B (3:40)

Yeah, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to have you on. I want to hear all about it and learn from you today. So. So let's bring out all the secrets.

A (3:50)

Okay. So I start off in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a young man with no way out. I had no way out. My mother had died when I was 16, and my father was 65 years old when she died and she was 40. And we were born. And I was born in a working class western Pennsylvania neighborhood. It was majority of all white neighborhood. We were the only black family in that neighborhood. And work was my way out. There was no other way out. I didn't do well in school. I was allowed to play sports, was mediocre in that, played football, baseball, blah, blah, blah, blah. After my mother died, I kind of lost my way. We lived 60 miles outside the city. We had cousins in the city. And every now and then I would find myself down in the city just hanging out with my cousins and whatnot. And this particular night, I met a young man. He had a BMW, well dressed, Afro American male. And he was kind of impressive. And the first thought, you get, this guy's a drug dealer. You know, he was surrounding himself by a lot of people, and I was kind of impressed with him. And I could never get enough courage up to introduce myself to him, even though I was curious of what he was doing. So one day I go back to that part of town, and at that time, I must have enough courage to ask them to walk over to him and introduce myself and ask him what he did. He said, my name is Tony, and me and my dad are in the home improvement business. He said, you know anything about the home Improvement business. I said, I know a little bit, but not much. I said, I'm looking. He said, you looking for a job? I said, yes, I am. He said, meet me here tomorrow and I'll put you to work. And man, then the next day and began to knock on doors. He gave me a script to say to the homeowners. And I began to knock on doors. He was training me. As we were going along, we would generate leads for the closer and the closer would go back and close the deal. And that's how I got my start into the home improvement industry.

B (6:20)

What were you guys selling?

A (6:22)

We were selling everything. Windows, doors, roofing, kitchens, bathrooms. So back then it was the 80s and a lot of these owners were Jewish, Italian, Polish. Pittsburgh was a racial different kind of town. They had African American living in one part. You had the Jewish people living in one part, you had the Polish people living in one part, and you have the Italians living in one part of the city. And every now and then, you know, you would go into those neighborhoods and they were nice and they were really nice neighborhoods. But everybody had the same type of house that needed work done to them. So you would see job size, different job sizes, different neighborhoods from different companies, different home improvement companies. But no, we were selling. We were selling roofing, windows, doors, kitchen, bathroom, basements, fences, whatever we could sell.

B (7:25)

So you got into it, you're five, seven years in, and what was the next thing you got into?

A (7:31)

Well, what happened is I moved to Washington D.C. and one of the owners in Pittsburgh had a friend down here that owned a supply company. He had, I think he had like seven or eight locations in Virginia here. And they were good friends back in Pittsburgh because the supply company owner had one in Pittsburgh and they were all Jewish owned businesses. And this is probably like the clique type of thing. And so the guy left Pittsburgh, he expanded down here. And I came down here with him and I was knocking on doors. And one day my closer got real sick. Well, he couldn't close no more. And I had to decide whether I wanted to stay in the business or did I want to know how to start selling. Well, I was selling a little bit at the time, but Merle canvassing and I began to sell a little bit. And then the Jewish owner and the other Jewish owner, they will meet on Friday on payday. And that was payday. So I guess the manufacturer was coming to pick up a check from the business owner. And I happened to see this manufacturer owner and I didn't know he was at the time. And we Bumped into each other one day, and he said, I heard a lot about you. Here's my business card. Come see me one day. So make a long story short, I ended up calling the guy up, and he became my first professional mentor. I mean, the guy had all the knowledge of going to, like, Harvard. He was 50 at the time. He had lost everything and built. And was building it back up. And so he took me under his wing, and it was amazing, amazing ride. He taught me how everything about business. He taught me everything about. He taught me everything about profit, loss. He taught me everything about life. He was like a dad to me. I thought I was the only one, but he had about 20 guys that he was mentoring like that. The guy was very into the home improvement space. And then I went to work for four or five different companies under his direction to get some training. And about 10 years into it, he said, grant, I think it's about time you start your own. And I started my own company.

B (10:11)

And, yeah, there's a lot to that. So you. You were. You were a top producer, and then you had to switch to being a CEO. So what was that like?

A (10:24)

Well, so along the way, you know, when you meet with your mentor, he's giving you instructions. He was at, Grant, how many jobs you did this week, how many jobs you canceled, how many jobs you sold? And I would tell him, what are the numbers? And we would go over the numbers, and he would say, okay, that's good, that's good, that's good. But it was a gradual type thing that we got into. He taught me how to go open up an llc, reopen up a bank account. And it was a gradual thing that we were working towards to where we just. Everything came together. For me, it wasn't like I just became a CEO. You know, I was canvassing, then I had to recruit canvassers. I knew a lot of salespeople already, so I was able to get salespeople to work for me. But it was a gradual thing over a period of time. It was a lot of fun. It was a good learning experience.

B (11:18)

So how old were you when you actually got started your own business?

A (11:23)

I was about 25.

B (11:24)

25. That's still super early. So you started your own business and what kind of. What'd you get into? What was the good, bad, and the ugly?

