← The Home Service Expert Podcast
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Unlocking Success by Combining Visionary Thinking with Consistent Execution
01:02:15
Benny Fisher is the Founder of The Big Fish Contracting Company. He is an experienced public speaker, business consultant, and marketer. Benny has earned a reputation for outstanding customer satisfaction, gaining several awards including, GAF Master...
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- [00:00]
A
The core thing is themselves. They blame it on leads, they blame it on sales, they blame it on people. But they have to become a better person to be able to attract better people. When you attract better people, well then guess what, you're going to get more leads because you're going to have better people running your better systems. And, you know, and at the end of the day, the other thing that I find that most entrepreneurs are craving is connection. Genuine connection, Genuine, authentic emotional connection. Because again, like we said earlier on the call, we're all, you know, most of us are running around like chickens with our head cut off and we just go, we've never actually stopped and smell the roses. We always, we're always, we're worried about the gap.
- [00:37]
B
Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week Tommy chats with world class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields like marketing, sales, hiring and leadership to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now your host, the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello. Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes. But I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview. So I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text notes N O T E s to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299. And you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevate and win.com podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview. All right, guys, welcome back to the Home Service Expert. I got Benny Fisher. This guy has quite the history. I mean, doing amazing things. He was hanging out with Gary Vee recently, got to spend a whole day with Gino Wickman, getting on a lot of stages, started a mastermind. He's got a really successful podcast. I was on his about 90 days ago. He's an expert in marketing, content creation, business consulting, super strong visionary. Benny, let's just jump right into it, man. Tell us a little bit about you and just your crazy story of where you got to where you're at today.
- [02:27]
A
Yeah. So really quickly, the backstory, you know, diagnosed with ADHD when I was 7 or 8 years old. And that was in the late 80s when it first came out. My mom and dad didn't know what to do with me. The teachers didn't know what to do with me. Up and down with friends and relationships. Got bullied, got picked on. Never really found my place in school. Graduated high school probably with a 2.5 GPA. And I thought college was the path, right? And so I tried that for three weeks, couldn't sit still there. And so I started selling cars. And I really liked that world. And it was a really fast paced road, wasn't very. I was good at selling the cars. I wasn't good at being a consistent salesperson. Month in and month out, I would spend the money, I'd go broke, I'd, you know, party. I'd, you know, give my money to girls and you know, I went bankrupt I think when I was 20, I remember attending my first seminar. You're like this. And the car business. I remember this guy with a Rolex, good looking dude with shirt coming down this hotel conference room in Cleveland, Ohio. This was in the year 2000, 2000 or 2001. It was Grant Cardone. I was probably like 20 years old. He was probably like 40. Little did I know I wouldn't, I wouldn't see him again for another 20 years on the Internet, maybe 15 years when I started getting on Facebook, started seeing what that guy was producing. But yeah, just I got fired from every car dealership. Started working at GE Money. Did home loans for a little bit before the crash. That obviously didn't work out. Sold cell phones at Verizon. Thought my only path to success was in the corporate world. But without a college degree, I was just trying to sell my way into some big money. Never worked out. Ended up going to a party one night when I was like 26 years old. Tried cocaine for the first time. Felt really at peace, Felt really still started selling cocaine to some of my friends. I was really bad at being a drug dealer too. Got robbed at gunpoint, pistol whipped over the side of my head, left for dead, car stolen. I got evicted from my apartment. During this time I also, man, so many bad things happened to me. I got raided by the FBI, got two, two felonies. Got stuck in my sister's basement, living with her while I was going through the court case. Luckily I was spared from jail because I wouldn't have done well in jail either. You know, I was just trying to figure it out, man. I had like all this energy and I grew up super, super Christian and super strict. And when I got out in the world, I just wanted to try all this stuff and couldn't find my way. And then my uncle calls me up and says, hey, now you're down on your luck. You know, I was working at a call center making $9 an hour. This is in 2010. And with two felonies on my record, he says, hey, move to Pittsburgh. Come help me with my commercial roofing company. I just started it. You can help me with sales and marketing. So picked up my stuff, you know, he paid off my court fines, moved to Pittsburgh, didn't know anybody, worked for him for five years. During that time, I started to learn about marketing. That's when social media started picking up. I started a Facebook account, started friend requesting all the customers and all the people in the little area that I lived in to try to just, you know, get to know people. And then I started helping small business owners at the Chamber of Commerce with their Facebook page and. And my uncle. I learned a lot of good things about small business and roofing, but I also learned that there was a lot of opportunity. He wasn't leveraging technology. He wasn't trying to grow his business. And so every October, he would tell me to stop selling roofs because they couldn't get them all done. And so I would get bored. And when I get bored, that's never a good thing. So I started really learning the marketing thing and tried to implement some of those things at his business, and he just really wasn't having it. He didn't really like any of the ideas, and I was basically taking the Gary V. Playbook. And he's like, no, this won't work. You know, we're a roofing company. We can't do that stuff. And I'll never forget when I sold my first roof on Facebook In 2013, I was so proud. I walked into my office, his office, and I said, hey, I sold a roof. And it was a lead off of Facebook that I got from a community group. And I thought he was going to be excited. And he's like, ah. And I was like, oh, man. Well, eventually, in 2015, after I'd been married for a year and had a kid and just bought my first little house, he ended up firing me and told me I should go sell roofs for someone else. And so I was left with the decision whether I go work for the biggest roofing company in town or do I start my own thing. And so I took everything I learned about marketing, everything I learned about roofing, and everything I knew about sales my whole life, poofed them together and created the big fish contracting company. And because there was nobody that was leveraging technology, customer communication, good old fashioned customer service, branding, marketing, digital stuff. And so I found a little, little niche there. And that's what I did for the last nine years. And we're nine years old. But that journey wasn't easy, Tommy. Two years into that, I was drug free the whole time I was in Pittsburgh. Okay, it was like five or six years. And all of a sudden after the first year in business, it was so much pressure. Hired some people. Didn't never manage a person in my life. Never knew how to train anybody, hire anybody, did it. Didn't know what being a husband or a father was all about. I started doing drugs again. I OD'd on fentanyl. That was a crazy story. Still here to talk about it. Three years later, Covid happens. Realized I need to make some changes in my life. Need to make some changes in my business. Ended up getting divorced. Ended up metting a girl named Brittany, who I'm with today. She got me on this new path to freedom through like meditation and yoga and mindfulness. Started learning some of those things. And at that same time, I found the book, Rocket Fuel Eos Geno Wickman book. And it started implementing those, the integrator and the implementer and building a leadership team. And I was all excited and I thought my life was perfect again. And then my brother got shot and killed and a drug deal gone bad. He was 12 years younger than me. That totally rocked my world. And I was gone for three weeks, and I was in Ohio with my family, and I had this new leadership team. And I realized on my way back, I told Brittany, I said, man, I said, I didn't get one customer call, I didn't get one employee call. I didn't have to worry about payroll, somebody else doing all that stuff for me. And I realized for the first time my company doesn't really need me. And I really felt like I had a lot more to give because I really wanted to help entrepreneurs, you know, with this mindset, you know, like, we're all driven and we're out there to make a big impact, but sometimes we have some things that are kind of derailing us and self sabotaging us. And. And so then I read Gino's other book that just came out that year in 2021, called EOS Life. You know, talking about doing what you love with people that you. People that you love, making a lot of money, having a great impact, having time for other passions. And I realized there was a lot more to work than just the hustle culture of trying to be the man all the time. And so I've kind of leaned into this whole trying to find this inner peace also while being driven. And that's what kind of led me to podcasting, speaking on stages, you know, forming the mastermind, the arena mastermind with my buddy Joseph Hughes, and really just trying to make a bigger impact while my roofing company is still running and still, you know, successful. You know, I'm not growing it like, you know, Tommy Mellow's garage doors, obviously, but I found my piece and that's kind of what I'm on a mission to talk to other entrepreneurs about. So I appreciate being on the show.
