I Overdosed and Became a Millionaire FT. Thomas Procopovich

Summary

Podcast Summary: "I Overdosed and Became a Millionaire FT. Thomas Procopovich"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
• Host/Author: Paul Alex Espinoza
• Episode Title: I Overdosed and Became a Millionaire FT. Thomas Procopovich
• Release Date: March 1, 2025

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1. Introduction

In this compelling episode of "The Level Up Podcast," host Paul Alex Espinoza welcomes Thomas Prokopovich (Tommy), a remarkable individual who transformed his life from battling severe drug addiction to becoming a multimillionaire sales consultant. Tommy shares his inspiring journey, offering valuable insights into overcoming adversity, building a successful career in sales, and personal development.

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2. Guest Background and Early Life (00:00 - 05:27)

Tommy Prokopovich opens up about his roots, being born in Venezuela and migrating to the United States as an illegal immigrant at the tender age of two. Growing up in Florida for nearly three decades, Tommy endured a scarcity mindset ingrained in his Hispanic upbringing. Despite excelling academically with a 4.25 GPA in high school and earning scholarships, his undocumented status barred him from pursuing higher education and obtaining a driver's license, leaving him in constant uncertainty about his future.

Notable Quote:

"I was living in a panic mode... trying to figure myself out for a very long time." – Tommy Prokopovich [02:41]

Tommy’s parents worked tirelessly—his mother as a house cleaner and his father as a handyman. As the eldest sibling, Tommy felt the weight of not wanting to replicate the struggles of his family, setting the stage for his future endeavors.

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3. Challenges and Addiction (19:29 - 30:50)

Tommy candidly discusses his 16-year battle with drug addiction, starting at age 17 with painkillers and escalating to heroin and fentanyl. Despite maintaining a successful career in sales with Royal Caribbean, his addiction spiraled, leading to four overdoses. The turning point came during the Covid-19 pandemic when the travel industry collapsed, pushing Tommy to confront his demons. His fourth overdose in October 2021 was a near-fatal incident saved by his wife, Sierra, highlighting the devastating impact of addiction.

Notable Quote:

"Addiction is a disease designed to take you out no matter what." – Tommy Prokopovich [20:34]

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4. Entry into Sales and Early Success (14:00 - 16:32)

Before his transformative journey, Tommy had experience in phone-based sales with companies like Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean, where his determination landed him a top sales spot despite initial resistance. However, the pandemic's onset forced him to pivot, leading him to automotive sales with Toyota. Despite a rocky start—earning just $600 in his first month—Tommy's perseverance saw him rapidly improve, setting the stage for his eventual breakthrough.

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5. Meeting Andy Elliott and Turning Point (18:18 - 28:57)

While working at Toyota, Tommy discovered Andy Elliott's sales training videos on YouTube, which instilled a newfound sense of hope and ambition. Motivated by Elliott's message, Tommy invested in Elliott’s program, resulting in earning $17,500 in his first month from the training. His commitment led him to attend an Andy Elliott event in May 2021, where he expressed his desire to join Elliott's sales team. Although initially encouraged to continue personal development, Tommy's struggle with addiction persisted until his life took a critical turn.

Notable Quote:

"Hope dealers because I like that he gives people a chance to want to believe again." – Tommy Prokopovich [18:40]

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6. Overcoming Addiction (28:57 - 43:09)

Despite initial progress, Tommy succumbed to addiction, leading to his final overdose. Sierra's swift intervention saved his life, prompting a pivotal moment of self-realization. Determined to change, Tommy and Sierra moved to Arizona in March 2022 to fully commit to Andy Elliott's mentorship. This relocation marked the beginning of Tommy's disciplined approach to sales and personal development, propelling him to become the top salesman within a year.

Notable Quote:

"Do it now. Do it right now. Do it now." – Tommy Prokopovich [71:51]

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7. Relocation and New Beginnings (36:22 - 44:45)

In March 2022, Tommy and Sierra relocated to Arizona, leaving behind their previous lives in Florida. This bold move was fueled by Tommy's commitment to Andy Elliott's vision and mentorship. Despite initial challenges, including limited financial resources and adapting to a new environment, Tommy's dedication saw him thrive. Within his new Toyota dealership, he leveraged Andy Elliott's training, adopting a proactive approach by treating the dealership as his own and fostering strong relationships within the team.

Notable Quote:

"I just started like becoming as if I owned the spot." – Tommy Prokopovich [44:16]

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8. Transformation and Success in Sales (44:45 - 46:46)

Tommy's relentless work ethic and strategic application of sales techniques led to phenomenal success. By his third month at the Arizona dealership, he ranked as the number one salesman, generating up to $27,000 in commission monthly. His transformation extended beyond sales, as he grew physically from 145 pounds to 205 pounds, embodying the disciplined and driven individual he aspired to be.

Notable Quote:

"I'm a completely different person. I was clean now." – Tommy Prokopovich [46:46]

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9. Relationship and Support System (46:46 - 57:53)

Tommy emphasizes the pivotal role of his wife, Sierra, in his recovery and success. Her unwavering support and belief in his potential were crucial in his journey from addiction to entrepreneurship. Together, they relocated, built a power couple brand, and continue to support each other's growth. Their partnership exemplifies the impact of a strong support system in achieving personal and professional milestones.

Notable Quote:

"She's a good woman... Why wouldn't you wife her up?" – Tommy Prokopovich [58:02]

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10. Future Vision and Goals (58:54 - 65:47)

Looking ahead, Tommy envisions expanding his influence within Andy Elliott's company and building his personal brand. His goals include becoming a worldwide speaker, managing larger teams, and establishing multiple successful businesses. Emphasizing continuous personal development, Tommy and Sierra aim to inspire others by sharing their transformative journey and fostering a community of empowered entrepreneurs.

Notable Quote:

"We're going to build our brand. We're going to build ourselves as a power couple too." – Tommy Prokopovich [59:05]

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11. Advice and Takeaways (65:47 - End)

Tommy offers actionable advice for listeners seeking to overcome obstacles and advance in their careers:

1. Take Immediate Action: Overcome procrastination by acting on your goals right away.
2. Master Fundamentals: Focus on maintaining discipline in food, sleep, and exercise to build a strong foundation.
3. Find a Mentor or Community: Surround yourself with individuals who inspire and support your growth.
4. Develop a Relationship with Faith: For Tommy, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ played a significant role in his transformation.
5. Identify Your Future Self: Visualize and embody the person you aspire to become to guide your daily decisions.

Notable Quotes:

• "Do it now. Do it right now. Do it now."
• "If you can just start doing things right now, you will begin to change."
• "The one who changes internally will see changes externally."

Tommy's journey underscores the power of resilience, the importance of a supportive partner, and the transformative impact of strategic mentorship and personal development.

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Conclusion

Tommy Prokopovich's story on "The Level Up Podcast" is a testament to human resilience and the possibility of profound personal transformation. From battling addiction and financial instability to achieving multimillion-dollar success and personal fulfillment, Tommy's journey offers invaluable lessons for anyone striving to level up in life and business.

Connect with Tommy and Sierra:

• Tommy Proko: Instagram
• Sierra Proko: Instagram

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If you found Tommy's story inspiring, consider subscribing to "The Level Up Podcast" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Leave a five-star review to help spread the word and support future episodes that empower entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey, guys, Paul Alex here with the Level of podcast. I have a special guest with me today, guys. He goes by the name of Tommy. He's going to formally introduce himself, but he is part of the largest sales team in the United States and soon to be worldwide with Andy Elliot. Guys. Okay. And we were able to meet at Andy Elliott's Brotherhood, which is his inner circle. And he's such a badass person. Genuine, guys. He's going to add a lot of value to you guys. So make sure to stay tuned in for this entire interview because he's going to talk about sales, he's going to talk about belief. He's going to talk about how he was able to go ahead and transform his life from absolutely going ahead and not having any direction in life to now being a multimillionaire sales consultant for one of the biggest sales trainers in the world. Tommy, welcome to the show, brother. What's going on, my man?

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

So for everybody watching right now, it's.

[B]

A real warm welcome.

[A]

Hey, man, I gotta do a. Dude. I'm old school, you know, I'm an old school millennial. So I like to give those formal introductions and I feel like when I listen to podcasts now, it's not like back in the day, dude, like, you know, human to human interaction. So this is gonna be a good one. I know it is, because you feel it too. Yeah, dude. So for the people watching right now, tell them who you are, dude. Tell them where you're from and just a general overview of, of where you come from.