A (11:35)

Well, the good. Washington, D.C. is what I call the melting pot. If you can sell here in this city, you can sell anywhere. There was always a challenge to overcome. When you see a black man going to a white person's house because they really don't know, you know, while you're there, right, knocking on the door. And so that's always been a challenge. But what I was able to do is develop a program in these communities, in these white communities, where I had to be at my best game. I had to be at my very best game. I had to choose anything that would cause any type of inferior less than I had to be at the very best. And that was a good learning game for me because, you know, going into these houses is not an easy thing to do, but that was a good learning field for me. And so one day I decided to do a meadow and the metal went probably 15 miles from my home, which I was living in the suburbs at the time. And I mounted 50 miles west and we mounted about 20,000 millers to that neighborhood out there. And they start coming back and I got one and I said, I'm going to go on one, I'm going to test one of these. So the girl, the telemarketer, set the appointment up for me. I'm driving out there, I'm highly confident that I'm going to. I sell these people. I get out there and there was a. I drive up to the house and I see an 18 wheeler with a Confederate flag on the back of it. Oh, boy. Now. Yeah, well, being Afro American, you know, your feelings kind of. I don't care how pumped up you are, your feelings kind of drop down, your enthusiasm drops down. But nonetheless, I knocked on the door and this guy came to the door. He had on a shirt buttoned down, half his, down to his belly. And you could see all the red from his belly on up. And he said, are you the siding boy? And I said, yes, sir, I'm the siding guy. He said, no. I said, boy? I said, yes, I'm the signing boy, sir. He said, okay, I only got a few minutes, come on in. And I said, well, first of all is your wife's going to be joining us. And he said, boy, I made the goddamn decisions around here, not my wife. You got a couple seconds? Show me what you got. And at that point I thought, man, I can't connect to this guy. I just couldn't connect to him. He was kind of rude in the beginning, kept calling me boy. And so I said to myself, the only way I'm going to get this one is on showing him the quality of the product and that I could do the job through my portfolio job that I have done. So I start pitching the guy, I'm Going real fast. And I looked, and I was like 10 minutes into the pitch, and the wife came. I thought she was the wife and came and sat down right beside me. He's sitting over there looking out of the window. And I began to show her the signing and whatnot and explain to her what signing is and all this stuff. And so to make a long story short, I asked them, I says, okay, do you like the signing? They said, yeah, we like the signing. I said, okay, I'm going to go outside, I'm going to measure, I'm going to come back, and I'm going to give you your price. He said, okay. So I went out, I measured, and I figured this guy was kind of insulting me. And I said, well, there's no way I'm going to get him anyway, so I might as well just throw a high price out there at this guy and talk about quality and see what he says. So I come back in the house after all the measurements, and the guy says. I said, sir, if I can do this, if I can give you a good price, can we do business today? He said, boy, we don't do business like that. We do business the way I want to do business. And, no, you're not getting an answer today. I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. So I perceived the entitled wife about the siding again and went into the pitch. And I approached her one more time. I said, about 10 minutes into it, I said to him again, sir, if I could give you a good deal of this siding, do you think you might want to try to get it done? And he said, yeah, I want to get it done. And he says to me, boy, didn't I tell you we don't make these decisions like this? Call me next week and I'll let you know. So I said, okay. So I packed my stuff up and I left. On the way home, I'm feeling down. I called my mentor. I told him the story. He said, yeah, well, you probably won't get that one, but you might. But call him on Wednesday and see what he says. So Wednesday, come along. I called the guy up. I said, Mr. Golden? He said, yes, sir. He said, where you at, boy? I said, I'm in my office. He said, well, come on out here. How long will it take you to get here? I said, About 45 minutes. He said, come on out here. And I ain't got much sign. So I drove out there and he said, boy, me and my wife decided to go with you. I had the good old boys out here and that quality Signing that they have did not make up to yours. And we're going to go with you. There's two things I hate. Liars and cheaters. And if you lie to me, I got something for you. He leaned his head over and there was a.45 Glock laying on his table. And he said, I just want a good job. I said, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Gordon, sir, I'll give you a good job. He says, is there anything you can do on the price? I said, no, sir. I bought him out at the price one I gave you. He said, okay, okay. And then I did the job. And make a long story short, at the end, we walked around the house. I put the best Spanish guy on the job, and even he said, ask me how I got him. And so at the end, the guy says, grant. He actually called me Grant at the end. He said, you did a good job and thank you for coming out. But that was typically the experience that I had working in these neighborhoods, in the white neighborhoods. So here about. I don't know, about 15 years ago, I decided to go into Washington, D.C. they say if you. If the people. If you don't like the people and they like you, they'll buy from you. So I stopped marketing into the inner City. Washington, D.C. i did a TV commercial, and my phone began to ring off the hook. And that's where we're at today. Inner cities during windows, kitchens, bathrooms, and roofing.

B (18:43)

So you coach. Do you still have your normal business or you do both?

A (18:48)

I do both. My business is up for sale right now. I'm probably going to sell it. I got a guy that's interested in buying it, and so I do both.

B (19:01)

Okay. I love it. So tell me a little bit about Mindset, because me and my COO were talking especially about the technicians, because they're the largest part of our workforce. And there it comes down to belief that everything we sell is worth it. It's a quality product. We back up the. The warranty. We show up the same day. We. We take care of our clients. We service 25,000 homes a month, and we started interviewing some of the. Probably about 250. So half of my technicians, and a lot of it was they felt like they needed more training. They didn't have confidence. I mean, this was just last week, and it was really, really intriguing to hear because they just. Sometimes they sell out of their own pocket. You know, they don't own a house that they put, you know, maybe five, $10,000 into a garage. And that's what we found. So I think you hit the nail on the head when I was reading just the belief system.

