote down 30 things that I needed to become to have the people around me. Because nobody wants to work with a bad communicator that's always pointing on their faults and like that just has this vision but never does any implementation. It just not shows up for their people and wants to have this lifestyle business never in town. So I wrote down all these things that I would need to become to be worthy enough for having this great. These great teams to work around me. And they need to win, they need to have an opportunity. Like we have equity incentive program before we did the deal and now we got profit units just like public traded companies do stock options. And so some people are motivated by different things. There's five languages in the workplace, just like five love languages. Understanding. Some people like to talk at the front of the stage. Some people love trophies. Some people, you got to understand what the people want. And it's a lot easier when you're smaller to know how the whole family and everything. So you got to develop leaders the next level, Jack Welch style. I'm not a big fan of getting rid of 10% a year. Like I think that's something he did well. Yeah, I think that getting people around you that are darn good, checking references, understanding that they got a fit. Like I'm entrepreneurial. I don't just work nine to five. I'm not this perfect work life balance crap that everybody talks about the this foo foo, I don't believe in that. You got to work hard, you got to put in the time. But you need to work smart too.
- [23:53]
Eduardo
I love that. My gosh, we're so aligned on that too.
- [23:56]
Tommy Mello
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- [25:49]
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- [26:25]
Eduardo
The whole lifestyle entrepreneur and the whole like work life balance. I personally know we were just talking about this before you came like 15 years in my first business I never took a week's vacation like and I was actually pretty good for 15 years. I like after 15 years I almost had like a little bit of a nervous breakdown there but for the most part like that's just how I was wired and I think so often it creates Stress in the entrepreneur because then they think they need something else. They need this work life balance in order to have both. Have you been able to navigate family life, personal success while you're doing this massive build?
- [27:04]
Candy Valentino
You know, I'm one of those people. There's two type of people. Those who work to live and those who live to work. And when you build what you enjoy doing, you kind of enjoy. Mondays again, I go, I do both. Like I don't just go out of town and do work. Like I'm going tomorrow to a hockey game. Oh, we sponsored the whole event. It's my T shirts on every chair for in Vegas, the Vegas nights.
- [27:26]
Eduardo
Oh, that's awesome.
- [27:26]
Candy Valentino
So it's like, I don't know, would you consider that work? We're gonna have a blast. And like we're gonna go out to dinner afterwards. It's a lot of my co workers and associates but you know, that's my work. Not too bad. And building, you know, we're doing a lot of construction on the PV house. I'm building a house in Idaho. I've got an amazing girlfriend. I've never been married, no kids, but I will, I'll be an old ass dad, but I'm okay with that. When I watched what money did to my family, I said I need to solve this problem first. Because I used to stand on the toilet when I was 4, listen to my mom and dad argue about bills like through the wall. And so the. It sounds weird, but the master bedroom was next to the main bathroom so I could hear what was going on. And I just, I mean it's not a good age to be thinking about and you know, the church, my mom never got, she never got government assistance, but the church helped us out. I could tell you I got a lot of student bibles.
- [28:23]
Eduardo
So obviously very difficult growing up.