- [09:33]
B
Yeah, no, that's great, man. It's a hell of a story, and I guess it is true. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And you just said you recently lost a child.
- [09:43]
A
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, my 10 year old son. And then me and Brittany had a baby two years ago and had a home birth. Everything was fine, everything was perfect. She was pregnant last year and we lost that baby about 20 weeks in. She had to go to the hospital in an emergency situation and deliver the baby. And, you know, that was. That was hard because, you know, all the other things that have happened in my life, you know, were kind of like things that, you know, I've just been taught to get through. And that time, for the first time in my life, I was completely present through that experience. I wasn't, you know, on my phone. I wasn't distracted. I wasn't trying to do anything else. I wasn't worried about anything else in the world. There was nothing more important than just being there for her, holding her hand while she had to go through one of the most traumatic things of her life. You know, men don't really talk about that kind of stuff, you know, a lot. And a lot of men, when they go through those situations, I know because if that would have been me two, three years ago, I would have been out in the hall, pacing. I would have been on the phone talking to someone, texting. So trying to be distracted, you know, from, from something like that. But the ability to be still and be able to be present through those pains is what I believe is the key to transformation and the key to healing to where, like, you know, you can get past that. You know, not because we're trying to forget about it, but because we're trying to Just live life in the present moment because things, you know, bad things are going to happen, good things are going to be happening. Trying not to. Try not to get stuck with all that anxiety and depression, you know?
- [11:08]
B
Yeah, it's one of those things where I've never learned to be present till Covid and kind of just face your fears because it goes somewhere, you know. When I was talking to Gino, I don't know, four or five months ago, he said, most of us believe that this. This nervousness, this itch, this tick, this ability to want to go, go, go, this drive is our superpower. And if we confront it and we get content and we get it one, whether that's through an ayahuasca trip or there's a lot of ways. He's been through a ton of a psychologist and just. I understand what he meant. And the ability to reflect and live in the present is very, very tough for drivers and hunters. And he said, once you do get it, I mean, he sold. He changed the world with EOS. Sold it. 87 and a half percent of, if I recall. And the day he sold it, he felt like shit. Got a massive, massive amount of money. And you think that's what you're driving towards. And he was in his 50s when that happened. And he's going this big old feeling of just emptiness hit him. And he's not the only one. I think that's the majority of the people, they sell the private equity or whoever it might be, a strategic partner. And this is your lifelong dream, to be able to help your family and financially be able to do what you want, when you want, with who you want. And why is it there's that void? I'm curious, from your point of view, I'm sure, you know, a lot of people that feel that way.
- [12:50]
A
Yeah. You know, he describes it as, you know, climbing the mountain. Like, we're all taught to climb the mountain. And you get to the top of the mountain and you just realize that there's more to life than just the top of the mountain. And so he describes it, it's more like a journey. Right. Rather than a climb. And I think a lot of it's because most of us are driven. We're born with that gene. You know, there's a book called driven by Dr. Douglas Brackman, who I'm actually in therapy with now. He's actually. He's actually my new shrink. Because I really want to understand this concept of being driven and understanding how we can use it as a blessing, not just, you know, Always as a curse. But here's the problem. No one teaches us this. Usually our parents don't have. They didn't have enough wisdom. They're not aware enough. And if they're not driven, you know, because it's a. It's a genetic thing. Like, sometimes it gets passed down. It can skip generations. That doesn't matter. There's only about 8% of us that have this gene, this D2 or D4 gene. And there's like a. This allele on it. It's like a receptor that is like flawed. And so we need more dopamine. Like, we never feel satisfied. And because of that, we're constantly. Look like when we're kids, we're constantly instigating things, asking questions like, we just. We just. We just don't ever feel good just being still. And so we go through life like this and most people can't handle us. So back in our early days, a lot of. A lot of teachers and, you know, they say, shut up, kid. You know, go over the room, they give you detention. You know, sometimes we piss off other kids. Sometimes where everybody's best friend, you know, and like, we're just trying to figure things out because there's no one there ready to teach us about these things. Now I feel like our children and I know, Tommy, you don't have any kids yet, right?
- [14:30]
B
Not yet.