[B]

Well, my name is Tommy Prokopovich. I was born in Venezuela. I was actually a illegal immigrant. I came to the States when I was two years old here to Florida. Actually lived in Florida for like 29 years. But 20 of those years, I was an illegal immigrant for very long time. Didn't come from money. You know, things are, you know, and you know how Hispanic upbringings and everything is very like, I hate to say, but it comes from a, like, very scarcity lack mindset, at least within my family. And it's pretty common within a lot of Hispanic families because they're just brought into like work and work and work. And it is a Lot of labor jobs too, but came down here, didn't really have the ability to, like, I didn't really have a leading example for a very long time. I just knew that I didn't want to be like my parents growing up.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For a very long time. You know, always like, hey, be careful with your clothes. You know, make sure that you, you know, you're eating your food properly. Cause this is all the food that we have. Don't leave any leftovers. And it was always like a very lack scarcity mindset. And it just didn't fit well with me for a very long time. And of course, going to school, I was. I didn't have the ability to go to college, so I went to school, got really good grades in high school, had a 4.25 GPA, scholarships and everything too. But I couldn't tangle because I didn't have a driver's license. And I was social, I was illegal. So the whole time I'm living in a panic mode. I was living from. Didn't want to be like my parents, trying to figure out my identity. Couldn't go to college, even though I was a good student. And I was really just trying to figure myself out for a very long time.

[A]

Dude. So let's break down the picture here, guys. So. So how old are you right now?

[B]

I turned 34 in two weeks.

[A]

34. Still a baby, guys. Still a baby. Okay, so at 34 now, you are a US citizen?

[B]

Yes, I am.

[A]

Okay, when did you become a US citizen?

[B]

Like, two months ago.

[A]

Two months ago, guys. So at the age of 34, I'm an American now. Dalby is a multimillionaire American. Okay. And this is from being an illegal in the United States, having good grades, trying to live the American dream, but not being able to. Not being able to have a driver's license, not being able to have the same opportunities as people who are born here, like myself. Dude, I was born here. I was blessed to be born here. My parents, they came from Peru, they came from Mexico. They worked hard. They told me, hey, go, go, go out there. But I was lost. But with you, you seem like you had a good head in your shoulders. You're a smart guy. So what did your parents do back then when you were a kid?

[B]

Dude, my mom cleaned houses. She still cleans houses to this day, which I'm working on retiring. Her too?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Borrow her a dream car. Yeah, so that was awesome. My dad is still kind of doing like, he's like an independent contractor. Like, he's Just, like, fixing things. Yeah. For like, kind of like a handyman.

[A]

Like a handyman. Yeah.

[B]

So he does that.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Still.

[A]

So. So they went ahead and they came to America. They built their family. And do you have any siblings?

[B]

Two sisters. Two sisters and a half brother.

[A]

And are you the youngest, oldest, middle?

[B]

I am the oldest out of my two sisters, and then my half brother's a little bit older than me from my dad's home.

[A]

Okay. All right. So you could. You could easily say probably your. Your mom's favorite, right?

[B]

I am her favorite.

[A]

That's the way it goes. That's the way it goes.

[B]

My youngest sister actually has two nieces.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then my mom still goes to. To my wife, and it's like, hey, when are you gonna get me? When are you gonna make me a grandma? It's like, you're already a grandma. Yeah, I'm just her favorite.

[A]

No, no, absolutely. So, in summary, this is your background. Now let's fast forward, and then we're gonna get into basically your story and how you were able to build up yourself to the point where you're at now. Okay, so in the past year, what is it that you do right now? Who are you associated with, and what are you going to accomplish in 2025? Just for the people that are listening watching this right now, and they're like, okay, cool. He has a very similar background as me, but what is he doing right now? Why is he on Paul's podcast? What are you going to tell him?

[B]

So I joined andy Elliott about 15 months ago. 14 months ago.

[A]

And who's Andy Elliott?

[B]

Andy Elliott is the example that I needed in my life. He's also the world's number one sales trainer, big brand, and he knows how to reach into people and help them change. He's someone that builds people up from nothing. And you'll find out a little bit more how he built me.

[A]

Yeah. So you work directly with Andy Elliott as his sales team, or what is it exactly that you do with Andy?

[B]

I am his top sales coach in his company. So what I do is I help with consulting, helping build sales teams, closing packages to help people recreate, to get better in sales, leadership, life coaching. If they're looking to better themselves on their mindset, on their identity, I mean, we do several things, helping people build their brand as well, so. But in reality, we just help build people or build teams, build companies.

[A]

I love that. So you guys assist building all types of companies. I know from like H Vac to auto sales, and initially Andy and you guys you guys started with auto sales, correct?

[B]

We, we, we started. So the way that we built the company, Andy now has a, now a nine figure business. He built a nine figure business within four years. The way we did it is we niche down. First we started in car sales. He was a car sales trainer. I mean he was a car salesman. Created a car sales training company. But then as we did that for the first year and a half, two years, then we went wide. Now we go from dog training, insurance, to real estate, to wholesale, to hotels, food and beverage, to coaching companies. I mean everything we cover everything. Yeah, services, roofing.

[A]

It's pretty impressive, man, because you know, the events that I've been to at Andy Elliott's facility in Scottsdale, Arizona and you guys, man, you guys are squared away. You guys remind me of good old days when I was in law enforcement. All my buddies that were like in the military, very, very paramilitary, like, hey, no joke, you guys are going to get it done. And I like that style. Not everybody does, but I like that style. Right, and with, with your guys organization, I mean, what are you guys doing as far as numbers right now?

[B]

As of right now, we're doing about 300 to 500,000 a day.

[A]

Okay, 300 to 5,000.

[B]

500 to 500.

[A]

$500,000 a day.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay. And that's gross revenue because you're going to get people on here, dude. You know how the Internet is. You got the haters and then you got the people that love you. So just for clarity purposes, that's gross profit. Guys. It's very doable to do this, especially when you have a phenomenal team. This is me coming from being in law enforcement to actually going ahead and building two eight figure companies in a six figure company. And I've also helped dozens of entrepreneurs do that. So when Tommy's saying 300 to $500,000 in sales and gross revenue, it's very possible there are people here in Miami that make $20 million a month. And this is just depends on what you do. If you're selling extremely high ticket, you know, like there's a couple guys what online right now, they're selling like private jets and they only have clienteles that are billionaires. I mean ultimately they're bringing in what, 50 million a month, right. And they're making crazy money. But for the average person, before I got onto entrepreneurship, and I'm sure before you got into entrepreneurship, this was unheard of, bro.

[B]

Yeah, it's unheard of.

[A]

Yeah, it's unheard of.

[B]

So like especially For a company like, I feel like we're, we. It's crazy because since we were growing so fast, like we didn't have our systems dialed in. Yeah, we have now. And I feel like everything just started growing within the last two years is when we really started like creating the, the company. I mean before we didn't even have a CRM for two years. Yeah, I'm saying it was like, you know, Excel and everything until we started dialing everything down. And when you start dialing everything down, it changes. One thing we did have though, the reason why we grew is we had a standard, we had values inside of the company. There's no complaining in our office, there's no gossiping. We're coming there to work and it's to work. We're there to change people's lives. And we didn't get started in business to make money. We got started in business to help people change. We were so addicted to helping people recreate. Cuz we created recreated in the program that we felt like it was up to us to start taking it to a whole different level because there were so many people reaching out to us because we built the brand almost by accident.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And he was just posting online and then all of a sudden he just started growing the brand. Now our brand generates us about 100 million plus views a month with over a thousand leads a day organically, I would say, you know, majority was practically all organic and we have a small percentage on paid ads.

[A]

I remember when I first heard of you guys and Andy, it was when I saw one of his ads. No, no, not one of his ads. It was his organic reels on Instagram. And this is, I mean, obviously I'm gonna tell you guys the story on how we met and how me and Tommy's relationship formed. And it's, dude, you're like, you're like a good homie of mine now. But so I was sitting one day at the office, I'm looking on Instagram and all of a sudden I hear Andy say take off your shirt to, to some random kid at one of his events. And I'm like, what the hell did this guy just said? And that's what caught my attention, guys. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, everybody that's interested in marketing, anybody who's looking to be a marketing expert, you know, bad publicity, good publicity, it's all great publicity, especially if you want to get to be known. And me coming from being an owner that is heavy behind digital marketing. I'm such a Big believer, dude. Especially being a full time entrepreneur for the past four years now I focus on just basically social media marketing because number one is the path of least resistance. You could take an average person like myself, like Tommy, and you could go viral with just one reel and then all of a sudden that jump starts you and jump starts your business. And that could be for any entrepreneur out there. But you have to be willing to go ahead and put yourself out there, right? And that's what Andy did. Andy put the content out there. He focused on sales niched down, which is super smart, dude. Like that's very smart. Like right now guys, if you guys are trying to figure it out where you're trying to break into the online space or you want to be like an influencer or a consultant or a business coach, you know, there's a lot of people that make fun of people out there because they think they don't know what they're talking about. But when you niche down to a specific industry, like, like auto sales, like with me, I started with ATMs. I was known as the ATM guy, right? Hey, that's the ATM guy, right? Andy, he was known as a car sales guy. But then once you guys reach a certain plateau within the niche, right, like you killed it, then you could go ahead and go with, right. And grow the company into multiple different divisions, which is what you guys been able to execute in perfect action. Man, I love it. You know, I can relate so much to going ahead and starting with an Excel file. I can relate so much to starting with a notepad because that's how I started. I built. What is it, one of my businesses started at or reached 2 million the first year back in 2021. And I still remember it was three of us and a penthouse in San Diego. We had a small office and hey, we were just gung ho about growing a business, right? The startup mode, right?