- [28:26]
Candy Valentino
Yeah, you know, I look back and I think I'm very lucky. I see what people go through. There's a lot of people on this planet that would, even back then, they would give anything to be me. Like I had, I had food, I had new clothes, I had great friends. I got to play outside. A lot of them get obsessed with the, you know, I like playing Sega, but it wasn't like all day and best family you could ever want. Six years older sister. I had a dog named Max. I had a grandma that was always around there that help out when mom wasn't. Dad really tried as much as he could do. He's an amazing guy. Still around. I just took him golfing to pebble beach recently and just amazing, amazing guy. And I don't look back. Some things could have been different, but it made me who I am. So I'm not like, woe is me. I'm just, I'm happy the way things ended up, because I do. I have a really good life. I never wake up and I'm like, man, this is tough. A lot of people aren't ready for the money. A lot of people's only dream is money. They're like, man, if I get the money and then they buy the nice car, they buy the house they wanted, they fill this void. I was just, I just was talking to Gino Wickman recently and he sold 85% of EOS. And he goes, I was in my mid-50s and just felt like this void of like, now what? Like, I'm not going to retire and I just lost a piece of me, this big, huge international way of managing your business. And he goes, so he wrote a book recently called Shine. And sometimes you got to do like shroom trips. I don't know, like, you got to get in touch with yourself and there's this ayahuasca or something. He said there's like 40 things he wrote in the book that you could kind of. He goes, I thought I was going to lose my edge if I, like really got content with everything, like, apologize to the people in my past. And he goes, the craziest thing happened when I became content. Things got better. I didn't lose my edge. I got more. He goes, but Tommy, he goes, I only work 200 days out of the year. The other 150, 160. He goes, you don't need to work weekends. You should take a month off and you shouldn't work holidays. And I'm like, what about reading, like self help books? He's like, nope, no work. And I'm like, well, maybe in two years, so. And I'm. I'm sorry for talking so much, but no, it's great. Dan Martel's like, listen, I want you to write down, you're 75 years old. What did you get done from 41, I'm 41 right now, to 75. And I want you to write down exactly who you went on the trips with, what restaurants you went to, like, what your morning looks like for the next 25 years or 35 years. He goes, I just want you to be very planned out. Like, build on purpose and have a plan and like, what fulfills you? What do you want to do? Like, where do you really Drive like, I love golf, I love shooting pool, I love going to new movies. He's like, then design. Design that life. Let's design it together. And it's really been helpful.
- [31:23]
Eduardo
Yeah. What would, what would be if you got to 75 or you got to 80 and you were at pebble, or you were on the plane going somewhere and you looked back and you had one regret. Is there something that if you didn't do this or you didn't hit this one thing or you didn't accomplish this.
- [31:43]
Candy Valentino
You know, if I was 80 years old, looking back and I felt alone, like I got everything I wanted in life. I have everything. I have empires in multiple countries. And Steve Jobs, you know, he, even though he had kids, who was never around, never really thought fed those relationships, you know, I don't want to wake up one day and be like, man, I'm all alone. Like, I made everything. I wanted all these material things, but I never really drove those relationships, you know, my mom and dad, my mom just turned 70, March 4th, my same birthday. Then I made this really like heartfelt video for her. And I'm like, I know you need me more to be here, be present. Like, sure. We hang out on holidays and she's not far and my dad's down the street and he wants to shoot pull all the time and I just want to be there. And I can handle them in doses, by the way. It's not like I want like a 10 day vacation with them. But my niece, she's 16. It's like my nephews. I just, I really, really, really. You got to work hard. And I don't think there's this thing, I'm off balance on purpose. I think we go through seasons of life.
- [32:51]
Eduardo
Yeah, sure.
- [32:51]
Candy Valentino
And I'm at, I'm turning a page right now and going, okay, they're not going to be around forever. And they're healthy still, they can still do stuff. So I think I'd really regret it if one of them left. I mean, I know they'd be in heaven. I, I strong believer in Jesus Christ, but yeah, I made a deal with Jesus. My dad was dying of COVID His oxygen dropped to 60. And I said, you let him live. I'll. I'll make sure whenever I'm in a setting that I. You put me here, you could just take me, you could take this all away just as quick. And I know you can make my life like, he doesn't make it, that the devil does, but. And so I. This happened. And I'm crying And I'm praying and everything worked out. And about a year ago, a guy called me, and he goes, did you make a deal with God? And he goes, I saw you on your hands and knees crying, and I got goosebumps. And I go, yeah. I go, do I know you? He's like, not really. He's like, I know you. And he goes, I've never had this happen before, but the Lord just told me to remind you of the deal you made.
- [33:54]
Eduardo
I go, I just got chills.
- [33:57]
Candy Valentino
And I'm like, man. I was like. He goes, don't forget that everything you've got could be gone like that. So, yeah, it's. I know. It could be. I got health, I've got energy. I've got great people around me. And I know, like, this. This is, like, too good to be true. Sometimes I gotta pinch myself.
