Podcast Summary: The Home Service Expert Podcast

Episode: Breaking Limiting Beliefs: on Leadership, Sales, and Mindset Mastery

Host: Tommy Mello
Guest: Grant Winstead, CEO, Renovation Experts, Limitless Potential Coach
Aired: January 19, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Tommy Mello speaks with Grant Winstead, a veteran home service operator and transformational coach based in the D.C.–Baltimore area. The conversation centers on Grant's journey from humble beginnings to multi-million-dollar success, overcoming adversity, and the powerful role of mindset and belief in leadership, sales, and personal growth. Grant shares practical strategies for breaking limiting beliefs within home service teams and offers insight into developing sustained excellence—even for those starting with little more than a hammer and a nail.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Grant’s Origin Story & Finding His Path

• Early Struggles: Grew up in a poor, working-class, all-white neighborhood as the only Black family, lost his mother at 16, and lacked clear direction.
• Breaking In: His entry into the home service business began with a chance encounter with Tony, an African American home improvement entrepreneur:

  “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 I began to knock on doors.” (05:08)

• Mentorship: Grant’s life took a significant turn when he was mentored by a Jewish business owner, who "taught me everything about profit, loss, and life. He was like a dad to me." (09:03)

2. Transition from Sales to CEO

• Success didn’t happen overnight:

  “It was a gradual thing over a period of time. 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.” (10:38)

• Started his own company at 25 and learned the unique challenges of selling as a Black man in D.C.'s diverse, sometimes segregated neighborhoods.

3. Handling Adversity & Grit in Sales

• Grant shares a powerful anecdote about overcoming racial prejudice and winning a tough client:

  “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.” (29:19)

• Insights on creating demand rather than waiting for it—going out and knocking doors even in difficult situations.

4. The Power of Mindset and Limiting Beliefs

• Both Tommy and Grant agree: success is as much about mental conditioning as skill-building.
• Grant recalls his first major mentors gifting him Earl Nightingale tapes:

  “Listen to these tapes as a young man... You can make a lot of money, but the only way you can make a lot of money is by working on yourself.” (20:05)

• Three pillars for sales success: belief in yourself, your company, and your product. (21:50)
• Mindset is the ceiling:

  “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, you're going to come up short all the time.” (21:59)

5. Limiting Beliefs: How They Form & How to Break Them

• Many technicians and salespeople are limited by their own paradigms, shaped by family and society.

• “The limiting beliefs is what really stops guys. And the thing about these limiting beliefs, they're not even ours. They're programmed in us.” (25:00)

• Immigrants and outsiders often succeed because they don’t carry the same internalized limitations.

6. Systems, Pricing, and Sales Process Excellence

• The importance of pricing confidently:

  “I was never the cheapest guy in town. We are not the cheapest because you have to charge.” (27:00)

• Suggested industry pricing model: four times your costs.

7. Recruitment and The Will to Win

• Not every new hire can be trained the same—performance depends on mindset as much as skill.

• “You'll have three guys that come in for training… What really makes a difference is the mindset, because they all see the same thing, they all have the same information.” (33:03)

• Tommy: “My rule is… would I buy from you? Would my grandma buy from you? And would I work for you?” (38:25)

8. Family Support & Environment

• The role of home support in success:

  “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.” (41:02)

9. Mindset Curriculum & Practical Steps

• Grant’s 12-week, group-based curriculum focuses on three areas: self-improvement, health/wellness, and finances—the "trifecta".
• First steps are to clarify personal goals, identify what’s holding people back, and educate on how the mind works (conscious/subconscious, self-image, attitude).

  “The curriculum is designed to show you the results right away.” (53:23)

• Importance of repetition and ongoing reinforcement.

10. Belief, Discipline, and Desire

• “Discipline is created by doing something when you don’t feel like doing it… But first of all, before discipline, you got to have the will to win. The desire to win out trumps them all.” (49:06)

• Tommy: “Why not me? I’m not going to use any excuse, because the people that come up for reasons…what if they came up for reasons why they could instead of why they can’t?” (52:22)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mindset & Potential

  “You can make a lot of money, but the only way you can make a lot of money is by working on yourself.” – Grant Winstead (20:11)
  “If you got the desire to win, that is the first step towards success.” – Grant Winstead (49:12)

• On Overcoming Prejudice

  “I might as well just throw a high price out there at this guy and talk about quality and see what he says.” – Grant Winstead (15:45)
  “There’s two things I hate. Liars and cheaters. And if you lie to me, I got something for you…” (referring to a customer showing a .45 Glock) (16:35)

• On Removing Limiting Beliefs

  “The limiting beliefs…they’re not even ours. They’re programmed in us.” – Grant Winstead (25:04)

• On Creating Demand

  “When you're good, you're good. But 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.” – Grant Winstead (29:19)

• On Team and Family Support

  “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.” – Grant Winstead (41:38)

• On Self-worth and Success

  “Believe in yourself and believe that there is going to be a way for you, whoever’s listening. But you got to do the work, no one’s going to give you anything.” – Grant Winstead (66:21)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Grant’s Origin Story – 03:50–07:25
• Mentorship & Starting Out – 07:31–11:23
• First Experiences with Prejudice in Sales – 11:35–18:43
• Mindset and Technician Limiting Beliefs – 19:01–24:47
• Breakthroughs and Overcoming Limiting Beliefs – 24:47–29:19
• Recruitment and the Role of Mindset in Results – 33:03–36:11
• Family Support and Environment – 41:32–43:45
• Mindset Curriculum Structure – 53:23–56:21
• Key Books and Resources – 62:55–64:14

Resource Recommendations

• Books:

  • Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  • The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

• Speakers and Trainers:

  • Earl Nightingale
  • Dave Yoho
  • Tom Hopkins

Contact Info for Grant Winstead

• Website: coachwinstead.com
• Text: 571-397-1052
• LinkedIn & Social Media: Search "Grant Winstead"

Final Thoughts

Grant Winstead’s story is a powerful testament to the importance of breaking through limiting beliefs and building a resilient, growth-oriented mindset. Whether in leadership, sales, or operations, mindset is the multiplier that transforms hustle into high-level success, and the curriculum Grant offers provides a blueprint for unlocking that potential. As Tommy and Grant both echo, belief—in self, team, and purpose—is the foundation upon which all extraordinary outcomes in home service (and in life) are built.