[B]

You're hungry.

[A]

We were hungry. We were hungry, right? Because when it's everything new, it's everything, it's exciting and you want to go build this, this new venture and then now you get a little bit more money that you're not used to and you're just like, wow, like this is amazing. And then you're connecting with so many people and you're changing their lives and you're getting that fulfillment, which is cool, right? Compared to making a lot of Money on the 9 to 5. So with your story, dude, let me ask you, did you have any sales experience before you got hired on with Andy?

[B]

So I Did have sales experience to an extent. So I did sales for the travel industry, like Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean, but just like phone sales. Maybe a little bit venturing sales, too.

[A]

Okay. And how did you get into that?

[B]

I just submitted.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It's funny enough to get the job for Royal Caribbean. I actually just arrived there. They're like, hey, you need an appointment? I said, okay, well, I'm not leaving until I talk to the owner.

[A]

My man.

[B]

I know I can bring in a lot of value.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I. I can make the owner a lot of money. Just tell him to give me a chance. And then the security guy's like, we're going to have to kick you out. I'm like, I'm just going to sit right here.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And I just sat outside until an owner came out. And I just pitched myself and they're like, whoa, I like that you just came in here demanding a job. We'll give you a shot.

[A]

Amazing.

[B]

I did. And I became one of their top.

[A]

Reps. Well, dude, you, you, you didn't take.

[B]

You didn't. Overcomer.

[A]

I was going to say you're an overcomer, dude. You didn't lay down and just go ahead and. And had a victim mindset. Once you got a one single roadblock or a single. No. Right. And when in sales, you have to have tough skin in sales, you have to be, I'm not going to say aggressive, but you have to be able to hang in there because a lot of it is psychology. Right. So you did that and then how did you actually connect with.

[B]

So what ended up happening was I was at Royal Caribbean for about three years. Was doing very, very well. Around that time, I was doing like 110 to 160,000.

[A]

And around what year was this?

[B]

This is back in 2017 of 2020.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

All right.

[A]

So this is like right before the transition. Covid happened.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

That changed a lot of lives, right?

[B]

It did.

[A]

The world was different, dude. It freaking sucked for me. I was like in a dark cold. I was depressed when Covid hit.

[B]

Travel industry was destroyed. If Covid didn't hit, I wouldn't have embarked on this path.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

I wouldn't have decided to get clean and off drugs, which will cover that too.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right. But I covet hit. I lived off my savings for six months and my rent was like 2400 at the time. Living with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time. Me and Sierra been together for seven years. And at that point I might. Sierra's like, babe, you got to get A job. Like, we were just living off my savings. It's like, you got to figure something out. And I was trying to figure something out, but I. The thing is, I wasn't doing. I was trying. Right. And we always tell people, try, not just do. Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then I'm like, all right, let me just get a job. So I got a job as a car salesman.

[A]

Right.

[B]

First month sucked. Beat 600 bucks. And when I took home that money, the conversation with me and my wife.

[A]

And this was in 2020.

[B]

2020.

[A]

Okay, so in 2020, car salesmen, what type of cars were you selling?

[B]

Toyota.

[A]

Toyota. Okay. All right, so, guys, this is the real come up story right now with Tommy. And for you guys, know, you guys just tuning in right now, you know, Tommy comes from Florida, immigrant. Just got his citizenship, like, a few months ago at the age of 31.

[B]

I mean, I'm sorry, 33.

[A]

33. At the age of 33. Guys about to be 34 in a couple of weeks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, so at the end of the day, this is the land of opportunity. And I always tell people we're so grateful to go ahead and have the opportunity to actually be able to do what we want here, no matter what it is, what industry you guys are in. So when you guys are thinking, right now, my situation's messed up. No, it could always be worse. Okay, it could always be worse.

[B]

So.

[A]

So in 2020, you and your now wife, Sierra, you guys are living through six months of your savings, and you are. You're like, okay, I'm gonna transition because they closed all the cruise lines and I can't sell anymore. So my livelihood is on stake. You go work for Toyota. And did you know about car sales before that? No, Nothing.

[B]

You were just like, I'm a good salesperson. I'm gonna kick butt. You know, always that mental mentality.

[A]

How many. How many sales people did they have at the dealership at that time?

[B]

They only had 34 on this one.

[A]

Only 34?

[B]

Yeah. I say that because of the next transition that I had was a lot tougher.

[A]

Yeah. Okay, so how long were you at that Toyota dealership?

[B]

Like, a year.

[A]

A year. Okay. And did you kill it? Like, what. What was. What happened?

[B]

First month, made 600 bucks.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Went online and I got a program. Well, I went online saying how to sell better, like how to. How to get better at sales. And the video of Andy Elliott popped up on YouTube. And I guess, like, Andy was just really smart. You could use specific keywords or whatever.

[A]

So with the SEO and all that.

[B]

Yeah. And when that happened, I watched this video. I'm like, dang, this guy is freaking fired, bro. Like, he's speaking to me right now. Like, I want to be like this person. Like, the way he talks and influence and sells, like, how did he make.

[A]

You feel when, like, you first saw Andy on video? They like, like, I tell you exactly.

[B]

There's just one word I can say. Hope.

[A]

Hope.

[B]

We call ourselves hope dealers because I like that he gives people a chance to want to believe again.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And at that time. I don't know if you want me to go into the addiction part now.

[A]

Of course, dude. This is your story, man. This is the level of podcast. So, like, if you guys don't know, and you guys are listening in now to Tommy's phenomenal story, because this is. This is great. I only interview people that I know close. Other than that, I mean, you guys are getting five minutes of motivation every single day. So when we have these special interviews, it's because this person's the real deal. This person gets shit done. This person has overcome roadblocks. And if you're listening to this and you think you're in a bad situation, you think you can't go ahead and progress in your life, just stay tuned in and keep listening to Tommy's story because it's going to change your life. Go ahead, brother.

[B]

So to understand where I was at mentally, I'm going to backtrack a little bit from the beginning. When I was, I graduated 4.25 GPA. I couldn't go to college for three years because I didn't have a social. I ended up getting my social, my driver's lice license till I was 21. I was battling a drug addiction from the age of 17 till 31 years old. So that's 16 years, right? A 16 year long drug addiction. I started with painkillers and then it led to more difficult things like heroin, fentanyl. I was an IV user by. And I'll shortcut it a little bit, but by 2020, I had just. No, I'm sorry. By 2021, I had just gone through my fourth drug overdose. So I've overdosed four times and it was just a really hard moment at that point. At that time, when I transitioned to Toyota, the reason why it took me so long to find a job is because I was abusing drugs so no.

[A]

One would hire you.

[B]

It wasn't that.

[A]

It was just you weren't mentally there.

[B]

I wasn't mentally there or capable of once Covid hit. It's like I went deeper so that I've had certain periods of my time that I was like a functioning drug addict until my. My life became unmanageable, which is a lot of people that you think you can manage it, but you got to understand, addiction is a disease designed to take you out no matter what. It doesn't care how much you love someone. It doesn't matter if you have kids. It doesn't matter if you have that amazing job. If you're a CEO, if there's people depending on you, it's going to take you out no matter what and steal everything from you. And that's what it was happening to me. Sierra, at that point, didn't understand because I was hiding everything until when I got that job at Toyota. Got that. So Andy Elliott's video popped up. I was like, this is my chance again to reprove myself, that I can be a good person, that I. I do have what it takes in order to get out of this life. Because what this guy is talking about is really speaking to me. I bought a program for 300 bucks. The very next month, I made $17,500 from that program. And then it started putting me. And then I found personal development. This is why we talk about if you really want to change and you want to compress that time frame, you got to develop yourself. You know, we spend money on so many different things, but when you actually start spending money on you to get better, right? Don't wish for life to be easy. Wish to be better. If you were better, life is going to be easier. So then a lot of times we start asking the wrong questions. We're like, well, how are we going to get there? It's the wrong question. It's not how. It's the right question is who. Who can teach me the how? The person that changes the fact fastest is always going to win. So you. It's not about reinventing the wheel. It's about modeling a proven practice that's going to help you bridge and close that gap and compress that time frame. I found that the who, which was Andy Elliott. I started buying all these programs at that time. That year I did about $168,000. So it was the most money I ever made at that time. And I'm like, cool. And then I went to my first event. When I went to my first event, I was. Was like, I go up to Andy. I'm like, dude, I want to come work for you. Like. Like, this is what I want to Do. He's like, keep recreating. Right? And it was like that period. And then later that year, so now it's like, October 2021 is. Was my last overdose for my four drug overdose. My. My wife found me on the bathroom floor.