A (19:59)

Yeah. So, you know, I had some of the, like I said, I had some of the greatest mentors, and I was very fortunate in that. And so one of the things that my mentor, first mentor gave me was an Earl Nightingale tape. Earl Nightingale was a 1950, 1960, 1970, personal development guy. Now, keep in mind, keep in mind, my mentor was a man's man. He knew this. He owned so many businesses, him and his. He was a multimillionaire and his partner was a billionaire. And they both gave me Earl Nightingale and told me, listen to these tapes as a young man. And they also said, grant, listen to me. You can make a lot of money, but the only way you can make a lot of money is by working on yourself. And both of these guys had sad stories from the beginning. The one guy, Norman Rales, nobody wanted him. He was born in 1940 and became one of the wealthiest guys in the industry, meeting with presidents of the United States and traveling all over the world. And his story was, no one wanted him. And he said, I made it. Mel Rosenblatt, which was his right hand man, was a guy that had no education. Mom and dad had a candy store in Newark, New Jersey, and came down through New Jersey, down through Pennsylvania, was knocking on doors. He met his good friend Norman Rails, and they built a phenomenal life together. And the first thing they both told me, listen to the tape and work on yourself. So along the way, I have been, not only was I good at methodology because I got the best training in processes and procedure, but I had to believe in myself that I could do the job right. And I think a lot of guys get in this industry, the bar is low, they see the potential and they think they can hit it on their own. And some can. You yourself was able to bust the ceiling up, but a lot of guys can't do that. So you need to be working on yourself. And the belief is you got to believe in your company, you got to believe in yourself, and you got to believe in product. And if you don't believe in those three things in this industry, you're going to come up short all the time. So what we talk about is, how do you do that? How do you believe in yourself? When you come in and you say, hey, being a technician here, you can make $100,000 or whatever that number is, and that guy is used to making 25,000 or 15,000, how can he even believe that he can make that? He wants to believe he can make 100,000. But deep down on his side, deep down inside, he can't believe. He wants to believe the paradigms and his mindset is set at that 25,000. So how can he get from 25,000 to 100,000 without first of all believing in himself? And so that's key. And then once you believe in yourself. So we train them how to believe in themselves, we train them how to believe in a company, and we train them how to believe in the product. Those three things are key to being successful in this industry for salespeople. Yeah.

B (23:42)

One of the things we say is you got to, number one, you got to make the company. You got to tell a great company story. The clients needs to fall in love with the company. Obviously they need to know like, and trust you and they need to feel love like you're going to take care of them. And to do that, you got to have confidence. So we always compare ourselves to a doctor, and a doctor doesn't hesitate when he gives you the prescription. He asks, where are you closer to Walgreens or cvs? There's no, there's no second guessing. He diagnosed the person before the problem, he gives you the prescription and you take it. And unfortunately, I don't think we're as prescriptive as we should be sometimes. And we don't even ask the question. We don't follow up and ask for the sale. And the one correlation I could say is the top 20% of my business is these guys. Their belief system is like, and here's what's crazy is a lot of them aren't from the United States. A lot of them are relentless. They don't, they're not afraid of rejection, and they definitely feel like they're worth it. What are your thoughts on that?

A (24:47)

Well, and that's a good point because a lot of guys, they see the opportunity from different countries, countries when they come over here. So it's a land of opportunity. But when you're in the middle of it, your paradigms in your head are so limiting. Your mother told you you couldn't do it. Your dad told you you were no good. Your teacher told you you'll never amount to anything. And all these limiting beliefs are in our head. They were in my head, but it wasn't until I got. That's not true. Those beliefs are not true. So when you have guys coming from other countries, they're bound to be successful because they don't have all these limited beliefs. And the limiting beliefs is what really stops Guys. And the thing about these limited beliefs, they're not even ours. They're programmed in us. So it's kind of hard for guys to come into an organization and really believe because they have so many limiting beliefs. So what we try to do is we try to remove those limiting beliefs and get them to believe in themselves first of all, because you got to believe in yourself. Like, listen, I'm an Afro American. How many Afro Americans did you see sitting in the audience at the top? 500. You can probably count them on two fingers, maybe. You can probably count them on one hand, right? So I know. I just know that, you know, how I overcame so many of these obstacles to even be able to be in the top of 500. A lot of guys struggle with that. They struggle with their inner self, if that's making sense to you.

B (26:41)

No, it does make a lot of sense. So let me ask you this. You personally developed the sales procedures, pricing models, forecasting, what were some of the most important systems when it comes to sales?

A (26:57)

Okay, so when you talk about systems, when people talk about systems, I think about pricing because that's what the. That's what my Mr. Told me. Information's good, but you gotta be able to price. I was never the cheapest guy in town. We are not the cheapest because you have to charge. So if you're getting the right money for your jobs, if you're getting the right money for your jobs, you're able to do a lot of things. You're able to, you know, number one, pay your taxes. You're able to have a good life. You're able to take care of your employees. When you talk about procedures and policies and all that, pricing is very important. So we typically in our industry.

B (27:55)

We.

A (27:55)

Try to four times our costs, which is pretty good. I love it.

B (28:01)

Yeah, that's a. That's a healthy, healthy price. I've noticed that in home improvement, especially because it's not demand driven. Usually no one says, I gotta replace my windows today. It's definitely a longer sales cycle. Whereas if it's a broken garage door and their car's stuck, they're calling out, santa needs somebody right now. And they just want to get it fixed. So home improvement is actually, in my opinion, it's much bigger tickets, but lower closing rates, a little more salesmanship. There's a guy that I went and seen Speak, that worked with a company I know. His name's Rodney Webb and he used to play in the NBA, but he's a tall dude and he used to go out do you know who Rodney Webb is?