- [14:31]
A
Not yet, but it's coming. I have a strong feeling that you're going to make a lot of children one day, but if you recognize that one of them has this gene. I believe now that we have the resources and the awareness to kind of help them and kind of guide them. Now you don't want to put too many restrictions on them, but you don't want them to be like wide open either. And so they really kind of. It's like bump. I kind of like related to bumper bowling. We're like, we got to put some bumpers up, but we got to let the kid roll the ball and let them kind of hit the walls a couple times, you know, hopefully he doesn't die. That's the worst case scenario. We got to keep. We got to keep these driven people alive, right? And that's the other problem. Like, too many people like me, I got lucky, you know, by the grace of God, I'm still here to tell my story. And I think it's on purpose and for purpose, but there's a lot of people that were like me that we don't even know anymore because they've already died. They've either committed suicide. They've either, you know, done something stupid, you know, with drinking or drugs or addiction, and they just haven't made it, or they got shut down so many times that they finally just given up and, you know, they're just wandering around, right? But driven people are the ones that are going to change the world. They're the visionaries of the world that can create and solve the problems because we can see patterns that other people can't see. Like, we can see the voids. Like most, most of our people on our team and our families and stuff like that, they see the object, right? Like, they see. They see the object. We see all the space around the object, and we can kind of see both. And so we're able to. We're able to solve problems at a high speed. We're able to, you know, be able to see things and be able to get things done, and we're able to act on those things and we'll be able to come up with ideas and inspire people and those are what's going to get the rest of everybody moving in the right direction. And hopefully it's in the right direction. There's also a lot of driven people that do a lot of bad things. And so we have to take the good driven people and try to outnumber the bad driven people and be able to shine a light and. But we got to be able to do that through stillness. You know, we got to be able to get the visionaries and the driven still long enough so that way they can see a clearer picture. So that way they know exactly what to say yes to, what to say no to. You know, how to lead with love and empathy and be authentic and, you know, not try to be like anyone else. You know, for the longest time. You know, the first guy I ever looked up to was Grant Cardone, because that was the first time I ever seen a dude with a Rolex ever in my life was when I went to that seminar back in 2000. And I was like, holy cow, look at this dude. Good looking dude, nice suit. Freaking Rolex. Talks like a. Just perfect. Like, I mean, I'm like, wow, that is like the perfect model of a human being. I'm like, I want to be like that. Well, I tried to be like that. And that did not. That was not. That was not beneficial. That is not beneficial. And so then I've learned and I watched other people try to be like other people. You know, there's probably people out there trying to be like Tommy Mellow, but like if they're not Tommy Mello, they're going to be in for a rude awakening one day if they just try to emulate certain things. And so I realized that, you know, you just got to fall in love with yourself. But the only way to do that is usually through a lot of therapy, through a lot of stillness, a lot of self reflection. I'm a big fan of, you know, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ and God and everything that the Bible teaches, but I don't think that's, you know, I think there's other things too. Like, no matter what your faith is or what your religion is, as long as you believe in a higher power and a creator, I believe you're on the right track. And I think that the Creator created something inside of your heart, that the answers are always within. But so many times we're always trying to go out for the answers. And so I try to teach people, hey, you already have all the answers. Don't ask me the question. You can ask me the question. I can give you an answer. But really your answers are within. So what I like to do is ask more questions. And if you can ask.
- [18:11]
B
I think when people, when they speak out loud and you help people, I think the best job of a shrink is to allow you to think out loud and have you repeat back what you thought about and help you come up with your own answers. Because most of the time, we never thought long enough about the answer when we say it out loud either. We're like, well, shit, I think I know the answer to this. Now that I think about it, it's just kind of pulling that out of us. And I'll tell you what, one of the things you said there is learning how to say no. And I think that that's a skill that most entrepreneurs will spend the rest of their lives trying to get good at is learning when to say no. And it's a super talent. And the most successful people I've seen, I've seen Alex Hormozi talking about it. I see this ability to say no. You think the world's going to hate you. But the fact is, I was on with Steve Sims last week, and it's like, look, sorry, no, this is my time with my family. And if you can't, everybody will take if you allow them to. And, you know, I try to give as many people my time as possible because people took the time to take it with me when I needed help. And you never know when you're gonna save a life, a marriage you never know when you're going to change the world, but there's a. There's a way to do it. And I still haven't mastered it. I'm a work in progress, but I think just the ability to focus on you. And for me, Benny, it's always been getting great help around me to stay organized. Cause if I'm organized and my schedule's organized and my time's organized and the files are in the right spot, I can 10x production beyond anybody that I know. But I need assistance. Without that assistance, I'll be running around in a circle. I got the fastest leg, but I'm only using one leg. I need someone else. So I'll just be spinning really, really fast. So I need that left leg to kick in so I could sprint forward. And I guess the people around me tend to be that left leg that allow me to go faster than anybody and be able to delegate. But I got to stay organized. You know, things got to be clean and orderly and very organized. And if they're not, I won't get much done.
- [20:15]
A
That's so good that you said that. You know, the say no often is the sixth discipline. You know, you're familiar with Gino Wickman's 10 Disciplines to Maximize your impact and have inner peace. Number six is say no often. And then number seven is don't do $25 an hour work. Now, that $25 an hour work is bad. But if you're trying to be a six figure entrepreneur, be able to create more time and freedom, there's someone out there in this country that would love that. $25 an hour work. And $25 an hour work doesn't mean 25. It could be $50 an hour work, $100 an hour work. You know, I pay a CFO way more than $25 an hour to manage my finances and to give me input. But I can't do everything right. And so learning how to say no, don't do $25 an hour delegate. And then also another secret, and Gino talks about this, that's been successful for me over the last four or five years of transferring from salesperson to business owner, CEO, visionary, whatever you want to call it, was preparing every night and making sure that I knew what my calendar looked like the day ahead. Last night when I went to bed, I knew I was shooting this podcast. I had another podcast I was shooting. I knew I was doing all the calls right that I had on my calendar, like, and I mentally visualized what those look like. Right. So that way I could already kind of be there and show up. And then putting everything in one place is still one thing that I'm struggling with. I'm going to admit I have a legal pad here next to my desktop set up at home. But then when I'm out on the road, then I have my, you know, my phone that I'm putting notes in. And sometimes with me and my assistant, we're always trying to like get them all in one place. So I just bought a remarkable. We're going to see if that works.
- [21:52]
B
It won't, you know what it is, because I have two of them and I don't use them. I think for me is my next ea that is getting ready to onboard in the next two weeks is going to be my shadow. They will go. We work really hard. We interviewed 58 people that are very capable. Narrowed it down to two, and I think I got the one. This. This woman is not only going to go with me on trips, she's going to come to my house and drive into work. She's going to drive home from work. She's going to be at every single meeting I'm at. She's going to learn when there is time for me personally that I'll be. She won't be in every single meeting, but she'll be setting up meetings that would be normally two hours to get them done in 30 minutes. She'll also be taking the minutes. Now, this particular gal, she's done over 200, $500,000 each weddings. And I don't know if you've ever dealt with those type of people, but you need 90 million things to go right. One thing goes wrong, the lights don't turn on right, the music doesn't end up right. You know, one wrong thing, a person doesn't get their flight, you're screwed. So they gotta be a multitasker. And she's not in a relationship. She's willing to travel. She, you know, I need a lifer.
- [23:05]
A
Do you think that's sustainable? I mean, like, here's the thing. You have that energy and like, you have it and you do it naturally. Do you think that there's another. You think there's another human out there on earth that is going to be able to keep up with you and then basically live. I mean, they're basically living with you. You're actually going to spend more time with her than you are your wife.
- [23:21]
B
100%. Well, here's the deal. I can't say it's sustainable forever, but the Plan is to not only have, I will have a second one. And I think it could be split into two people.
- [23:32]
A
Like a team. Then they'll be like a team, right? Like they'll be like, yeah, there'll be, it's kind of like the chief of staff for the president. Like you have a chief of staff and there's going to be a bunch.