[A]

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that real quick. I want to get deep into, you know, this last overdose, because from what I recall, Sierra saved your life.

[B]

She did your wife.

[A]

Okay, so. So let's take a step back and talk about the day that you opened up. So you made the most money in your life, dude. $168,000 in 2020. You want to go meet one of your inspirations, Andy Elliott? At the time you tried getting a job with him, he was just like, bro, keep focusing on you first. And then you're. Are you still working at the Toyota dealership or did you transition to another dealership?

[B]

I was still working there. It's now. So I got started around Toyota. Around. It was like, around October of 2020.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I went to my first event, May of 2021. That's when I'm like, I want to go work for you. And he's like, keep recreating. Keep training. You're doing good. And he can also see something was up with me. I'm super skinny, you know, he could. He could see I was going through something, and I even opened up to him, like, dude, I'm addicted to drugs. Like, I need help.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

And he's like, dude, you got to get off the drugs. Like, you're worth it, man. Like, there was two people in my life that believed in me the most. Right?

[A]

My mom. Yeah.

[B]

She believed in me to a certain extent.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But the thing is, like, I didn't give her many reasons to believe in me because of what I put her through.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I mean, I was addicted to drugs for 16 years, and, yeah, she would catch me, and I would still do it, you know? So it was very hard on her for a very long time. But it's two people that believed in me that they saw something bigger inside of me that can become something great.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Which is my wife. My wife's here. And Andy. Yeah, Andy believed in me in a way where he gave me a lot of hope and a lot of belief in myself that I could get out of this and that I can become something great. And it was through his trainings that allowed me to change my perspective and focus on what I wanted. And for the first time, I'm like, I can do this. I can get off drugs.

[A]

So you meet Andy. He tells you to get off the drugs and to come back when you're clean, basically. And then you go back to the dealership. The day that you overdosed, what did you overdose on?

[B]

Fentanyl.

[A]

Fentanyl. Okay, let me ask you how. How was it possible, And I say this respectfully, man. How is it possible for you to be a functioning drug addict at that time? Like, dude, you're making money. There's a lot of people in the United States that are gonna watch this right now, and they're gonna be like, bro, I make $50,000. I'm a lazy piece of shit. Like, but this guy was using drugs and still killing it in sales. Can you explain to us, like, what was your thought process? What were you feeling, dude? Like, was it because it was pure addiction for the drug and like. Like, just walk us through that thought process.

[B]

Well, it was just an obsession, right? I mean, for. At that point, I mean, I think I was already at. I mean, 13 or 12 years into my addiction. Yeah, I believe 12, 13 years into my addiction and. Or 14 years, I don't even remember anymore. But at that point, point, I had stopped using needles already for, like, about a year, right. So I hadn't touched needles for a long time. So I was an IV user for 10 years. Destroyed my veins. I mean, I'm just getting my vascularity back in. The doctor saying it's going to take a little bit more time healing. Right? I think this didn't happen in a day. I was very vascular my whole life, and then just destroyed them through, you know, IV use is just one of the side effects. And that year after I met Andy, even though it's still used, it just. It wasn't. I would use. Deal with the withdrawal, be clean for a little bit, relapse, use for a period of time, deal with the withdrawal, get clean, relapse. And I was just a chronic relapse of relapse, relapse, relapse, like, consistently. So I had already gone through three drug overdoses. Now we're in. In 20, 21. I go to the event in May, come back, everything's good. Then July hits, start using again. So. And it just picked up. And the thing is, I wasn't really utilizing needles at that time. I was doing them in other ways, like smoking air or smarting it or whatever.

[A]

Do you believe it was because of the environment that you were in during that time? Like friends being, being.

[B]

It was 100. The current. Yeah, it was just all the people That I knew.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right. At that time, Sierra still didn't have a clear idea. I could tell Sierra, hey, babe, I'm just going to go meet this friend. She okay? I can't tell her that now. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? She's caught on big time on everything. Right. But she didn't know my patterns really. And at that time, I was still leveraging, like, oh, you know, I'm still bringing in money. Everything's all good. But I, I like, like I said, the, the addiction is just like, first you get that a craving, you get the thought, then you start obsessing. Now you're in the compulsion, you're acting it out, which is you're going to go pick up, you're going to go use. And like I said, this is. Isn't designed to kill you. It doesn't matter who's in the way or what you have going on, you're still going to keep doing it. Now my life did become unmanageable where I was falling asleep at work. Even though I'm like, I'm a functioning drug addict, there's people that would seem as like, dude, you're on drugs right now. Started becoming a problem. Work started finding out.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then one day, this is in October. That was the same month Andy offered me the job.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And I was just, I was pretending like everything was all good. And I remember I was on 441 here in Florida getting a tire put on. And he gives me a call and he's like, hey, I want you here in January. Pack your stuff and everything. You're gonna come work for me. I see that you're kicking ass. You're doing so good. I want you to come with me. Like, cool. So super excited. But then it's like I was a master self sabotager. It's like I self sabotage everything my way for so long. That same month, I think it could have been a weekend or a few days. I remember the exact time in October 2021, I was at Toyota. I went to go. I was living in Hollywood, Florida. We had a house there. And then when I was there, I had a lunch break with Sierra. Sierra's making food. I had picked up drugs, had a needle, decided after not using it for a year, hey, I'm gonna go shoot up.

[A]

Just like that, dude. During, during lunch, you were just like, just like that.

[B]

And that's the thing with addiction. It's just like the moment it gets inside your head, you're like already acting on it. Like, wow. I Was still really heavily addicted. I mean was 14 years of music. Yeah. And then I remember. I remember perfectly. When I was there, I didn't even finish it all the way. And then all of a sudden and I wake up on the floor, Sierra on top of me giving me cpr.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So what she told me because clearly I was out. When I went to the bathroom to go use. She says she was calling my name for 15 minutes and I wasn't answering. So that was just using the bathroom. The door is locked. She breaks down the door. I don't know how she did that, but you know, Sierra's a little girl.

[A]

She's tiny, dude. Yeah.

[B]

But she was filled with adrenaline because I'm not answering. So she was getting spooked out. She breaks down the door and finds me like a pretzel in between the. You know, there's a toilet and then there's the tub. And sometimes in a. It's like a half bathroom. That little space is very tiny. I was in between that and my. I had like a bump here because my head hit the. The faucet thing of the. Of the tub right where the water comes out. And she said like she saw me there and she sees the needle. She's never even known that was an IV user because I was hiding everything.

[A]

Dude. Sierra. She was praying like whole. Holy.

[B]

She was just like. She sees me gray.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Purple lip, like no oxygen, not breathing right. So she pulls me up with adrenaline, takes the needle on my arm, starts giving me cpr, trying to bring me back and at the same time calling the paramedics on speaker while she's doing this.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Gives them the address and everything.

[A]

She should have became a cop.

[B]

Yeah. I mean she reacted fast. If she didn't react fast, I would have been dead. Yeah. And then all the other times I didn't have that, I. I would just lose two hours of time and wake up in a puddle of jewel with a bruise on my face.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

On the other overdoses. But that time I think I would have died for sure.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Especially since she had to bring me back to like give me oxygen again. And like. Cuz I was like not breathing my heart rate. She said she couldn't feel it. When the paramedic says like, does he have the pulse? Like I can't feel his pulse. And like she told me the whole story. So she was really freaked out by that. She brings me back after doing. Doing this for 10 minutes. So I was unresponsive for 15. And then giving me CPR for 10 minutes. By the time I got up, I'm hearing a banging on my door. And it was the paramedics. And the first thing I told her was, who did you call? It wasn't like, hey, babe, I'm sorry. It was all about me, protecting me. Who did you call? Who did you tell about this? That's all I cared about, was a drug addiction. Yeah, we're very self centered, very selfish.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and I remember she's like, hysterically crying, and the paramedics come in, they're like, wait, did he just have a drug overdose? She's like, yeah. How is he awake right now? Yeah, they couldn't. They couldn't understand in the. In the health space. Medical.

[A]

No, you got. You got. You got blessed, dude. Because I'm gonna tell you this, man, like, one of the critical incidents that I had, and it's not to go into your story, but, you know, I had a fellow police officer during a raid that we did with this cocaine dealer, get hit with a ton of fennel that the guy was using, and it took three Narcans. Okay? Narcans. If you guys don't know what Narcan is, it's basically an antidote to help you when you overdose on an opiate, like fentanyl. Okay. Just a small grain of fentanyl can kill you. Okay. Touches your skin, you inhale it. Dude, it's the. That the medical staff at any hospital numbs you with, for surgery, for. For everything, for dental, all that stuff. So the fact that you came alive, dude, it's. It's God's plan, bro.