A (28:41)

I know, I know it well.

B (28:43)

So he goes and takes a GoPro and he analyzes. He was selling gutters at the time, and he goes on the roof and spends a lot of time showing the customer exactly the differences of what they're going to do. And one of the highest close rates in the industry. You know, you, you used to knock doors. And what I love about what you knew how to do is you could build your own demand. You know, you didn't wait for the phone to ring. You went and made it. And that's something that a lot of companies don't know how to do, is go out there and get it. What, what do you do when you had a slow week? What would you do to really figure out a way? Just knock on more doors.

A (29:19)

Yeah, See, you know, when you're good, you're good. But I had no choice. I had no choice but to get jobs because that was my pathway out. So when one said no, that didn't mean nothing to me. It really didn't. If I got 10 no's in a day, I would wait and keep working until I got that one yes. Because I had to be successful at this. So the nos didn't really bother me because I knew I had the drive. And even though I didn't know where I was going with this, when I first got started, I knew, like, this is my pathway. I have no other way. So I had to make it work and it worked out fine for me.

B (30:02)

What are you excited about today, looking forward?

A (30:06)

What I'm excited about today is really the mindset work that I'm doing. A lot of people don't believe in that. Everybody have limiting beliefs. And the limiting beliefs are already going to take you so far. For me, it took me so far and then I kind of crashed. But once I was able to challenge these limited beliefs, my career, everything just took off. I like 3x my income because I start working on myself in these limiting beliefs in the industry. Because, listen, I don't know how much it costs to get in your industry, but in our industry, all you need is a hammer and a nail. And now you're a contractor, now you're a business. Right. And so how do you go from a hammer and nail up to 4 or 5, 10 million, $20 million company. You know, I had a very good friend of mine and I did a podcast with him a couple weeks ago. Scott Berman of Florida Window and Door, a very good advocate of mine. We're really good friends, but we Talked about him losing everything and being able to climb out of that and to become an eighty and a million dollar, $180 million window company from bankruptcy. So that's amazing. So when you talk about. And I'm his coach and he says, grant, I don't need a coach, I said, scott, you need a coach. I said, I'll be your coach for free. Right? And we talk about these different beliefs that he has that are not even his, that he's removing and he's steady, steady climbing up where he wants to go. So I'm excited about Mindset in the industry. And now it's finally coming out that, you know, we need it. We need it in the industry. And because, like I say, the entry is so low, but the potential so high.

B (32:13)

Yeah, everyone needs a coach. Michael Jordan had four coaches on top of Phil Jackson, Tiger woods, same thing. I mean, no matter who you're looking at. And I always compare home service, home improvement to, to sports. And I'm a big fan. It's a very competitive environment here in these four walls. And that's what's important to me is, you know, I'm expected to perform every day I come in and I expect that from everybody. And unfortunately, some people just aren't willing to step up. You know, we're recruiting 60 new people a month that come in and get trained. And at that pace, it's. It's either you're going to sink or swim. And, you know, I'd love to get you as much coaching as possible, but you gotta have a willpower that you wanna succeed. The better I get at recruiting, the more the better things get because it's really hard. You know what I mean?

A (33:03)

Yeah. Well, recruiting one thing. Okay, Tommy, Recruiting one thing. But you're gonna have three guys that come in. And we tested this. You can have three guys that come in for training. They're all at the same level, you know, same age, same demographics, same everything. And get three different results. You get one guy that comes in for training and does well, does extremely well. The second guy comes up for training, he kind of struggles with the methodology. You know, you're training him, you're giving him the information. The second guy, he struggles. He's less than 20%. And then you got a third guy that came in the same demographics, and he comes in, he's doing his best, and just can't get it. He sees it, but he just can't get it. What we found out is you can have three different people come in. What really makes a Difference is the mindset, because they all see the same thing. They all have the same information. If you got the same information and you study the same book and this industry and the stuff we do, as my mentor told me, doesn't take a rocket scientist to go sell someone at the doors and garage doors, right? So there has to be something there that's stopping them, and that's that eternal struggle to have within themselves in the mindset. If you told me 30 years ago I'll be making the money I make today, I wouldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that I would make $100,000 back then. So coming from where I came from and my mindset, your mindset and these paradigms have to be limited. They have to be taken out and worked on every day so you can perform at the highest level. That is how I'm able to perform at the highest level. Because the paradox in my head, I work on them every day. And when you work on them, you're looking for a better outcome. And let me clarify two things here. Mindset is a very simple philosophy. It's getting better thoughts so you can get better feelings, so you can have better actions, so you can have better results. And that sounds simple, but it's a lot of hard work. But that's what mindset is. Mindset is. You got two words there. Mind and set. Where is your mindset at on money? Where is your mindset at on relationships? Where is your mindset on health and wellness? So if your mindset is low on these areas, you have to begin to figure out or we help them raise them up so they can begin to believe in themselves and see the possibilities instead of seeing themselves as a negative.