- [34:20]
Eduardo
That's really beautiful. Thanks for sharing that.
- [34:22]
Candy Valentino
Yeah, thanks.
- [34:22]
Eduardo
Did you ever have a chance to interview your parents on your podcast?
- [34:29]
Candy Valentino
I've interviewed them a lot. Not on the podcast. Like, I've got a few good people around me that. They interviewed them for my birthday, on two different birthdays. And of course, one day I was on stage, there was like, 800 people, and I didn't know they did this. And my mom, dad, my sister and all these people were just like, what? They. They just. What you mean to us. And, you know, and I'm like. I'm sitting there on stage, I'm crying. I'm like, thanks, guys. And, yeah, they're. They're very special people, and they mean the world to me. I mean, my family's everything. So I. I tell clients, I'm like, my mom worked three jobs when I was a kid. Like, here's what I would do for Mom. And I looked him in the eyes, and I say, this is based on everything you told me. Here's. Here's what I'm doing for Mom. And I tell my guys, like, find somebody you love that help raise you, that you do anything for, and look customers and clients in the eyes and tell them, be ethical. High moral, you know, moral standards, and tell them what you would do. But you got to have conviction. You got to have passion. You got to believe in what we're talking about.
- [35:34]
Eduardo
Gotta be real. Yeah. Yeah. I had the chance to interview my dad, and he said something that, as you were talking, it made me think of you sharing. He said, don't chase the almighty dollar so much that you miss out on the most important parts of life. And it seems like that's A little bit of what you shared in that moment that you miss out on. You're so focused on creating the life that you never had that you miss out on the beautiful life that actually exists.
- [36:04]
Candy Valentino
That's so true. My, my brother in law works with me now and he was a CIO at GE for 25 years and he spent a lot of time in India. And he's like, these kids, there's 20 of them in this small, like old Volkswagen and he's like, they're singing and they're shouting and you give them like a fresh bottle of water and it's like they won the lottery. And he's like, we live this life of like, we're never happy. And I just feel like, man, I look back sometimes and it's a mindset. Like, I just have a really good mindset. Like some people, they tell me something that really bad happened, like in the business. Like we found we were overpaying by 3%. I was like, good, we found it, so it's gonna get fixed from. So we just found 3% going forward. They're like, aren't you pissed? And I'm like, can't really change it.
- [36:56]
Eduardo
And you didn't miss it. What a blessing that is, right? The 3% didn't cripple your business. Some people would. This is. I bet it does.
- [37:05]
Candy Valentino
And you're like, what the heck? You'll find some stuff happening. And it's like, I got Jocko Willick speaking at the next event.
- [37:12]
Eduardo
Oh, great.
- [37:13]
Candy Valentino
Good. Like, hey, things didn't go your way. Good. And it happened for a reason. And there's this, there's this thing. It's like God asked me for. I don't remember exactly how it goes, but I asked God for, for patience and people that needed me. I asked God for this and he gave me this. And sometimes you don't see it. Sometimes you got to. You don't read between the lines.
- [37:35]
Eduardo
Yeah.
- [37:35]
Candy Valentino
And when you do look at things and you go, I think death is a really tough thing to deal with. But if you believe in heaven, it's a little easier. Like, my aunt lost her son and it would be impossible to have to, you know, bury your kid. And it's something I don't think she'll ever. It's different. Your parents are going to get older and, you know, it's hard to deal with it. And I watched this other thing and the guy's like, man, you die, your wife, a little bit later, she's at your funeral and she gets hungry. She's still got to eat the next day. She's got to put your stuff together and figure out what to do with it. Then all of a sudden, you know, I don't know if you know, Sebastian the comedian, he's like. So I went to. I went to my wife. I never got to meet her father before he passed. And so we went to visit the cemetery where he was buried. And there's a spot for her mother who's still alive. The only problem is she's remarried.
- [38:37]
Tommy Mello
Oh, my gosh.
- [38:38]
Candy Valentino
So, like, that's like. I think about.