[B]

Like, 100%.

[A]

Yeah. It was your.

[B]

Your.

[A]

Your second chance.

[B]

No. And. And I can. And. And we'll talk about how God ties into this, but, like, looking back, I know every single time, God is like, it's not your time. It's not your time. It's not your time. It's not your time. Like, all four times. Because even every single time that I went to the hospital on a stretcher, like, wait, you weren't arcaned? And then this time with the permanent, like, wait, you didn't arcane him? Did you have an arcane. He's like, no. He's like, wait, you brought him back just by giving him cpr? That doesn't happen. So they were confused. And just seeing the look in their face, I'm like, whoa. I'm like, I'm thinking it's normal. Like, yeah, she just gave me c. I was like, no, you need to be n. And at this Point they're like, well, we don't need to narcan you anymore. You're fully awake. Yeah. So then they just left. And then later that day I still went back to work. And then a few hours later, cuz I was high as a kite. When you wake up from an overdose, you are obliterated. The best way I can describe it, slurring my words. Sierra was working for a network marketing company at the time. And Sierra is a very strong woman. She had to put on a face to go to a network marketing event that she was hosting and shaking hands and meeting people. Pretend like everything's okay.

[A]

Oh, damn.

[B]

I have to deal with that. Yeah. So Sierra is very, very strong minded for that. And even later that night I still went and picked up and used.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

I just said I'm not going to shoot up cuz then I can die. Let me just smoke it because at least I can control it, man.

[A]

Wild.

[B]

I know after just almost dying, it's just like this is why, you know, addiction, it. It doesn't. It doesn't care. Doesn't care if you're heavily addicted. My hearts go out to you. I know it's not easy, but understand I always tell people and a lot of people reach out to me because they hear my story and I post it all over my social media and they ask me, tommy, I want to change to how you did. And I ask them, okay, number one, are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Yes. Okay. Are you in a position right now? Do you want to be healed? Do you want to stop? Are you really ready for that now? I hadn't come to a point until I was ready until March of 20. So I stopped talking to Andy.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And I'll explain this. So I stopped talking to Andy. He finds out that something's going on, so he pushes back. He knows it has to deal with drugs because you know, it's battling that. And then me and Sierra, March of 2022, we're just like, we're just going to move. First of all, me and Sierra split. She was living, I heard, at this place in Hollandale. I went back to living with my sister at that time. I burned through all my money was broke. Loss. And the thing is with loss, like I didn't know how lost I was in the. That's the thing with lost people. When you're lost, you don't know how lost you are. Right. But I was lost looking back, like I can't believe that was my life at that point. I was weighing 145 pounds at the time. Very scary looking individual. I have it on my Instagram, pinned on the first photo if you guys want to see it. And. And I had this, like, crazy beard. It was just ridiculous. But at that time, I'm like, sierra, I want to make this work with you. Like, give me another shot. Give me another shot. We're gonna move to Arizona. So what do you mean? It's like, we're just gonna move out there and figure it out. The pain of me staying the same and staying where I was at was far greater than the risk of moving across the country from the Southeast to the Southwest for maybe I might work for Andy Elliott. That right there was much better than my current situation. I was willing to take that risk.

[A]

Did Sierra already know about Andy?

[B]

Yes. So, of course, when I got in the automotive industry, when I made all that money, she knew Andy was sending voice notes. This is like when Andy was building the company. Right. Andy had just started building the company back in 2020. So at that time, he had a little bit more leisure. Right. More available time where he was connecting with a lot of people. And then, of course, with people that wanted to work for him. And she knew the plan was for me to work for him. But the thing is, I was destroying it with my own habits. Right. So when I told her that, she's like, hey, if you're going to do this, I'll do it with you. It's like me and her had already been together for. Since 2018. So we've already been together for three years at this point. You know, we've gone through some crazy, crazy stuff together.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And she's seeing that my. Like, I want to change. Like, I'm willing to do this if. If you do it with me. Like, I'm in. Right. So we just packed up all of her things to my Corolla attached a 5x8 trailer towed 1500 pounds with a dog, two cats, and a snake. My. My snake in a box. And we drove 55 hours. And it takes 33 hours to get there, but I couldn't drive past 60 because I was driving a Corolla. Yeah. So 55 hours and moved to Arizona. And, yeah, we just made the move. I was working for an insurance company over the phone, wasn't making a lot of money. It was like 250 bucks to $1,000 a week sometimes. So it's very. But it was enough to pay some bills, even though things were a little hard at the time. But we did it. And Then this is where God starts playing, Playing a big role.

[A]

And. And what time and year is this? Like, what. What month and years?

[B]

So March of 2022 is where we decided to move back to when we decided to move to Arizona. Just leave everyone behind, right?

[A]

Everything. You don't have a job opportunity yet.

[B]

No.

[A]

You're just like, I'm banking on Andy seeing a potential in me. You know, I want to work with him. I'm gonna do something to make it my thought process.

[B]

Like, I gotta get close, Jose.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

I just gotta get around. Or if I could just get around this guy, my life is gonna change, Right? He just. He had everything I wanted. He was a leader, amazing shape, amazing husband, an amazing father. You know, building this company, making millions of dollars a year. Like, everything. The way that he spoke, his mindset, I'm like. It was just so infectious. I'm like, I just have to get close. And I was willing to do whatever it took, which was leaving. Leaving my. All my friends and family behind, which is me and Sierra. That left everyone behind. We didn't know anyone in Arizona besides me knowing the elder group, the twins. You know, a few people from the other group, Annie and Jackie, and that's it. And she. Sierra had never met any of them, but I met him at that one event in May of 2021. So those are the only people that I knew somewhat of. And the. The twins were my coaches at that time, helping me through the programs, too.

[A]

And for everybody listening and watching right now, the twins, when Tommy's referring to them, they're two great entrepreneurs, are the vice president, co presidents, co presidents of the Elliot Group, now with Andy Elliott. And they're great guys. You know, I always say, what's up to them. You know, we chit chat whenever we're at the events. But good guys, you work side by side with them, and that's who the twins are. Just for clarity purposes, guys. Okay, cool. So you move out there. How long until you actually start working with Andy? Like, what was the actual transition?

[B]

No, we were there, okay, for over, like, actually about four weeks. Three, three and a half weeks or so. So it's like we moved there March of 2020, and we moved there, like, right on, like, March 28th or something like that. And it was until, like, April 20th, April 21st. Somewhere around, like, the third week of April, Sierra is flying back to Miami to do this job, to make some more money because we're struggling. And Andy and Jackie only go to Florida once a year. The flight that she booked out of all the flights going, all the different airlines, out of all the seats, when she sits down the aisle seat, Andy and Jackie were sitting right next to her.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And she's like, she told me the story, because of course, I'm not there. And then Andy's like, sierra. He knew who Sierra was because he was vetting me. So he's seen her profiles. That's what they do, right? We're gonna bring someone to home. Let's find out who the. Who are they with this and that. Like, who is this person? But of course, she's like, oh, my God. Andy's right next to me. Jacqueline's right here. And they're like, whoa. Sierra. It's like, Andy. It's like, what are you doing here in Arizona? It's like, where's Thomas? We moved here. He's like, wait, Thomas is living here now? And. And again, this is the story she told me. She said, yes. He's like, tell Tommy to stop being scared of me were his exact words, because he knew I didn't contact him, and I was contacting him a lot. He's like, is he off drugs? He's like, he's off drugs. He's like, tell him to stop being scared.

[A]

Me.

[B]

I want you guys to meet me at this church called Impact Church. And I don't know what else the conversation was like, because I wasn't there. But the point is, we met him at this church that I started going to consistently. We met him at the end of that month or in May, which later. That was the church that I found my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and got baptized at. So it's like, almost like God. This is why you got to be so aware in life. Like, if you're a believer, not a believer, listen, God is going to move in a specific way and use people to give you an idea, give you a word, just give you a sense of feeling in order to move in order for you to change. And he's going to be using people. And sometimes if you're not aware of these things, you're going to miss a huge blessing in your life. And God used Andy to get to me so I can have a relationship, because I didn't have a relationship with God. I'm 31 years old now. This is 2022. I didn't have a relationship for God with all. All my life. Like, I tried, but I was raised Catholic, and the way the church was, I couldn't. I couldn't lean into building a relationship with my creator. But Then I met him at this church. And then as we're talking to him, he's like, tommy, number one, you're too skinny. I'm like, I know. I was weighing 145 pounds.

[A]

Wow. How much do you weigh right now?