B (36:11)

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A (38:53)

I agree to that. But here's the part, here's the problem with that philosophy. Everybody's not like us. Everybody's not like me. And you that have this a personality that's driven. See, you're driven, I'm driven. It's hard to Find other guys that are driven and the ones that you are possibly trying to manage or recruit. Sometimes it takes a little bit more energy to, to dig deep in these guys to bring it out. And that's why we have this curriculum to be able to, what do you want out of life? Do you want to be the best? Now I'm the best at what I do, but we have to bring it out in them and then if you want to be the best, what's stopping you? So our curriculum is designed to, number one, figure out what they were and then let's hold them back, what paradigms are not serving them no more. So It's a whole 12 week curriculum that we are, that I developed through my years and we see it move the needle and it gets the results. And that is what I'm pushing because I know like you're spending money on recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, and looking for these ones that can match your certain parameters, but everybody's not going to match it. I mean, so what you have to do, you got to figure out a way to reach those guys that want to believe in themselves. And they might not show up at the interview saying they do. They might not even know that's the problem because the paradigms is stopping them from doing whatever they need to do.

B (40:48)

Yeah, it's definitely not easy. I will say that, I will say that, that you're right. There's certain people that don't need the same amount of trading as other guys. And one of the biggest things I see, Grant, is if they have somebody at home that believes in them too, especially like a significant other. When they have a wife that shows up to the meetings that wants to learn about how, what success looks like, and when the family's invested in the outcome and they make plans and they write them down and they commit, then it seems like they're winning a lot quicker when they have somebody that's definitely pushing them and saying, I believe in you and we need you, we need you to perform for this family and the outcome is best for the family.

A (41:32)

Oh, no doubt. That's the way my wife was. She was like the greatest whole family. So, okay, so I'm involved in an interracial marriage, which is not easy at all. Right. It's just being married, number one is not being in the challenge. Right. But being involved in an interracial marriage, you have your own set of challenges there. But I had the best wife because what she was able to do for me is really believe in me. Her mom and dad believed in me. Her brothers believed in me. And we're talking about people that were like, just really good people, and they believed in me. And that was able to also. But no, you're right. But still, Tommy, it's the mindset. It all reflects back to the mindset. Because I think that's so important, Tommy, especially with a guy like you that has so much opportunity for people. It wouldn't be, instead of letting that last guy go, instead of investing in him, instead of letting him go, take another chance and investing a little bit, mindset, work in him and see what you get. I bet you that the results will be a lot better than what you think they would be, because that's what they did to me. They didn't see. They knew I had it right. I studied the methodology, I studied the policies, but then it was me that was substantial me that I kept failing until I start working on myself to see what the problems were. And most of these problems were not in my mind. As I was growing up, there were a lot of paradigms put in my head that prohibited me from performing at the highest level. But once I was able to look at those things and deal with those things, then I was able to say, okay, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

B (43:45)

So what are some of the easy ways to help reshape someone's mindset?

A (43:50)

Well, I wouldn't say there's no easy way, because it's all repetition. Right. For many years, I thought, for whatever reason, I thought I was a failure. I was working as hard as I could be. But that's internal, right? That's internal. So you have to work on that. For so many years, I thought that I wasn't enough spiritually. Those things are deep ingrained in the person's soul. So there's no really easy way, other than having a system or a curriculum that they can identify themselves, to put out these things that are not even theirs, the paradigm that aren't even theirs. You know, when we're born, we're born with perfect DNA. You know, our mothers, our fathers, our grandparents, our relatives. Start filming us when you still got a baby. If you watch a baby get up, fall out, get up, fall out, get up. That's amazing sight. And that's the way we were. That's our DNA. But when you have your people that say, you can't do this and you can't do that, and you're no good and you're a loser, and all this stuff that comes into us, and then you get out to the world and you try to get into the world and everybody's saying the same thing. So I'm just saying let's try to shift it over a little bit and see the results that you get. You'll be amazed. Because people need to know, like Mel and Norman, they believed in me. I don't know why. Mel used to say, grant, you got it, Grant, you got it. Grant, you got it, Grant, you got it. And it took, you know, a good many years for me to actually start believing that I had it. But you know, I was performing at the same time, so he seen it. But there was the stuff inside of me that was holding me back. And that's the stuff that most people got.

B (45:56)

You know, there's this show called Billions and it's a. I've only watched it a couple of times, but there this, this gal that's on the show and she. So they, they're like stock traders and they're, they buy businesses and all kinds of ETF type stuff. And they got this gal Wendy that just works on mindset. She's like an inner psychologist. Like her job is to get people out of their own heads and perform at the highest level. And you know, at A1, we've got a full time dream manager that really allows people to learn about getting their money in order, saving money, getting the whole family and the whole household understanding what this looks like to create success. Because I mean, I really mean this. What's crazy is certain guys, they don't like this business. They don't like working for this company because it's competitive and they'd rather make 25 an hour than, than, than. They don't like the word sales. It's a, it's almost evil for them. Their, their perception of sales is evil. And so my job is to try to switch that and say, listen, sales is not a bad thing. Sales is how we meet our fiance. Sales is how we get our kids to go to bed on time. Sales is how we make friends and influence people. And so this perception is. I don't want to be a salesperson. It's hard to break. I find that. I think people don't. They got a bad image when you think about sales. And it's just not a bad thing.

A (47:23)

No, it's not bad. And you're correct. I mean, sales is a part of our society and who we are as a, as a community. And it's not a bad thing. And so if they think it's bad, then again something in them that they've been programmed to believe that they've just been programmed and that program could be changed depending on what they want. So I agree with you in that cells can have a bad stigma to it, but those are not the people you want anyway. You want winners. You want to develop winners, man. I mean, I think Einstein said it, you can't be doing the same thing that got you there to get to where you want to go. So I told Scott this, I said, scott, you're doing fine, but you can't keep doing the same thing. So he's shaking up his company, focusing on mindset and curriculums and beginning to change that whole paradigm in his own head. So he can be the best. So his people can be the best. And that's. That's what I'm talking about, you know?