- [23:40]
B
Of, there'll be an event, there's a lot of email. There's someone else handling this or someone else handling this. But for me it's just an investment into myself because I think I could. I'm in this mode right now of building a team so strong that I don't want to be the guy. I think my job is to make my, myself obsolete. I want to be the networker. I think my actual job is to be the dumbest guy in the room. It's to build relationships and enjoy life and make key decisions. And I ask myself if Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, not about family life, but just would they be going into work 12 hours or would they be, you know, when's your most important meeting, what time? And just to have a chef now and a driver and two people at the house that are taking care of all the, the duties that a house should be taken care of, whether that's cleaning or laundry or, or just oil changes. There's all these things going on that I try to say this and stay humble, but the mentality is it's selfish not to do those things because I could be affecting lives and I could be doing things that only I could do.
- [24:50]
A
That's so humble.
- [24:52]
B
You evolved to that.
- [24:53]
A
Well, yeah, because that's Gino's 10th discipline. Be humble. You led like right into that because you are so true to that. And I believe that it's our duty to like if our God given gift is to inspire others and be with people and be present and there's somebody else's God given gift to take notes and to do all the administration stuff and make sure everyone's where they're at. I mean, you're almost doing that other person a disservice by not letting them do that those things for you. There's somebody out there that loves manicuring your yard way better than you're ever going to love it. And guess what? You're going to pay them a handsome price to do it. Because I know you. You got some. You get that place done in Idaho yet? Is it done?
- [25:34]
B
I was there the last two days. It's the framing Starts. It'll be done framing in October. I'm not moving. I won't have a place to live till spring of 2026. But I looked at this place and I just thought, how many memories, how many lives can I affect? How many opportunities? I mean, it is truly if there was heaven on Earth, and I'm not even kidding, Benny. Full moon on Saturday. I'm with a bunch of friends, we're out of. There's a fire, the lake, every single star that probably in our solar system that you could see in our galaxy was up. And I'm like, this is heaven on Earth. And I just can't wait to share that. And with my team, with A one, with my acquaintances, with my Rolodex, just build deeper relationships. And that's the way I look at this. It's not, I'm building a big house. So everybody knows how successful I am building a big house. Because eight couples plus more could stay there. If time is about experiences and life is about experiences, this is going to be one of the best experiences people have. So that's investing into life and experiences. It's not. Look at me. And I think people can misconstrue that. And the other thing, Betty, that I'm getting very comfortable with is not everybody's going to like you because they're in a situation where they don't want to believe it. If they had to believe it, if they had to believe that you are a success, why would you be on the Internet, number one? Number two, they say, if that's true, that means I got to admit that I'm not doing it right. And the first step of a 12 step process, which I've never been involved in, but I know it's admitting you have a problem. And most people don't want to admit that this person is successful. They're sharing their message because we know nine out of 10 people rent a Ferrari and they, they go to a house in LA for the weekend and rent an Airbnb. But there are real people that are truly successful. And I look at it like if I'm going to make money on the Internet, whether it's selling books or courses that actually like masterpieces that make a difference. I want to be able to have 25 people on my team and I want them to make a ton of money. I don't think I should take my garage door money I've made and have to use that to invest in this. Why not take the money putting out amazing products, not product after product after product. A good thing. Whether it's Michael Michalowicz or Gina Wickman, they come out with different products and they change lives and they can afford the staff to do it. And if you got to divest from the one thing giving you the money to invest in other things, maybe that's to get started. But then you got to make it self sustainable. So I think people, the haters out there, they're going to be. I don't care if your mother Teresa. I bet you 50% of the people had something bad to say like she's probably not doing it for the right reasons. There's something guilty like, and that's what happens on the Internet. It's a bunch of people that have nothing better than to go ridicule other people. And it's a pet peeve. One of the things I don't, Betty, when I hire somebody, I look at their Yelp and I look at their Google, I want to see their reviews. I don't care if they give 1 stars, but if every single thing that they leave is a one star and they never have anything good to say and it's frequent, I don't want that person to work for me. They find the worst in everything.
- [28:42]
A
Oh, so you actually check the reviews that they leave other people? Yeah, that's a good hack.
- [28:50]
B
Yeah, it's about that a lot.
- [28:53]
A
Cause that's a good one, man. I always thought that there should be like a Google review for the actual consumer like to where like you could actually see what kind of consumer you're dealing with at a time.
- [29:02]
B
Well, I thought about through my service sign connections is we just rate the client. And if it's like extremely like one of my buddies sent me a message, this guy cussed out the csr. He goes, I want to talk to the owner. And he called her some really, really bad words. That person should be on a national do not service list. The problem is with litigation. You know, the way this country is designed is go after business owners. Don't go after the people that shit on businesses. And that's, that's part of the, you know where we're going to this conversation. I wanted to go, you know, you've got a Mastermind, you've got 85 clients in there and it's, that's less than a year. You're probably going to double every six months. When you talk to business owners, what's their number one concern right now? Usually it's either leads or finding more people is what I find. There's all kinds of Stuff in between. But it's capacity planning.
- [29:49]
A
Well, and they think it's that. But the core thing is themselves. They blame it on leads, they blame it on sales, they blame it on people. But they have to become a better person to be able to attract better people. When you attract better people, well then guess what, you're going to get more leads because you're going to have better people running your better systems. And you know, and at the end of the day, the other thing that I find that most entrepreneurs are craving is connection. Genuine connection, genuine authentication, emotional connection. Because again, like we said earlier on the call, we're all, you know, most of us are running around like chickens with our head cut off and we just go. We've never actually stopped and smell the roses. We always, we're always, we're worried about the gap. You know, like Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy, they wrote that book Gap and gain. Everyone focused on the gap, right? We never take a minute to like, just like what you did the other night when you were with your friends looking at the stars and just, just took in that gratitude for like everything that's been created so far, this moment that we're having, and think about all the good things that have happened in our life. Like most of us never stop to do that. And I think people are starting to recognize finally that that's important and they want to be around people like you that better experiencing that because they just want a little taste of what that is. And I don't care if you, if you haven't cracked six figures. I don't crack. Care if you crack seven figures. There's always something that you can be grateful for. I don't care if you're the homeless guy in the street right now. There's something that those sometimes are the most grateful people I've ever been around or people that are like that. And so, you know, there's people in other countries that have it way worse than we do and they're always smiling. And so really it's a state of mind, right? It's trying to figure out that inner peace going deep within side the heart, getting to know you, falling in love with yourself and then letting your light shine 100%.
- [31:33]
B
You know, you mentioned dopamine. I just had a lady on. I believe she's from Princeton or Harvard. I'm trying to remember one of those.
- [31:42]
A
Schools I could never get into.