- [38:41]
Eduardo
I don't really think about that, but yeah. So I always ask one final question on the show because a lot of people watch and they see your success, right? And maybe they're not here yet or they can't even imagine the level of success that you've had. And so I like to get people stuck out of that mindset to show. Show them. If you can just retain the information that you had. If you woke up tomorrow, all the money that you've made is gone. The zeros are out of your bank account. You don't have clients. You've lost everything. Nobody knows who you are. They're not going to pick up your call. The only thing you get to keep is the information that you've built throughout your career and your lifetime. And you've got to put food on the table tomorrow. And you got to start to build it all back. What would you start to do tomorrow in order to recreate this build?
- [39:25]
Candy Valentino
You know, I always say that not necessarily, you know, the money is pretty amazing that I'm creating. And take away the zeros, take away everything of who I become, who I had to become, the things I've had to become. You take away. Take it all away. I'll get it right back. Because you could, like, I can knock on your door and say, do I know how to do garage door still?
- [39:52]
Eduardo
Yes.
- [39:52]
Tommy Mello
You get to keep the information.
- [39:53]
Candy Valentino
I get to keep the information. So, like, look, I know how to hustle. I was buying and selling Bowflexes. I was buying them in Craigslist and selling them in the Arizona Republic Arbitrage. Hundreds and hundreds did it. Then I started with Salt Chuck Norris, and I'm like, total gym time. So I think I would definitely go into home service because I know the industry so well. It's like that show where they put you with nothing. You don't have context. You gotta dress up and like, I'm like, man, throw me on that show. I gotta get to a million Bucks. I will do that in my sleep. Like literally. It's not hard if it's about making money. But one thing I've learned, one of the main things is success leaves clues. You want to find out how to rank on Google. Who's the number one guy on Google? Who's the number one woman on Google? Go, go. Call them, bring them lunch, ask them questions, tell, read their books. Success leaves clues all around. What do you want to know? There's somebody out there that's got the answers. And you look around, you want to find out who the best landscaper in town is. Find the nicest house with landscape and find out who the landscaper is. I'm the first one to ask questions. I go on shop tours all the time. I was just in Memphis, Tennessee of all places a week ago. Look, I. It would be very, very easy to get back to where I am today. And you hear about this. We take calculated risks. Sometimes really successful people lose it all, but they get it all right back.
- [41:13]
Eduardo
Yeah, I love that. This was awesome. Thank you so much for your time and for coming on and let everyone know.
- [41:19]
Tommy Mello
How can they find you?
- [41:20]
Eduardo
Just about what you do. I know you do events. You also obviously are the number one garage door company to go to. So tell everyone where they can find you.
- [41:28]
Candy Valentino
So if they go to Tommy Mello, no W T o m y m E L L O dot com, it's got all the social media handles. I'm on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all that. Um, and you can find a lot of resources. I do shop tours. So tommymello.com shop put out a newsletter, tommymello.com news and I try to remember where I came from. So if somebody needs something, I remember all the people that paid it forward to me. So I try to really. I'm more active on Facebook than anything. I'm kind of an old man in that regard. But you know, a one garage door service. If you need garage doors and if you're looking for a great place to work, hit me up. I love great people and I really appreciate being on here. It was a pleasure.
- [42:19]
Eduardo
Thank you. Pleasure was mine.
- [42:20]
Tommy Mello
And I think Facebook is highly underrated.
- [42:22]
Eduardo
For service based businesses. Just throwing that out there.
- [42:24]
Candy Valentino
Thank you.
- [42:24]
Eduardo
So I love that you're on there. Thanks so much for doing this.
- [42:27]
Candy Valentino
It's great.
- [42:31]
Tommy Mello
Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to this episode and if there was something that you loved or you had a specific takeaway, share it and tag me at Candy Valentino. And if you haven't already grab a copy of my latest book, the 9% Edge Life Changing Secrets to create more revenue for your business and more freedom for yourself. You can pick it up anywhere books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local independent store. And once you do, head over to 9% edge.com and claim $1500 in pre order bonuses, including a chance to join me on this very show. Thanks so much for tuning in and spending this time with me today guys. We'll see you next time.