B (48:44)

You know, there's one word I describe that I think is the most important thing is discipline. And it's. Discipline is created by doing something when you don't feel like doing. It could be a workout, it could be going and running. That other call, it could be picking up a weekend shift. But without discipline and good habits, it's almost impossible to win.

A (49:06)

Yeah, I agree with that. You got to have discipline. You got to have discipline. But first of all, before discipline, you got to have the will to win. You got to have desire to win out trumps them all. If you got the desire to win, that out trumps with discipline, that out trumps will. The desire. If you got the. If I can, I can live with a person that has the desire to win, and they got the desire to win. That is the first step towards success. That's just my opinion. But, no, I love it.

B (49:43)

Yeah, you're right. It's hard to build desire. I mean, it's hard to make somebody that. Some people just say, I'm here to play the game. I don't care if I win or lose. And that's so hard for me to listen to because I've never played anything that I didn't play to win. Like, what's the. I don't see the fun in playing a game. There's golfers I go out with that could beat me, but I don't go out there and say I'm going to lose. It continues to make me better. You know what I mean?

A (50:10)

Right. And so when you talk about better, you know, I mean, listen, man, you have a phenomenal story, and I am, like, really impressed when you mentioned, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ, your mother, all those things are, like, great man, it's like, very emotional. But there's more, Tom. There's more. There's more for you. There's more for your family. You have even. You just haven't even touched the surface when you mention the Lord Jesus Christ and your mother in the same sentence. That's powerful. That is really powerful. And I said, this guy here, when they tell your numbers, 2,300 million, that's peanuts to where you're going to go when you're. I don't think you're even 40, so by the time you're 60, you should be like, oh, my God. So, I mean, the sky is only the beginning for a guy like you. And the way that you move the audience, you had a line a mile long, so that tells me that you're only at the beginning. There's no reason why you shouldn't hit a billion dollars or $2 billion within your lifetime without driving that story you got. So that's just what I sing. And that drove me right to you.

B (51:45)

I appreciate that. I. I do agree. I'm just getting started. I always say I'm in the fetal stages, so. And by the way, I. I like it when people win, and I like to celebrate the wins. And I. I don't mind calling people. I don't like to call them out. I like to call them up and I like to say, listen, if you got a will, I'm gonna figure out a way. It's when you stop wanting to try. It's when you just say, I'm not good enough. And look, I still work with you then. But the biggest thing is, you're right. I gotta go in and say why. I walk into a room, I don't care if it's Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Donald Trump sitting in this room is, I'm not gonna go. I don't deserve to be here. I'm gonna say, why not me? Why not me?

A (52:23)

That's right.

B (52:25)

Why not me? I'm not going to use anything, any excuse, because the people that come up for reasons. What do they came up for a reason of why they should and what. Why they could instead of why they can't. And I. I just never had the limiting belief that I'm not worth it.

A (52:43)

Oh, you're definitely. You're worth a lot more.

B (52:48)

So, you know, I love talking about this belief and I love removing some of the junk. And I think that. That it's easier said than done, and I definitely am very curious. I'd like to learn more on your 12 week process on getting that done. Because that's a lot of like one on one work. I don't think you could do that in a massive group.

A (53:11)

Yeah, it's a group. It's group.

B (53:12)

So you do do it in a group.

A (53:14)

We do in a group.

B (53:17)

And where do you start? You don't have to give me the whole 12 weeks. But what are some of the major pivots that you guys work on?

A (53:23)

Well, like I said, the first thing you have to decide what you want. And that can be done when I say group, it's done in group, but it's done individually. Or it can be done as a group of production trying to get somewhere or, or it can be a group and individual groups with people on a wiki, lessons, talking about individually, what do you want? So we do it twice a week. We do the group and then we do a call for a 30 minute call to follow up on the weekly lesson. So we figure out what they want. They got to figure out what they want. We found out in these three areas, Tommy, that there's improvement. First of all, if you work on yourself, if you work on your health and wellness, and if you work on your finances, we call the trifecta. If you work on these three areas, even one of these areas, you'll begin to see improvement within 30 days. Because the curriculum is designed to show you the results right away. So the first thing we work on is what do you want? And then once you figure out what they want, then we figure, well, what's stopping you, obviously, what's stopping you from moving forward? And then once you figure out what that is, then we figure out how does the mind work, the subconscious and the conscious mind, right. And then we talk about your image, you know, your image, and then we talk about your attitude. And then we talk about being a leader, and then we talk about being the mastermind. There's a lot more in the middle of that, but that is it in a nutshell. On. So you work on those three things, then we begin to see improvement. And then like I said, mindset is just raising your awareness so you can have better thoughts, better feelings, better actions, and then better results. And that's what it is. And those limiting beliefs, because everything that we do is repetitious, right? Repetition means you have to continue to work on this stuff. You got to continue to work on it. And our program is a six month program. It's a six months because we do 90, we do 12 weeks in 12 weeks. The second 12 weeks is reinforcement of the Information that you are continuing to go on through.

B (56:21)

I love it. So what makes you want to. What made you want to sell?

