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- [00:05]
A
Wake up.
- [00:06]
B
Your competition is asleep. It's you against the world. And if you want to win, we need to get a few things straight. Your business is a mental war. Your success is a mental war. And making money is a game. And the game of money starts in your mind. This podcast exists to help you weaponize your brain through advanced marketing mindset and money concepts. To have what others don't, you need to know what others won't. Your future fortune awaits. Welcome to the War Plan podcast.
- [00:41]
A
Now, when I was seven, they got a divorce and I felt like it was my job to keep the family together and go make money. And at 7, yeah, yeah. I mean, all I could do then is mow lawns. But mom was working three jobs, so not a father yet. I think I was put in this world to be a dad. I still got this scarcity mindset. Like, man, what if something, what if the economy, what if World War 3 like this weird that I still genuinely think $20 is a lot of money. Like, I'm starting to get into this manifestation stage of purpose number one. If I was to go help a company out, what's the first thing I do? Their definition of great would not even be a D player. At my company, I'd said, we're going to do a billion dollars, and they bought into the vision.
- [01:32]
B
So after you hit billionaire status, personally, net worth, whenever that happens, does that mean something to you? What happens after that? Hey, my friend, welcome to the War Plan podcast. I hope you're doing awesome. I hope you're changing the world. Don't forget, you were made on purpose, for a purpose. You have a mission, a mandate, and a destiny. And I have a special treat for you. I'm joined by Mr. Tommy Mello. The first time I met Tommy, I don't know if he remembers this, he was doing around 30 million a year in revenue, which is pretty wild and abnormal in the home service industry. Little did I know that that was small potatoes compared to what his vision was and where he was going. Now he's doing hundreds of millions in revenue. He's on his way to becoming a billionaire. Can you believe it? A guy that used to have dirt under his fingernails. He's running these huge events with famous people and he's just doing all this crazy stuff. Tommy, how are you?
- [02:27]
A
I'm really, really good. I. I was at an event for real estate Yesterday, small mastermind, 50 people. And I invited about five of the guys over and at 11 o'clock at night, we cold plunged, so got to my Meeting on time went phenomenal and today's a great day. It's. I'm healthy, my parents are healthy, my sister, my niece, my nephews. Life is good. I got a lot to be thankful for.
- [02:54]
B
Yeah, you've been on this, like, cataclysmic rocket ship ride. At least from my perspective. You're very busy. We don't talk often, but when we do, I always love it. And one thing I notice is you always talk about your team. Some of the things you've been most excited about when we've had private conversations are all the success and opportunity you've created for other people on your team. So I guess my first question for you is why and. And, and where did that come from?
- [03:23]
A
Yeah, it wasn't always that way. I used to be pretty upset and I pointed these two fingers and I started pointing these two, and those of you not watching went from my index finger to my thumbs to point back at myself. So when I started seeing the domino effect of, it's not just the person, my co worker at A1, but it's the husband and wife and the kids, the community, everything. When I started getting into shape, Luke's lost 30 pounds, 10% body fat. Brian's in the best shape of his life. This whole hallway got the treadmill that Brandon Vaughn uses because I bought it for myself. And I'm like, that's selfish. Everyone gets one. But I love. It's so cool to win. I aspire to be number one. I'm a competitive guy. I played a lot of sports. I didn't let grandpa win at cribbage when I was a kid. Like, I played hard. My dad taught me we are winners. There's no second place trophy. You gotta be accountable to winning. And he was tough on me. He was always my coach and he didn't allow me to make excuses. So winning's great, but when I watch other people win, and that's why I do the podcast and that's why I got the Home Service Expert group and the Home Service Freedom group is because when you start to watch people winning, it really feels like you're changing the world, even if it's not as big as I'd like it to be. But I'm the best I've ever been, but the worst I'll ever be because I continue to push myself and elevate my mindset. And the law of the lid says the company will only go as far as I go. The only scary thing about that is I can't do all the Growth if they don't grow with me, unfortunately, I come to the realization that they don't have a seat on the bus or they're going to have to move seats. And they know that, and I've been very good at communicating that. So the self development, I'd rather them work on their self and their self development more than they work on the company. And that's interesting. Yeah.