[B]

205. 205.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

So 145 pounds. This is still 20, 22. He's like, Tommy, you're too skinny. I'm like, hey, I go to Andy. I'm like, andy, I want to work for you still. What do I have to do? I'm here now. I'm ready to join. He's like, hold on a second. And then when he said that, I remember, like, I gave him, like, oh, my God, what is he gonna say now? And he's like, you're too skinny. You need to gain £20.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He's like, you want to come work for me? Gain £20amonth. So I give you one more year. And I remember in my head, I'm like, oh, man, another year, another year. It's like, shoot, I just did a whole year and a half of trying to create myself, move out here since I met you. Now you want me to do a whole another year, but whatever. 20 pounds of muscle. You said, I want you to join this company, become number one and stay clean. If you do that, I'm a hire you in my company. So I obeyed. I listened to him, got this job at this huge Toyota dealership in Arizona and recreating, buying more programs, going to events and everything. When I got there, I didn't know how many salespeople there were. I'm thinking it's like back over here where I was in a store with.

[A]

34 people, which I think it's a lot of people.

[B]

When I got to this. This store, I'm like, hey. So, hey, I. I trained with Andy Elliott. He told me to ask for this person that you guys can help me out. Oh, yeah. Oh, train. All right. Can you start right now? I'm like, right now? Because. I'm like, because of course, Andy's car sales training, and he knows I was training in car sales. I'm like, well, I can start tomorrow. He's like, okay, you got the job. I'm like, whoa, that was the most craziest hiring process. Just name dropping someone. And when I got started there, like, hey, how many sales people are here? Is there like 30, 40 people? Say, no, there's 120. 120 salespeople. And I'm like. In my head, I'm like, whoa, this is a test.

[A]

So that's almost 3 to 4x the amount of salespeople you had back in the other Toyota dealership. That's insane.

[B]

So then in my head I'm like, oh, this is a test. I'm like. And then now all these lies start coming up. You're not good enough. All this self fear. How am I going to do this? Like, am I even going to make. I'm never going to work for Andy. I'm just like. All this negative self talk started building up because I didn't have the right identity at the time. Right. Which happens to a lot of people. The unknown, the fear of the unknown. I'm like, whatever. I'm going to listen to him. He told me to do it. I have the programs and I'm going to go dark. I was training for an hour a day, role playing for 20 minutes a day, do a 15 minute lot walk before the dealership even opened up. And Andy's like, when you go there, that is your dealership. You're going to own that place. You're going to be in service drive, you're going to be shaking everyone's hand. Pass by, finance, build relationships with everyone in there. Bring the service drive pizzas and freaking feed everyone. Let them know that you're there and thank them for taking care of your customers if they needed anything, that you were their guy. So I just started like becoming like as if I owned the spot. I didn't know anyone in there. By my third month, I was the number one salesman.

[A]

Nice. How much revenue were you bringing in that month?

[B]

I brought in like $27,000 in one month. So I was averaging around 27. Sometimes 20, sometimes 34.

[A]

And this is your profit?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like how much you were making?

[B]

Yeah. Commission.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. As far as revenue, it's awesome. Yeah, it was a lot more because each car is like 30,000. I was selling about on the low end, 20 high end, 34 cars a month.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So it would range, but I did very well. Right. So did that. Gained 38 pounds of muscle. That year I was ranked like number three out of 33 locations in the company. And then I stayed clean for a year.

[A]

And this was in 2022.

[B]

2023 now? No, no, 2022. So it was from 2022 July till July of 2023. I was literally there for one year.

[A]

Okay, so you were there for one year. You're killing it. Obviously you're making multiple six figures at that time.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

What does Sierra say about all this?

[B]

Your wife oh, she was blown away. She was blown away. You could see that she was more bought in. Now she's like, okay. She's seeing the person become it. Right. And of course, since I started changing my physique and my identity, that was waking up early, I was working out, I was putting in like 10, 12 hour days. Right. Sometimes even up to 15 hour days.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I was freaking grinding.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

We moved from this crappy spark part in Phoenix, Arizona where there was a bunch of drug addicts there. Yeah. Actually. And I didn't mention this when I moved here. Even like right before I met with Andy. I had relapse when I was down in Arizona too.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I had a small relapse, but then. Then, you know, dust it off. And then that's what led me also to getting on that medication called Methadone September 1st of 2022, where I finally broke the obsession.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Was on that medication for two years, but joined Andy on. So I quit the job July of 2023. And then for two months, even though Jackie was messaging me, they were reaching out to me to get started. Started months. Like In March of 2023, I was. I didn't feel worthy. I don't really tell. I haven't really told a lot of people this, but I didn't feel worthy. There was two months that I quit the job and didn't pick up a job. I was thinking about doing high ticket sales or something like phone closing. There's all these high ticket closing companies that they'll train you and then you can do that too. Right?

[A]

Right.

[B]

But then Sierra's like, and this is why I love my wife. Because without having her on my side and her pushing me, this is why having a good woman in your life or a good person in your life that believes in you is so freaking important. She's like, Thomas. She calls me Thomas. You're missing out your chance. The Elliot Group is growing like freaking crazy. If you're gonna join them, which they've already offered you, the job you've recreated, you've proved to them you gained all this way. You were the top person in this company. Like, you know, you're clean now. Like, you need to call them. And if not, you're going to regret it and you're never going to forgive yourself. I'm like, okay. As soon as she said, I called Evan, Evan, bro, I'm ready. Ready. He's. And then Evan was trying to. I don't know, Tommy, you think you're really ready for this?

[A]

And who's Evan.

[B]

It's one of Macklin twins.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

There's Evan and Ian.

[A]

Okay. And just for the, just for the viewers and the listeners.

[B]

Yeah, Evan and Macklin. Evan and Ian Macklin. They're two incredible human beings. And they've been like. They're like brothers to me now. And I'm like, evan, I'm ready. And I remember me and Cyr were running sprints. So because I was doing very well, we moved to North Scottsdale. The Kierland Commons. Right.

[A]

Completely different environment.

[B]

Completely different environment.

[A]

You went from.

[B]

From the hood to an $1800 apartment. Now paying over almost $5000 a month for an apartment. I was doing decent. I was comfortable. Really nice apartment.

[A]

So the transformation was happening.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And let's, let's. Let's dig into a little bit about like your. Your relationship with Sierra at the time. Do you feel. I mean, me and my wife, we start talking more about this. We started doing a lot more content around her, her brand that she's building and whatnot. But with, with the idea of a power couple. Right. I'm a true believer that as a man, we have to be providers. We have to go ahead and lead the relationship. So what is your perspective like once you start. Once Sierra starts seeing the transformation, do you feel like she fell in love with you? Even more, dude. Like, she was just like, this is. This is the man that like, I always wanted 100%.

[B]

But there was, during that period of time when I was recreating, there was like ups and downs of that cuz I was still battling an identity problem. I didn't completely change my identity until I got onto the Elliot Group to where everything just. I just started becoming a completely different person.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, I don't even know who that person was in 2023. 3. In the beginning when I was selling cars, like, I'm a completely different person.

[A]

So every year, would you say that you've progressed as a person, as a man?

[B]

Yes. Starting from 2022.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right. So 2022 changed to 2023. And then once 2024 hit, or I would say once. So I joined Andy's company September 1st of 2023. And every month since September 1st of 2023, I've changed every single month. How I believe more my identity is different. There's a thing called perspective and vision. So let me say this. And by the way, me and Sierra change, which is super important. A lot of people, they expect to grow in business, but then they don't grow in their personal life or in their home life or with their partners, what ends up happening? Let's say we're both great in business, but you have a horrible home life. But I have an amazing home life. I will whoop your ass. I will whoop your ass in business. I will whoop your ass in everything else. Right. Because how you do one thing is how you do everything. Let me ask you a question. Would you be with someone, Would you have a relationship with someone that consistently lie to you?

[A]

No.