- [31:44]
B
She wrote the book Dopamine Nation and she said, you know, Tommy, the way that the brain receives dopamine is by doing hard Things that it was by doing hard things is how naturally. Now there's drugs that do it, there's short term fixes. It could be nicotine, it could be cocaine, it could be alcohol, it could be chocolate, it could be fast food. It's these, it could be scrolling on social media, this quick little release of dopamine. But our DNA suggests that over the years it was by doing things that are very difficult and we're never meant to be. Jordan Peterman talks about Peterson. I'm sorry, he talks about doing tough things. I got a good buddy, Chad Peterman. But he just says, you know, if you get a day of comfort, take advantage of it. But your life is not supposed to be sit on your couch, order Uber eats and watch tv. It's meant to go out into the world and explore and get your steps in and get, you know, now the cold plunge in the sauna and I'm getting 20,000 steps a day and I don't hit that every day, but I've never not hit 15,000 in the last few months. And that's a little bit.
- [32:54]
A
You've created that for yourself. Because I've been to your office where you have two buildings and you probably just walk back and forth between both of them.
- [33:01]
B
I mean, and I did it an hour and ten walk this morning. I'll do one tonight. I got the trainer later today. I literally, like, I've kind of put these things into motion where my trainer can't stand it if I don't show up and I'm not on time. And if I had a guy that was super easy on me and said, don't worry, you can miss whenever you want. That's not my type of personality, that there's this voice in my head that makes things difficult when I set them up. And yes, sometimes I regret it. Sometimes I'm like, man, I wish I could just call him and he'd understand. But other times, 90% of the time I'm like, I'm glad I made it difficult. I'm glad I have people that hold me accountable. I'm glad there's people that care because it's another form of caring. And when I'm at the best state of mind is when I set these things up and I find a trainer or a chef that's going to say, no, I'm not going to let you screw off and eat this. You told me you wanted this. I'm going to hold you accountable if you don't want me to. I'm probably not the right guy for you. Because this one.
- [33:54]
A
That's one thing I'm struggling with, Tommy. That's the one thing in my life, man, that I've been through a lot of, but I am still struggling with my food and my exercise, man. I got to get this thing under control because I feel like I have a lot of other good things in my life going on. And it's like, that's my last. It was like one of my first addictions, and I feel like it's my last one that I got to really let go of. And so I've been struggling with that myself.
- [34:17]
B
I'll give you. I'll give you a couple of quick tips. Number one, go to DEXA scan. Get a Dex of it again. They got them all over the country. It'll go ahead and show you. They'll tell you your body fat and your visceral fat and the health issues that go along with visceral fat around your organs. And they're probably going to say, like they did with me, you're considered obese.
- [34:39]
A
Well, I really. I mean, I am obese. I mean, like, Like, I mean, for them to say you're obese is a little bit. You know, that's. That's a stretch. But I mean, I am obese. I'm over 300 pound.
- [34:50]
B
So I'm going to get the DEXA scan tomorrow, see how much progress I made. But that's a good. When Bri went to do it, she was like crying on the phone and she goes, this is enough for me to change. I read between the lines. She hired a personal trainer the next day and she got very serious. She didn't drink. She. We got rid of everything in the house. We had to do it together because quite frankly, when she kept. And she wasn't like a sweet tooth, but she kept Oreo and chocolate chip cookies and every type of Pringles. When people came over, we just got rid of it and just said, if people want that stuff, bring it. And, you know, we don't mind it in the house. There's more alcohol in the house, you know, for a whole tribe. Like, literally. I'm never like, man, I really, really feel the temptation to go make a drink right now. So that. But food is so convenient. It's like, hey, I feel like it's some chips. And sometimes you do it without even noticing. So I think it's gotta be. The other thing is you gotta do it together with everyone in your household. It's not as easy with kids, but your significant other, the Other quick thing is just simply getting, just going on a walk. You don't even need to do it. Find a, find a radio station, find a book. You like in Mother Nature. I started doing that and it's like I enjoy it. I actually love it. I don't sprint, I walk pretty fast and it flies by. And man, I got this aura ring. This is the other thing an aura ring.
- [36:11]
A
Told me about that.
- [36:13]
B
Get an Oura ring. It'll tell you how you're sleeping. It's deadly accurate with that and it still tells you your steps, which are pretty accurate. Rethinks the Apple watch and some other things are more accurate. At least it's a baseline. And those little things of knowing where you're at. If you knew you were going to go bankrupt because of your KPIs, of what's on your financials, you probably need a shift. And I feel like I'm a KPI driven, data driven guy. So knowing the data, knowing that I can affect it, I will say the chef logs into this app and tracks the macros for me. And I got great people telling me what to do. I would tell you the day you get a compliment and it just becomes better and better is great, but the way that you feel is a thousand times better than the compliments you get. I have more energy. My brain fog is gone. Like I could deep think for way longer. I go to sleep Now, Benny at 10:00, I'm asleep by 10:25, like my brain's not racing. Like I'm getting seven hours of sleep consistently. And by the way, there's a few hours within that time that my body's making all the hormones my body needs to function. And if you're getting less than 7, it does not work. I got great people around me. I started working with Sean Michael Crane just for daily motivation and ideas on how to stay motivated and not skip. So him in my ear chap. And I'm on the right supplements. So my testosterone was super low. And people are like, oh, he's probably on steroids. Well, testosterone therapy, by the way, is getting your testosterone the same was when you were 25. It's not taking excessive because then it turns anabolic. But when you're taking enough to when you were 25, you could say it helps you become. You've got energy again. But if people are like, man, that's cheating. They don't really understand how the hormones work. I had a leaky gut. My body wasn't synthesizing protein properly. All these Factors once they're working and the chemicals are working and I'm getting the sleep and water and nutrients, this feeling is what everybody should experience because they'll never go back, they'll never gonna want. You don't crave the food you used to crave. And I look at packaging now. I look at the frickin back of cans and I look at the things, I looked at these things of pistachios about a month and a half ago and it had four servings in it of 400 calories. I'm on a, sometimes on a treadmill, sometimes on a walk. It takes me an hour to burn 500. That would have taken me three hours and 20 minutes to burn a little thing that I could have pounded the whole thing of pistachios if I really like just chewing and swallowing. And now I'm like, how good is this little fix? How good is this little fix for how much work it takes? It's just a little bit of discipline, Just a little bit of discipline. And discipline will outdo motivation. I truly believe that. And that's when I get the biggest dopamine release. That discipline actually becomes a dopamine machine. I, I didn't know this was going to happen. I'm not David Goggins. I'm not trying to be this, this guy that's like, I'm going to work, I'm going to run a hundred miles a day, I'm not going to have fun. Life is more, I, I don't believe in that. But these little sacrifices add up to be a massive, massive deal. And I wasn't happy with myself in the mirror. I wasn't happy with the way I felt. And when I was drinking heavily, man, these little things used to give me, I didn't realize at the time, but they'd give me a lot of anxiety. Like I think about the worst and things. And now I had the private equity call company call me up. He goes, I really need to talk to you tomorrow about some stuff. I did not to give two shits. I was like, dude, we're crushing every number he's ever given. I guarantee you if I had been hungover or drinking, I would have been like, what is this? What is that? I would have been worried like crazy. It was nothing. I talked to the next day, he told me how great we're doing. It was really optimistic, but I didn't have the fear. It's just this mental clarity. And when you find it, it's like, I think when you really get it and you go all in and you start to feel the change. After 90 days, you'll never crave going back again. It becomes permanent and it's not that hard. It becomes part of your daily routine. It's not like I'm running to, my nails are falling off and I'm just pushing it to the edge every day because that's not sustainable. But that's a little bit that I think you'll get to. One of the things that you've done a great job is you got access now because of your personal brand, the podcast, the stages, the relationships. And I meet a lot of people that really, and this is not you, by the way, but a lot of people that really, they haven't been uber successful in business, but they're connected and they do podcasts and they're interesting and their whole life changes because they change their circle. And all of a sudden they start becoming more than they ever thought possible. That's the fastest hack I've ever seen. It gets you 10,000 home runs. Instead of skipping a second base is you get more access and you start listening to people and taking notes and it gives you new ideas and they're good ideas and you can become an influencer. And personal brand is so important. Talk to me a little bit about how much your personal brand has affected your success.