A (56:27)

Well, then again, I knew there was something. When I was a little boy, before my mother died, I told her I was going to be a Mariner. There's something in me. I was. We weren't, you know, my dad was a trash man. He worked at the local mall and he worked three jobs his whole life. And so we didn't have much, you know, but we were surrounded by these beautiful homes and a little further out. And I used to our school teachers have beautiful homes, and some of the kids in the neighborhood have beautiful homes. And I said, one day, one day I'm going to have that. I didn't know how. And so when the opportunity came up for me to start canvassing, that was like, that was my way out. And I took that canvassing very seriously and I perfected that. And then that led me to meet my mentor, Mel Rosenblatt, which look him up, and Norman Rales. And those two guys were like, talk about coming from nothing. And then so sales. To be honest with you, I'm an introvert. I live on a three and a half acre home I just have built out here in Northern Virginia, and it's in the suburbs. And the nearest house to me probably like, I don't know, maybe a football field apart, maybe less than that. But I'm really an introvert. But I perform so well when I'm in these people's houses. It's like, I feel great, but then I like to come home out the country, be by myself, you know, and just relax. But I'm really an introvert. But I had to do what I had to do to get to where I wanted to be. So I had the desire to win. That's what I had.

B (58:28)

And then. And then you just said it's time to make a big paycheck.

A (58:34)

Well, it wasn't so much. The paycheck was probably part of it, but I just so much enjoy canvassing and just talking to people when I was out. And Mel kept telling me I was good at it. And so I just kind of developed that because that was the natural step for me to do. I don't know if you know how Dave Yoho has the oldest, most successful consulting firm in the country when it comes to what we do. And I met him when I met Mel and Dave told me, he said, grant, you can wing it all day long, but you got to have some type of methodology. And that's when he gave me his tapes and I began to listen to his tapes, and then I began to do what the tape said, and us just listening to the tapes, I was just. Because it's all new to me. And, you know, from the time I entered the house to the time I left, I just did what was on the tapes and I was closing deals. So, you know, that was a pretty powerful lesson for me that I wanted to share. And I wasn't the greatest sound person, you know, I had, to be honest with you, two things I had working against me, and I still have these things working against me today. I have a stuttering problem and I have a speech impediment problem, right? But I don't let those things hold me back. I try to pronounce my words as clearly as I can, and I try to articulate the best I can, and I overcome all that stuff to get what I was able to get in this lifetime. So.

B (60:28)

Well, you're doing great, man. I'm really proud of everything you've accomplished. And you're just getting started as well. It's fun to. To watch you and all the adversity you had to overcome. Because, look, my story is. It's one of overcoming adversity. But it wasn't. I look at it, you know, I heard a lot of successful people say, man, I'm at the right place at the right time every time. I don't know, it's obviously, Jesus is guiding me, but I'll tell you this, everything seems to just keep happening. And I happen to be at the right meeting or the right conference or in front of the right person, and, you know, there's a little bit of luck because I fell into the right industry at the right time, and now it's one of the home service, home improvement. I mean, that's what everybody's talking about.

A (61:19)

Right? But it wasn't. It wasn't luck. It's your destiny. It's your destiny. It was. It wasn't. It was your hard work and your positive mindset. Listen, man, when I met you, you know, you see guys up there, and you were just so young and wise. And I said, you know, and I'm that type of guy that, listen, I'm the type of guy that buys up to a lot of boys, right? But your words when you mention those two things, I said, I got to go meet this guy because his destiny's set. His destiny is set. So. No, it's your destiny, man. You're destined to do great things, and you're Destined. Not only are you destined to do great things, Tommy, you're destined to help a lot of people. God put you in that position to help a lot of people. And all destinies are crossing because there's nothing, nothing new under the sun. We were destined to meet, and that's why we're here. This is no accident.

B (62:17)

I love it.

A (62:18)

This is no accident. Yeah.

B (62:19)

Grant, is there any books in your life? Obviously, Earl Nightingale. I did. I had Dave Yoho on the podcast about four months ago, and he.

A (62:31)

Isn't he great?

B (62:33)

An amazing guy, really, like, you know, and I used to listen to Tom Hopkins on, On the cassette tapes back in the day, and Michael Gerber. And there's a lot of things that. That I've listened to that have changed the way I show up. Is there anything that you'd advise any. Any books or people should listen to anything or read?

A (62:55)

The fourth book that I have read, that two books I read, obviously I read the book Thinking Grow Rich. That was the most everything. Everything that I talk about in my curriculum derives from Think and Grow Rich. And so I went back to school at the age 50 to get my degree because people told me I couldn't do it right. They said, no, no, you're not smart enough to get a degree. You know, you can't even pronounce the words right. So I went back and I got my degree and I carried a 3.87 throughout the whole year on the honor roll. But Think and Grow Rich was one of the books I read. And another book that I always read, I keep in front of me is the Science of Getting Rich. I don't know if you can see this. The Science of Getting Rich. This book here tells people that if you don't believe in the increase, you're dumb, you're ignorant. Everything that God ever created has increase to it. So this book here, the Signs of Getting Rich, it's a powerful book and it talks about the increase that is naturally God's given right to all men.

B (64:14)

I love it. Those are two good books.

A (64:19)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

B (64:22)

Grant, if somebody wants to reach out and talk to you, what's the best way to do that?

A (64:27)

Well, they can do it by going to my website, coachmanstead.com they can text me at 571-397-10-52. And I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on social media, all the platforms.