[B]

No, no. However, us, as human beings, we're not really good at making decisions or anything or trusting ourselves because you lie to yourself a lot. A lot of people say, well, I'm going to become this person, babe. I'm going to do this. I'm going to be a better father. I'm going to get in better shape. I'm going to wake up early. But then this is why you can't excel or why your identity takes a dip, because you lied to you. So if you won't be in a relationship with someone that's consistently lying to you, this is what happens, and this is what causes people to get stuck. Why the time keeps going by. They're getting older, but they're not growing and they stay the same. This is called identity, your mindset. And we talk about it a lot. And the thing is, with your identity, it's when you're chasing a big life. Greatness is found in the extremes. But you're going to have to fight like hell and you're going to have to change. You can't be the same person you are right now. I couldn't be the drug addict to reach seven figures or I couldn't be the drug addict to be the loving husband that I right now. I couldn't be the drug. Like, I couldn't be that person to gain 60 pounds of muscle in three years. Like, I couldn't do that. Or to change lives. Now I get messages every single day from people saying, you changed my life, dude. Hey. Oh, my God. I look up to you. And it's crazy to hear those things because now I'm starting to see the ripple effect of. Of how hard I worked in the dark. And it all happens when no one's watching, is when the real work gets done, when. Where the real person gets built, when no one is watching because that is the real you. And the thing is, with a lot of people out there, they let themselves slide. They say they want it, but then if we could put a camera watching them. Let's play that back to your family. If you say you're after a big life and you say that you want it. If I show that to your family, is that going to. Are they going to be like, oh, yeah, yeah. It shows that they're working hard. Of course, they said that we're going to be going on all these vacations. I can see all the work that they're putting in. They say they wanted to get in better shape. I can see them eating healthy, not having cheat meal. I can see them going to the gym. I can see them doing all these things because, look, we're watching the tapes now. That's my dad, that's my mom, that's my relative. Yep. Or are they going to be like, what the heck is this? Why have you been lying to us this whole time? And that's where a lot of people feel like they can get away with it because no one's watching. So if you want to really change, you're going to have to get stirred up or come from a place of just got to want it. And I talk to you about this a lot, right? In business or in sales. It's like in our company, we hire underdogs, a lot of them, and a lot of them are killers, but they don't know it yet. And a lot of the time that has to be developed, right. There's some people that develop it early, and that's freaking amazing. At the end of the day, if you want to develop, if you want a killer, that person needs to be developed to be a killer in life, business, sales, whatever, right? Like, you. You had to put yourself through a lot of dark times and you had to work when no one was watching and you was like, I'm going to do it. That's it. Period. That's how winners talk. I'm going to either going to do it, I'm going to win, or I'm going to win. For so long, I was fighting to survive. Now I fight to win. So there's a difference, right? When you. And. And there is going to come a point in life where you're going to have to fight to survive a little bit to get yourself from. You're gonna. You're gonna have to start running away from a life you don't want. That's fighting to survive. And then eventually you start fighting towards. You start running towards the life you want. Now you're just fighting to win, right? And that's the way I look at it as far as, like, changing your identity and becoming the person. And I love what Andy says because he's like, he's just been an incredible example. He's like, tommy, I'm not hiring you because you were a drug addict. I'm hiring you because if you can stop giving your power away to these things and you start channeling it to the person you want to become, you're going to be the top person in my company. And he was right. He's just always been that example, always giving me the right things and he just gives me the cold hard truth. We're very direct with each other and we're also very loving to each other. So that's a missing piece too. You got to come from a place of love. Which he did. Did. But he's like, don't chase the dollar. For so long you were chasing money. Don't chase the dollar, chase the man. Or if you're a woman, chase the woman. Who you become is going to determine what you get. And for so long, I was just trying to chase money, money, money, money, money, destroying everything. My path was really self centered. I was making money, my God. Then I got baptized. I found my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I was looking to serve others and I was chasing myself on this person so I can be a better husband. You know, be. Be good to me, a better leader, be an example to others, be a standard setter, be an overcomer. Taking that initiative within myself to help others. Right? But it all started when I stopped chasing the dollar, started chasing the man. And then when I started doing that, I started loving myself more. And when I started loving myself more, now I'm coming from a place of knowingness where things just start clicking. And now I have more confidence, more self belief. Belief like the way I speak, I speak with more authority, conviction. And it just helps me all around in life.

[A]

I love that dude. I love that. So what's your. And. And I know you guys are fairly new to. To marriage. When did you guys get married? You and Sierra?

[B]

So we got married last year. She's gonna kill me because I don't have my wedding ring right now.

[A]

Oh, snap.

[B]

I know. Yeah, we left it back in Arizona. I was putting on lotion to it off for a second and she's like, where's your wedding wig? Yeah, I'm like, oops, sorry. So July 31st of last. I mean, I'm sorry, July 21st of 2024.

[A]

There you go.

[B]

We got married. We decided we were going on a business trip. We were actually going to go to Walcon. What's his name?

[A]

Ryan Pineda. Yeah, Ryan Pineda, no, no, no. No disrespect.

[B]

No disrespect. But, yeah, we were going to go see Ryan Pineda. Andy was speaking there, there. So we're going to Wealthcon, and we're like, hey, why don't we just get married? You had told me you just got married.

[A]

Yeah, I just got married, dude.

[B]

And then I'm like, dude, I think I'm gonna get married, too.

[A]

It.

[B]

And I'm just gonna. We just did it, right?

[A]

Success, love, speed, man.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She saved her life. She changed her life. She's a good woman, and she's very productive and she's smart, dude. Why wouldn't you wife her up? Right? And I think we had that conversation.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. Because we were like, bro, how long have you done your life? A few months. And you're ready to get married? I was like, yeah, dude. When you know, you know, you know. And that's what it is. So. All right, dude, let's. Let's get deep for real quick just because we're running out of time here. So let me ask you, man, you've gone through hell and back, bro. And I feel like with most successful entrepreneurs, you're already successful, but you have a vision for yourself. Where do you see yourself in the next year to two years, man? What is it that you want to do? Do you want to build within Andy Elliot? Do you want to build your own personal brand? Like, what is your goal? Because I know you and Sierra probably talk about this when you guys are alone. What is your vision for yourself?

[B]

So this is a very easy question to answer because Andy gives us so much free range. Right. We have the capabilities to do eight, nine figures.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Ourselves. Right in the cup. Of course that's going to take. That's called build. So it's not something that you could just build right away. It takes a little bit of time. Right? But as of right now, we're definitely. This year, we're going hard on our personal brand, building ourselves up, being the example to others. Right. My darkness is a light to others. It shows people what's capable of because you can become whatever it is that you want to become. All you got to do is change. Say, well, hey, man. Some people say, hey, man, I was thinking about moving to this place because this place is not really suitable. I'm like, okay, move. Like, yeah, but. No, no buts. Move quick. The secret to success is urgency. Being urgent. Make quick decisions. Just take action. Right? And that's why a lot of people deal with stress, because stress Comes from the decisions and the actions you are avoiding. And a lot of people just get. Get stuck and they just allow themselves to get stressed. But the more action you take, the less stress you have. Right. So if you feel like moving or something's not serving you, leave, change, and then find out if that works. But staying where you're at and then hoping and praying is not going to do anything. That was me for a very long time. What if I fail? Okay, if you fail, go to listen. If left don't work, go right. Some people are not willing to go left to figure out that right is the right way. Yeah, right, but. And that's just how success is. That's how entrepreneurship is. Like, sometimes you're going to have to pick and choose different paths, see which one works. Oh, I'll take a little bit of this from this one, but this one serves me more. So I'm going to go over here. Right. And it's just about making quick decisions. But yeah, that's basically it. When a lot of people reach out to me. Now, if you want to design a new life, do exactly what I did. Find someone that you believe in, that you can model off of and just learn everything from. Chew everything up, use some of it, get rid of the rest that works and then apply it to your life. And that's what I did. So that's basically what I'm doing right now. And that's what real entrepreneurs do in the personal development space. Yeah, they find people who have done it, have a blueprint, they take what they want from it, leave the rest, and then apply to life so then they can compress the time from, then they can change. So that's what we're doing right now, as right now our vision for this year is we're building our brand. We're building ourselves as a power couple too. Sierra is building herself self developing. She's doing all these new programs. And you know, we're just looking to get better. So the goal is to always get 1% better. Every single night when we go to sleep, we ask ourselves, did we get better today or are we still the same person? Am I still thinking the same? Was there something that moved me, something that I can utilize, that I can be a little bit different tomorrow? And some of us go every single day, 60, 70,000 thoughts a day, don't take in any new information. And they had the same thoughts they had yesterday, same thoughts they had last week, same thoughts they had last month. And then the one's like, oh, well, I just Want to change or I can't.

[A]

I don't understand.

[B]

It's like you're not doing anything. And the only way that you're going to get better is like, you have to take a new information. So studying like crazy, where I'm training every single night, reading. And honestly, I don't like reading. I wasn't the best reader, but I forced myself. And I know eventually, subconsciously, I'll be like, okay, I can do this now. Yeah, right. But I'm still working through that. I read like five, 10 pages. So I'm not an avid reader. I'm not like Annie that can read 100 pages in a day. Right. He reads, he chews up like through one to two books a week. Right. Just reads a lot, but then that really helps.

[A]

Tommy, what would you recommend as far as just like one or two books that you can recommend to the listeners and the viewers right now?

[B]

One that I really like is become your future self now. Very, very powerful book. And then the other one is man, I can't believe I'm blank right now. Become your future self now. And I think it's the power of positivity. No, by something. Peel. Norman Peel.

[A]

Okay. Power of positivity.

[B]

I think it's the power of something. Positivity. I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact title. Okay. The guy's last name is Peel. P, E, E, L, E. Okay, I'm having a blank right now, but those are really powerful because you, you want to make sure a lot of people have very negative self talk. A lot of people can't. So that's a really good book. Or the power of positive thinking, I think it's called.

[A]

There you go.