- [41:27]
A
Well, you know, there's the, I always call it. There's the, there's the before, the awareness of the personal brand and there's like now I'm aware of the personal brand. Right. And so, you know, when I, when I moved to Pittsburgh, you know, I didn't know one single person. And so I didn't know it at the time, but when I got on Facebook, I was building a personal brand by being a good human and putting good value out in the world and helping people and, and making sure. And then to throw a little fire on that, just, you know, broadcasting that a little bit right now, you know, like shouting it out from the rooftops, which was always, it felt a little bit self serving in the beginning. But when I watched Gary do it, I was like, you know what, He's a good guy, he's doing good things. He just happens to be broadcasting it because like no one else is coming that, you know, CNN and Fox News isn't coming to do pieces on them every day. And if they were, it was probably going to be about bad stuff. And so learning how to, you know, do that and shine a light on other people, whether that's people in your company, your customers, Your coworkers, your family, showing people, you know, other experiences and just, you know, putting good stuff out in the world and just keep doing that, compounding it consistently over time. And I believe that it wasn't until about three years ago, right, one again, I take that moment when my brother got killed of a moment of where I sat still. This is a year into Covid and then another three weeks where I was in Ohio and I was just thinking about life and I was like, I created this cool company and you know, I had some identity tied to it, to where, like, you know, I felt like when it was doing good, I was doing good. When it wasn't doing good, I wasn't doing good, I was like, I didn't like that. Like, how do I detach from that? How do I take my face down off the company, right, and just, and just let the logo shine, let the people shine and let other people just kind of push that mission and then what could I do? You know, I had this crazy, you know, just start a podcast. And so when I started the podcast, it was really just more of a curiosity thing of because I was really curious about people's stories and I wanted to learn more about other humans and I wanted to be present. And I figured, like, hey, anytime I can get one person in a box for an hour, just me and them, like, it's really cool because that doesn't really happen that often, you know, to where you're just having a one on one conversation with somebody like that. And so. And I realized that, man, I'm gonna be able to grow. I'm gonna be able to take some of the success I had in my company. I'll be able to invest that because, you know, I haven't made a dollar on my podcast. I don't know if you make money on your podcast, but it's all self funded over here, buddy, which is fine. You know, I took, I took, I'm investing in that podcast, probably paying around 40 grand a year to like, you know, production video guys, you know, doing all the things. And I realized that like, man, people need to hear that. And so when you start to build the connections and the networking, right? And you know, here I am, you know, getting to, you know, be on your show. I was, you know, you were on my show earlier. Some of the other people that we've met, you know, you mentioned Dan Martell. I hope to have him as a guest one day. A little afraid of him because he's gonna start telling me about macros and working out and, you know, getting skinny and stuff like that, which is probably what I need. But yeah, that personal brand is just basically a more of a reflection of who you are and kind of like your. It's like your living, walking, dynamic Google review of, like, who you are as a person. And everyone has a personal brand, whether they think they do or not. It's just maybe no one knows about it and maybe, maybe you don't like your personal brand because maybe you don't like the way that you're being, or maybe you're being inauthentic and maybe you're trying to be like somebody else because you think that's what gets all the clicks. Because I can tell you one thing, I don't get that many clicks. I don't get that many subscribers. I don't get that many, you know, compared to some of the other people I hang out with. And I'm okay with that because I'm just being me. And like, eventually, you know, my tribe of people will be. If it's. If it's a group of two people, great. If it's a group of 2,000, great. If it's 2 million, awesome. But I've learned just to keep being me. And that's the best personal brand you can have.
- [45:24]
B
Yeah, I don't. I will say making money off the podcast was not the goal, but building a one through the podcast, I'll just tell you. I got. When I had problems in the business, I go to my team and say, I need somebody that's an expert in hr. I need somebody that's an expert in affiliate marketing or a Google LSA expert, or I want to talk to someone about hiring, they go out and find the top person. And I use that for consulting. And somehow I'd get like a bestseller that wrote like the top 10 books on it and they liked podcasts. When I came out with my podcast in 2017, so I didn't make money, but the value I've gotten has been a thousand time x and now it's how many relationships have I built because of this? Being on a podcast or getting someone on a podcast and access, it's hard to put a dollar value on it. But the education, you know, really becoming wealthy, whether that's wealthy in love wealthy and money wealthy and experience wealthy in life, is really about who you become in the process, because no one will ever take that away from you. And becoming the man I needed to become through this process is what it's developed and the seeking of education. And now I will say podcasting as much as me and you do, really? I don't read as much. I used to read two books a week, and now I've got more books probably on my shelf that I haven't read. Because, I mean, there's not. There's some weeks I'm on 10 podcasts, and then I've got my podcast, and that could be some serious. Some of them are 20 minutes, some of them are 10 minutes. Some of them are hour and a half. So.
- [47:04]
A
But you're learning, right? You're taking someone's. You're taking someone's life's work and condensing it down into either 15 minutes, all the way to 90 minutes, you're getting the bullets, because that's all you're. And you're going to walk away with at least one. You are going to walk away with one nugget. Your audience is going to have endless nuggets, and then you have it recorded. So that way, if you ever say, hey, what did that guy say that. What did. What did Geno Wickman say that one day on that podcast, Like, I feel like I need that. I can't remember. Hey, Giuseppe, can you play that back for me? Like, boom.