B (64:48)

Cool, man. Well, listen, we talked about a lot of stuff and obviously I think the most important thing is believe that you're worth it. And Work on that mindset and your belief system. I can't believe you know, I was just talking about this, but it's 100%. A lot of people go through life thinking maybe we don't deserve what's coming. And the last thing I say during orientation after three and a half hours of, of my introduction to the new group is listen, I'm going to pour love into you guys. I'm going to show up, you're going to see me. The one thing that I can't do is, is make you believe in yourself and love yourself instead of saying you're going to do this for your family. What about you? Why not you? Why don't. Why do you got to do everything you know? I, I agree do it for your kids and your wife and your parents. But what about you? And why don't you dig in and figure out what that's going to take? So I definitely want to look into your six month program, but why don't you close this out? Maybe we didn't talk about something or go deep into something, but I'll give you a chance to spend a few minutes for some final thoughts.

A (65:52)

Well, everything I ever done in my life up to this point has been by. I've been led by every person, even my pastor. They all let me down. My church and I'm a spiritual man. And I just believe you got to believe in a higher power and you got to believe in yourself. When you don't believe in yourself, find a higher power to believe in. Because that carried me a very long way. Even just everything I got. I am so grateful. I am so grateful because God put me in an industry where I didn't even have a way. I didn't know no way. And then I met. Then I met Norman Rails, then I met David Yoho. All this is over 40 years ago and it's coming like full circle for me. And I'm just saying believe in yourself and believe that there is going to be a way for you, whoever's listening, there is a way. But you got to do the work. No one's going to give you anything after you do the work. Believe on yourself and, and when you don't believe in yourself, find a mentor, someone that can see you, the good that's in you, the drive that you have, the desire to win in you and then dedicated you as well. So those are words that I live by. I had no idea when I met Mr. Melo. I just knew that I had the. I just knew that I wanted to at Least get to know the guy. And I had no idea. I just stood up there like everybody else. He had a mouth, a line a mile long, and now look where we're at. And I think our relationship is going to develop to something more. That's what the Lord, our destiny is calling. And I'm just excited for it, but I have no idea.

B (67:59)

I love it, Grant. Well, I really appreciated the time today. You know, for those that are listening, we're doing this on a Saturday, and I appreciate you taking the time today. My calendar is pretty limited. It's, it's. It's. I'm the busiest I've ever been. That's no excuse. But one of the things I've been trying to do is make more time for my fiance and spend time with her, too. So I've realized sometimes I've ignored some of the most important things. My mom asked me why I'm on my phone all the time, and, you know, I got to do a better job of that, too. I think just turning it off sometimes is probably the best thing. It's just hard because I like to. I'm a busy guy. I like to do stuff.

A (68:39)

Yeah.

B (68:40)

So you give me. You get me somewhere. I want to do stuff and, you know, something I'm working on is just sitting there. I wish I got to go back to Italy. I've never been there, but I, you know, just sit there. I was looking at my Italian stallion producer is just sitting there. They take like four hour lunches and just sit there and just enjoy each other. And I gotta.

A (69:00)

That's right.

B (69:00)

I gotta work on that.

A (69:03)

Yeah. Tommy, you deserve it. I don't know you that well. I just know your story. And you have. You have driven yourself. And, you know, I'm at the age now to where I'm not as financially successful as you are, but I am successful as you are, and I'm learning now at 63. It doesn't matter. Just enjoy the moment. I am really enjoying this moment. This is probably one of the highlights of my whole career, just meeting you and seeing how genuine you are and seeing how sincere you are and seeing how what a good man you are. All this stuff is just so good, and I'm just enjoying it. And I'm excited to say, okay, Lord, I sat back, I did what you asked me to do. Now you gotta open the doors and lead to wherever you want us to go. But I'm just, you know, and I think that's the attitude that you might want to take. Say, okay, Lord, I'M doing what you asked me to do. I want to enjoy my fiance. I want to enjoy my wife, my mother. I don't want to be on the phone. I want to do what you want me to do. And listen, Tommy, when you have that type of attitude, that's when all the better things come because you're not controlling it. You're just sitting back and watching it attract to you. It just comes right to you. This here podcast and everything I'm doing in my life about mindset is just coming to me and I'm saying, okay, Lord. Okay, okay, I hear you. Okay, I'm just going to sit. I'm still going to work. I'm still going to be a little bit proactive, but I'm going to wait for you. And when that happens, that's when all the good stuff comes. That's just my experience. I love it.

B (70:57)

Grant. Well, I really appreciated the time today and I think you're absolutely right. You know, church is going to be great tomorrow. I look forward to it. And this was really, really, really interesting and fun and I got a lot of notes and I think you're absolutely right. Mindset is everything. So thank you for today and I look forward to spending more time with.

A (71:17)

You if I can help you out. You have my email, you have my number. And I'll be more than happy to share this curriculum with you, do anything I can to help you further what you're doing because you're doing some good work, some really good work.

B (71:30)

Hey, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. We'll, we'll be chatting soon, my friend.

A (71:36)

Thank you, Tommy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, my new friend. Thank you.

B (71:40)

All right, all right, my man. Hey there. Thanks for tuning into the podcast today. Before I let you go, I want to let everybody know that Elevate is out out and ready to buy. I can share with you how I attracted a winning team of over 700 employees in over 20 states. The insights in this book are powerful and can be applied to any business or organization. It's a real game changer for anyone looking to build and develop a high performing team like over here at A1 garage door service. So if you want to learn the secrets that help me transfer my team from stealing the toilet paper to a group of 700 plus employees rowing in the same direction, head over to elevateandwin.com forward/podcast and grab a copy of the book. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch up with you next time on the podcast.