[B]

There we go. Very powerful book. Because a lot of us are really not good to ourselves. So if you can change and rewire the way you speak to yourself internally, it's not about changing yourself externally, is about changing yourself internally. When you change the way you see things, the things that you see begin to change. So it has to come from in here, from the heart, from the mind, from you. And then become your future self now allows you to start identifying with the person that you want to become. And so many people in life, they almost underestimate or they don't take enough action today because they are. They can't see themselves as becoming this person in the future in the next five years. So then they. They don't do the work or they're like, oh, well, I can never become that. And then they underestimate that Right. And the more you can identify with your future self, the more that you're going to be able to. So if I see myself as this person in the next five years, the actions and the decisions I make today are going to feed that person to bringing it now. Yeah, right. And a lot of people can't identify as their future self, which then they don't keep. They don't make those decisions that are going to move them forward. And it's all about the long game. Like, five years is not a lot of time. When you're living for 60, 80, 90 years, that's just a little small point in your life. So if you're focusing and identifying as. So I start seeing myself as this person. I see myself as a worldwide speaker. I see myself with a massive brand in five years. I see myself doing, you know, easily like high eight figures, right? Of profit. I see myself in, you know, still being a coach with any Elliott, but being a leader inside of this company, maybe managing a whole organization inside of his company, and also being an entrepreneur in other business. Because I'm an entrepreneur. I love, I love that, right? The entrepreneurial mindset. So I see myself with different types of businesses, big brand, changing lives, but the decisions that I'm making today, they now have to start feeding that person. And some of us just, we don't know what we want. And the two hardest questions we can ever ask ourselves is, who am I and what do I want to do for the rest of my life? The moment you figure that out, it then becomes easy. But those are the two hardest questions a human being can answer.

[A]

No, absolutely, man. What would be three needle movers for someone right now who, just like you said, they've been researching, they're like, dude, should I do sales? Should I get into, you know, automotive sales? Should I get into E Com? Should I get into these other industries? And I'm just in a state of analysis paralysis, right? So like many of us have been what, three, three needle movers would you tell the person right now that is listening or watching this that they can do today, as soon as they're done with this podcast or YouTube video that they can execute on to help them with the decision making to move forward?

[B]

That simple. Number one, an actionable right now that you can do, you can change right now, like right now, apply something as soon as you're done watching this podcast is if you have a hard time making decisions and, and the reason why you have a hard time making decisions because you don't trust you again. You've been lying to yourself. Would you be in a relationship with someone that consistently lie to you? No. So this is what happens to a lot of people. That's what. When they get on the phone with me. I'm someone who makes quick decisions. I'm someone who's really good at that, who's going to get all the trust. I am. Because the person's not going to be able to because they don't know what to do, because they can't even follow through on how to live a productive life. So first things first is start taking action with, like, working on. On you, focusing on you. Go to the gym, get in better shape. If you can master your food, your sleep, and your exercise, that automatically is going to allow you to become more accountable within yourself. And you're going to grow very, very quickly because there's a lot of people that do a poor job eating, poor job exercising, and a poor job sleeping. And if you can master those three things, you're going to feel good. It's all about feeling good right now. And so many of us don't feel good. We're tired. 2:00 hits, we're exhausted. We don't want to wake up early. We're getting our asses beat before we even get out of bed because we're snoozing. So if you go against someone that isn't snoozing, that's holding themselves accountable with their food, their sleep, and their exercise, they're going to beat you every single time. So that's what I would do first. Second would be find someone that you resonate with. Dude, any bob down the street with a, with a sales training program, a lot of people come to me, they're like, well, Tommy, hey, I think I want to think about this a little bit more, like in a sale. I'm like, okay, totally understand. Let me ask you a question. How long has it been that you've been looking to make more money, get better at sales, and do this? Has it been on your mind the last week or so? Well, no, it's been on my mind the last two years. Okay, so do you think if you would have got started with something like this two years ago, your life will be in a much better position than you are right now? Well, yes. I'm like, hey, can you do me a favor? This is on a sales call. Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you get started with somebody? Dude, you've been thinking about this for two years started. Why the heck are we going to Repeat the past. Get started with someone. If we don't lock arms and we hop off this call right now, get started with someone. Because look at the way your life's been and you've been thinking about this for two years. Go to Bob down the street. Something is going to allow you to push that needle forward. But find someone that you like. Find someone you can resonate with with and start chewing up their program and apply it. Because if that person has gotten results, you can find how they've done it through a program and invest in yourself. So you want to self develop. So first hold yourself accountable. Master your food, sleep, exercise. Start self developing. And another one, have a relationship with your creator, God. Because I give all glory to the Lord. The reason why I feel like I've grown so much in such a short period of time. I went from being a drug addict of 16 years, overdosing four times, weighing 145 pounds, being broke, to becoming this person I am right now. And the way I wake up in the morning, I'm waking up with a different identity, a different mindset. I get to see things, I envision myself. So I, I play a game. We were, we were eating at this place called Casa Nails.

[A]

I'm not sure bro, it was a really cool spot.

[B]

It was a really cool on the water. But then we see this yacht and we're like, you know, I'm always practicing my mind and being a multi, multi million. I'm like okay, so all right, let's see about the yachts world. Like okay, so that probably yachts like 80, 80 foot, like let's see how much that cost, right? So I start playing like if you want to become a millionaire, then think and act like a millionaire. If you're on a yacht and you see all these like palm trees and everything like that be like okay, well I want to live in the house. Well, how much would the house cost? Yeah, right. Oh, palm trees. Okay, so if I'm going to be making decisions as a millionaire and I want to buy palm trees, I need to find out how much those palm trees are. This guy has like 20 palm trees and they're like, I don't know, $80,000 of palm tree. Then I'm like holy crap, that's 1.6 million in palm trees. You know what I mean? So it's like you start to think like a million, okay, so it's going to cost me 1.6 million in palm trees. You know, I want a little deck, I want a yacht, which will probably Cost me like five to ten million dollars for the yacht. And now you're starting to play a game, because when you're making or you're at that caliber, you're going to start thinking as a different human being. So start bringing in that future self into the present moment as much as possible, even if you're not it. What did Patrick. But David said future truth. Future truth. Call things as, as, as they're going to become in your life and talk to yourself this way. And that's what I would do as far as taking an action.

[A]

I love that. The future looks great, guys.

[B]

Future looks bright.

[A]

Emilio, get b roll on this portion for, for Tommy. All right, last question. All right, Tommy, I love everything that you said. You smashed this podcast. All right, the final, final question of the pod. All right, if you were to give someone right now a word of advice, they're going through some shit they might need to find themselves. What is one motivational saying that is close to your heart that you can help somebody level up? Brother.

[B]

Hey. Already started speaking to me before you even finished.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Do it now. Do it right now. Do it now. Do it now. Do it now. The more moment that you feel like, ah, maybe I should do it. No, do it now. You feel like procrastinating, do it now. If you can just start doing things right now, you will begin to change. Anything that should be done today should not be put off for tomorrow. Do it now. If there's a program and you're on the phone with someone you know, it can help you. Do it. If you want to move, move. If you need to be a better person, be a better person. If you're not being the hero to your kids, be the hero to your kids. Do it right, right now. You can change right now. It's a split decision. They say, you know, you're only one decision away. It's super true. If you can just do things right now and operate this way. The moment you feel like, ah, maybe I should stay in bed. And you're like, the moment you feel procrastinating, the moment you feel complacency, the moment you just feel like you want to be in comfort, that voice should speak in your head and be like, do it now. All right. Do it now. Ah, maybe, you know, you finished eating, you, you're like, I'll do the dishes. Like, do it now. Just do it now and start taking more action, and you're going to start to change very quickly.

[A]

I love that, brother. And where can they find you?

[B]

They can find me at Thomas Proco. T H O M A S P R O C O Love it.

[A]

Love it. Guys. There you go. Tommy from the Elliot Group. I mean, you guys need to connect with him on Instagram. And where can they find Sierra at Sierra?

[B]

Sierra Pro. C I E R A P R O yeah.

[A]

One of the best power couples I know since I've met them, since I've been in part of Andy Elliott's brotherhood. Guys, I highly recommend that you guys work with them, network with them. They're great people, phenomenal network. And they'll also connect you with other multi millionaires. And if you're not a millionaire yet, that's okay. You will be all right. You just got to connect with the right people that have the proper mindset. With that being said, guys, this, that wraps it up. Make sure to follow us at Apple Podcast, Spotify and on YouTube. Okay? Make sure to check out like subscribe and make sure to share this with a friend. Guys. It could really help change someone's life. Okay, let's go ahead and get number one on the business podcast in the U.S. we are currently tracking just top 10 only. But no, we want to get to number one, guys. So you guys can help us make, make us number one and we'll be able to create more value and bring better guests every single time. Guys, my name is Paul Alex. Take care. Thanks for listening up to the Level up podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.