- [47:33]
B
Yeah, exactly. It really is. It's like a. It's like an insight where I get to hack into the book. I get, like, the Cliff Note version, and I get the things that I want out of it, and I get to ask the author. It's better than the book in a lot of cases because I get to ask my questions.
- [47:49]
A
And it's so much better than just like, a regular meeting. Like, you know, like, oh, hey, let's go to lunch, or, hey, let's, you know, like, I just want to talk. You know, like, it's almost like it's the new. Like, it's the new. It's kind of cool, you know, But I believe that podcasting isn't for everybody. You know, there's a lot of people are like, oh, I need to start a podcast. I've watched a lot of people start podcast, get three episodes in and be like, oh, this is harder. I didn't get all the clicks that I wanted because they weren't really doing it. They weren't doing it for the right reasons, I would assume. Like, they. You know, I do it just because I genuinely love to chat with people like you. Like, no different than if we would have went to lunch together. But now at least we don't have to, like, worry about feeding our fat faces. Now we can just Talk and we can have it recorded because I look at this as. My kids will be able to watch this one day if they are ever so inclined, you know, probably 50 years from now, probably not anytime soon, but I just think it's kind of cool to kind of leave that. Leave that to the world. You know, your companies are going to be there. They're gonna. You're gonna see a glimpse, maybe if you've done a good job at your company. But at the end of the day, the podcast and the stories that you leave behind, I believe that'll be the best. That'll be the best part of the legacy that you can leave behind.
- [49:00]
B
100%. You know, I want to go back real quick a little bit to business, because, man, I've been through so many trials and errors, and I failed quickly, and I continue to fail quickly. What do you see? I think a lot of people, and this is just something I see all the time, is they don't have a plan to sell. And I love John Warlow. Built to sell. I love the automatic customer. I love that guy. And the thing that I love about him is like, you should plan on. If you look at this like an asset, a lot of people believe they could flip houses. You should flip businesses. I truly believe you should buy with the intent to sell. And a lot of people are like, I'm never going to sell, but they'll never have that. And the reason I say this is I give a lot of equity away. I don't give it away. People earn it, I should say. And they truly become owners of the business. And that's when they create financial freedom. Like this huge event breaks the family curse. It literally changes their family tree forever. And I think it's selfish not to do it. The way that I've learned how to do it two decades later is to have an event that everyone wins from. Not everybody in the company, but a lot of people. And then do it again and again and again. Because now you understand top down instead of bottom up. Sweat equity, you get the right people and share a lot of it. And I just think a lot of people don't have any idea. They're not thinking about selling. Because if I told you, Benny, you got to sell in two years, you'd be like, well, I got to get rid of this guy. I got to get focused on this. I got to get to the new trucks. I got to finally do that brand. I started talking about, I should probably expand to this market. I got to get more serious about this. People are just like. They use it as a lifestyle, and their life kind of just flies by, you know. What are your thoughts on that, man?
- [50:42]
A
So much to unpack there. So I understand why you have your beliefs, and I totally think that there is a segment of entrepreneurs out there that should do exactly that. They are built to start and build and flip and all that good stuff. But in saying that is, you know, more importantly, you know, if an entrepreneur. Because that's a very vague word nowadays, and they're not all built the same. And so there's a lot of people that are, you know, entrepreneurs that probably shouldn't be entrepreneurs. Oh, yeah. And so there's a lot of them. So, like, let's just assume we're not talking about them. Let's talk. Let's assume that we're talking about the real entrepreneurs. You know, the ones that have, you know, had more than 10 employees, maybe even five employees. I mean, as long as you get above five employees, I mean, like, you're dealing with some people problems, you know, not just customers, but also, you know, employees. It's like, all right. But I think at first is they have to have a vision for their own life and to figure out what that looks like. And a lot of us grew up in situations where, like, you know, mom and dad just had a regular job, you know, making regular wages and can't wait for social. I mean, they're literally excited about the day they turn 65 or whatever and can collect their Social Security. And so, first of all, you have to shift from that mindset to, like, all right, well, now anything's possible. But because. And now more and more, we're gonna, you know, we're around peer groups. We get to hang out with guys like you. We get to. We get to learn from other people a little bit faster now because of the Internet and because of the way the world is. But back in the early days, like, you didn't. You were kind of just a lone ranger, and nobody. And everybody was taught not to talk about money. Everybody was talking not talk about things. And so, you know, I think one of the things I love this is why I love working with entrepreneurs. I don't care if you're starting out. I don't care if you're a billionaire. I feel like I can help you figure out, like, whatever your dreams are and whatever your passions are. I feel like I can help you understand, like, what that looks like and figure out where you're at now and then figure out the path in between there. Like, hey, you're gonna have to do this, this, and this. I don't necessarily maybe want that path for my life. Like, you know, I, I hear about your vision, I hear about all that stuff and sounds like I want to be your best friend. I can tell you that. Like, that's, that's, that's when I, when I hear what Tommy Mello is doing, I'm like, you know what? I want to support Tommy Mellow. I would love to be on Tommy Mellow's team somewhere. I do not want to be Tommy Mello because that, you know, there's a couple things in there I'm not necessarily wired for. Does that make it good or bad? I don't know. I think that as long as you know exactly what you want and you have that 10 year thinking in mind, you know, whether it's 25 years or three years, you know, some of us. I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs, they can't even think about next year. So, like, getting them to think a little bit bigger and then getting them out of, like, being an employee in their business is the first step. Oh, yeah. Just trying to get them, like, kind of like where I'm at right now. Like, I don't have a $200 million company. I have a nice, solid $8 to $10 million company.
- [53:32]
B
It's.