- [05:30]
B
Because they're inextricably linked together. Right. What, what's some of the core differences between how you operate now compared to five or 10 years ago?
- [05:43]
A
Well, I've gotten a lot more organized. And that's really because I have two amazing executive assistants. My schedule's more organized. My time management is more 168 hours in a week. You can spend 50 working, 50 sleeping. You still got 70 hours. So you get a lot of time when you get organized, number one. Number two, I think I've become a better communicator, a better delegator. Number three, I've learned to hire a lot better. I used to like to be the smartest guy in the room. I was a lot of the time, especially on eq over iq. And now my goal, sincerely, is to be the dumbest guy in the room with my team, with my C suite, my VPs, even my technicians. I don't want to be able to say I could beat you. I want to say you guys have taken it to a new level that I can't even comprehend. And if I could do that, well, it's unlimited growth potential and more lives change. And there's an obligation for me to make hard decisions. And I'm better at making difficult decisions now. I don't feel like I'm letting people down as much when I have to remove them because I've come up with scorecards and I've come up with expectations, and I make it their plan, not mine. And when I do that correctly, they're obligated and committed. And it's their commitment. And I could not have you work for the company because you don't honor your commitments. And that's important to me because I honor my commitments. And I shoot for the stars. Sometimes I land on the moon. I don't get all the way there. We call them Tommy goals and they're very hard, but they're reverse engineered. They're all reverse engineer with how to get there. And I didn't used to reverse engineer the goals the way I do now. Like what needs to happen this hour to date, this week, this month, this quarter to make this happen. This year I've gotten really good at budgeting as well, so there's a lot that's been into it. But I'll tell you this, Josh, I'm very glad that I made all the mistakes because I'm one of those people that learn through trial and error. And I jump in, I, you know, they see ready, aim, fire. I fire, aim, ready. But I make mistakes fast. And I don't make the same mistakes twice because a mistake made for a second time is a choice I believe. So I've been just learning and jumping in head first. Still.
- [08:04]
B
Myron golden says that there's two types of work. There's the work you do on it and the work it does on you. You're obviously a different human now than you were back in the day, even at the $30 million level. Let me pivot to talk about Jesus for a minute. So the way that I see it, there's like two, I guess there's three camps. People that don't care or don't believe. Fair enough. And then you have this two buckets of kind of Christians and the one believe like this poverty is piety type of frame, where it's almost like they're holy or something because they're failing, because.
- [08:40]
A
They'Re broke, because they feel like vain. And, you know, in the Bible, I. I believe there. There's a book. I'm trying to think of it, but it's like you've got an obligation to be successful and money's not a bad thing. Making money is actually a really good thing and you could tithe more and you could change the world. And money is very, very important. But don't praise money. Money becomes way too important to people. But where were you going? I'm sorry.
- [09:11]
B
No, that's where I'm going. I mean, that's Camp A is a poverty is piety. Like I'm holy because I'm failing. I personally think a lot of people believe that because it's a veneer to keep them from trying and potentially failing. What I've noticed is people like you aren't scared of failure. You almost like it because there isn't. You're not even failing. You're just learning at a really rapid clip. But I think people hide behind that, in my opinion. But then the second group of people kind of lose the plot, you know, like, my wife and I are obsessed with family and things like that. I don't think everyone's calling is to be super rich per se. But I do believe God Wants us to grow and expand. Everything that he put in our hand, everything he made, he designed to grow and expand. Right. So you had a company in your hand and you're going for it. I'm just curious, the role, like your spiritual journey, your relationship with Christ, how you view that, how do you bucket it? It's all mixed together. What's that part of Tommy like?