- [53:32]
A
I don't. I'm spending two hours a month on a leadership meeting. I do two hours with my integrator and CFO at a dinner, and that's it, you know, And I do some quarterly planning and stuff like that. But I'm just seeing what that world looks like for a little bit while I kind of heal and kind of chill and kind of build the podcast and the personal brand. And I really love helping entrepreneurs. Like, it is. Like, I love it. Like, I like, I love it. I can't get enough of it. If I can hire an entrepreneur or find another entrepreneur that wants to run my company and be the CEO of Big Fish Contracting, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for somebody that wants to take Big Fish Contracting to the moon, But I don't think that's me. I think I just want to empower that person. Right? And I want to then go connect with my buddies like Tommy and, and who's our buddy? Our boy, Lance Bachman. I saw you speaking at his new conference, the roofing process conference. I saw you on the ticket. So, you know, I want to be around other people, right? I don't want to just sit in my own little Vacuum. Right. I want to see what other people's worlds look like. I want to be part of that. You know, one of my dreams is. But I just started thinking about this. I'd rather own. I'd rather be a 10% owner in 10 companies than have one company be 100% owner. And so now I'm looking for opportunities, whether it's through, you know, podcasting, to consulting, consulting to equity, you know, whatever that path looks like, to be able to help other people with their business, because I don't necessarily want to have to be the man anymore. I don't want to be the man. I'd rather help the man. Like that guy that's out there that wants to build a $200 million roofing company. Dude, I want to be like your cheerleader. I want to be right behind you. I want to be pushing you out the door. And. And I think that's okay, too, you know, But I do like the idea of, like, the whole, you know, like, Gary Vee goes and flips baseball cards at garage sales. I mean, you should be able to flip businesses. And I think if you go with that in mind in the beginning and you put yourself a deadline, just kind of like a workout thing, you know, when you got all your results back, you were pissed off, you were sick to your stomach. I don't want to be like that. Like, here's what winning looks like. And you reverse engineered a plan to get you to your health optimization, Right? And that's no different than, like, hey, I want to. If I want to go from $200 million garage door business to $1 billion garage door business. All right, well, that's what I want to do. Great. Well, here's what I got to do. Boom, boom, boom, boom. All right, I got the blinders on. I got the. You know, I can say no a lot more often now. You know, I don't have to say yes to the things that don't fit inside of that path. Right. And. Yeah.
- [55:57]
B
Well, I will say this with a caveat. I shook the hands of a PE Company that had pension funds and other money depending on me. I signed up for this. I'm the CEO. Now, if I was an investor, just an investor, it'd be different. But it's my job to run this company, and there's a lot of people's futures depending on me doing what I said I was going to do. I signed up for the pressure, and I'm good with it, and I'll get us to the promised land. But this Isn't my life forever.
- [56:27]
A
But you're aware. But you're a rare human that has the ability to be able to do that. There are very few. Like, you're like, what I. Like if I'm watching a movie, like a. Back in the old days, like, you're that warrior. You're that, that gladiator. Like, there's one. Like, there's like one. There's not. You know, Russell Crowe was the gladiator, right? There wasn't. There wasn't a. There wasn't 20 Russell Crows in the movie. There was one. And that's just kind of the way. But there's a lot of good number twos and number threes and, you know, you get to certain levels and you know, like, I don't. I don't believe that I'll ever be the CEO of a billion dollar company. I don't even believe I even want that. I don't even. Like, that doesn't even get me excited. There's nothing that, like, is exciting. But if that's you, and I think it is you, and I can tell that it's you because I can see every time that you talk about that how passionate you are about the mission. By God, man, like, who, who wouldn't want to come work for Tommy Mello and get behind that train? I mean, you got like, that's, that's, that's everything you could want.
- [57:22]
B
Well, it's. It's definitely. There's challenges with it. And I. But, but listen, it's. It's the team. Anybody that believes that I don't have some of the best human beings that are driving in the same direction, running the same way as I am, like, there's no way at this point I could have done 20 million pretty easily. Just brute force and will and discipline. But to get to this level is. It's an army. And the number one choice I have today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next quarter is how do I attract more talent. That's been where I want to go and how do I make.
- [57:56]
A
You're literally doing it, though, even, like right now. Like, right now, like, I'd sign up to come work for you. It's that you're that passionate about it. Like, you're going to get people at higher levels that never thought about, like, yeah, I don't want to be on my own. Why would I want to do this thing? Why would I want to have a $20 million company on my own when I could be part of a billion dollar company with a guy Like, Tommy, mellow at the front. Like, I get it. Like, it's because being the top guy is not always what it's all cracked up to be. And you're going to see guys in Home Improvement and through your podcast and through all the stages that you speak on, they're going to be like, all right, Tommy, I'm ready to, like, you know, I'm ready not to be the man anymore because I don't want all this pressure. I'd rather take, like a department or a location, and under your leadership, like, we can grow it. Right?
- [58:38]
B
No, that's another way the podcast gives back 100% and the stages give back and the books give back is because I've got. Out of the 32 guys training, 16 of them chose to be here because they've heard about me or listened to me. And I hope that that's 100 very soon, in a month. And it's not something that I expect. It's an honor, but it's something I carry. And I believe that I should be paying back the people. These are my family here at a one and every business I'm involved in. Benny, I told you that my trainer's gonna kill me. And he's 30 minutes away, and it's 25 minutes till I'm supposed to be there.
- [59:16]
A
Let's wrap it up.
- [59:16]
B
I wanna do this again. Dude, I love talking to you. I didn't ask. I have 20 questions I was supposed to ask. But when these podcasts happen and we just have a conversation and people get to know you, it's so much better. And you know how this goes. You do this all the time. And I think people actually enjoy the fact I didn't ask any questions, because maybe they have ideas, but they could reach out to you. Speaking of which, if they want to reach out to you, what's the best way to get a hold of you, Benny?
- [59:44]
A
Just go to benny fisher.com. all the socials are there. Podcast is there, Mastermind is there. Speaking is there? Yeah. Benny Fisher dot com. Pretty simple.
- [59:54]
B
And I always let my guests close out. Man, we talked about, you know, here's the cool thing. I'm a broke guy, originally from Detroit, Good parents, but things didn't always go right. Shovel, snow mode, lawn wash, dishes. We're at a good place right now. I'm the happiest I've ever been, if that's the thing. I'm the most content. I look forward to tomorrow. The most I've ever been. You've been through way more than I've been through. The point is, if we could do it, anybody with a brain and focus and discipline could do it. But I want you to close us out with whatever maybe we missed or something. You want to just let the listeners know. As a final thought, I would say.
- [60:31]
A
That love is the answer to everything and starts with loving yourself and then loving others. And if you could lead with love and try to make decisions out of love and not fear, you'll be in a better place than you were yesterday.
- [60:46]
B
I love it. Well, listen, Benny, it's been an honor to have you on. I really appreciate your time. I will be reaching out to you. Give me a call this week. Let's touch base. I want to spend more time with you. I love what you're doing. I love your. Your whole mentality and just who you are as a person. So I appreciate you. I'm going to go rip out of here and Raul's going to drive me at the speed of light to the gym.
- [61:13]
A
Sounds good, man. Thanks for having me.
- [61:15]
B
All right, brother, let's chat this week.
- [61:18]
A
See you.
- [61:23]
B
Hey there. Thanks for tuning into the podcast. Before I let you go, I want to let everybody know that Elevate is 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 elevate and win.com podcast and grab a copy of the book. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch up with you next time on the podcast.