- [10:08]
A
Yeah, so I think what gets focused on gets, you know, what gets measured gets managed. And managing the calendar, really being around people that are. They believe and they genuinely go to church. We started going to two churches now. I got Travis Hearn with Impact Church coming on the podcast because he wrote a new book. Very excited about that because he's the minister for the Sons and the Diamondbacks and like it. But he's changing the way people look at Jesus Christ. I got baptized not because I didn't believe before, because I called my mom and dad and they didn't remember getting me baptized. They remember getting my sister. I'm like, I might want to do that. That's. That's kind of important. So. But it was just a commitment. It was a thing about commitment. And, you know, I'm not a. I don't love reading the Bible. I like a student Bible. I like because the and thy shell. Like, I like it in more layman's and lessons. When I go to church, I like. I like them quoting scriptures, but I like it actionable items. And that's what Impact Church does. And I enjoy it and I like going with other people. The. The last three Sundays, we brought in three other couples. Each time I flew a guy from Vegas, one of my top performers, and he's really heavily into Jesus Christ. And he said, tommy, I. God told me not to apply for a job. He. He said something was going to come into my life and my garage door broke and a one showed up and the guy was amazing, and he said, you should come work for our company. And the guy's a top performer and his wife and me are like, really good friends now. They text me all the time. He texts me play by play of his day, and he's always quoting scriptures and my dad quotes scriptures and my mom goes to church. And it's just. It's a very good thing to be around people. I needed that accountability because I believe we are who we hang out with. And I've always said, hang around with successful people, change your circle. I never applied that to health. I never applied it to faith. I never applied it to family. And so now I'M not a father yet. I think I was put in this world to be a dad. And I'm not going to read a million books on parenting. I'm going to find the best kids that have respect, that are well grounded, that have empathy, that aren't, you know, trust fund type kids. And I'm just going to go talk to the parents because success leaves clues. And that's how I'm going to figure out my style because I believe in spankings. But they stopped working on me when I was like six.
- [12:51]
B
So I.
- [12:55]
A
We'll see. We'll see what we do with, with the discipline side of things. Because I'm not the best disciplinary. I will say that my dogs reads a lot better, better than I am.
- [13:06]
B
Well, that's one thing I noticed about you, just on a personal side. And like, I don't want to say that you're a softy, but you love people for real. But at the same time it's weird because there's a juxtaposition against super high rocket ship, go 100 miles an hour. But when I've talked to you in the past, you're always talking about all these other millionaires you've created inside your organization and having a vision so big that other people can build a solar system inside the universe of your vision. And you've gotten emotional several times talking about your family, talking about your relationship with Christ and all these things. I just want to make sure people know that. Right? So I don't know, it's like this dichotomy kind of thing. I think a lot of people on the Internet, it feels like they're just go, go, go hard, hard, hard, more, more, more. I know that's not just your heart. You're doing both. Is that correct or not? Am I off?
- [13:54]
A
Yeah. When people meet me, they say, you're completely different than I thought you would be. Your Persona online and social media is this hard ass. And I don't, I don't mean to do that, but they're like, man, you're really genuine person. And it seemed like you were way different. When we get to know you, it's actually pretty enlightening. And I had a guy just in here, we bought a company in Phoenix called Ideal Garage Door. He goes, you were the enemy. You were the big bad wolf. He goes, and it's 10 times better working here. He goes, I love this. You're changing my life. You're changing my family. He's actually Mormon, he's a, a bishop. And we were just Talking about Jesus. And there is a lot of misconceptions, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. Josh, I put myself out there a lot and there are haters. I think that means you're doing something well there. The haters are actually undercover fans. They just don't know it yet.
- [14:58]
B
Oh, that's. I've never heard that. That's. That's fire right there. Is there anything right now that intimidates you, scares you? Or maybe those are the wrong words, Something you struggle with, you know, as you move forward.
- [15:12]
A
Yeah, so. So I just hired Ashley. She started about 45 days ago, maybe a month ago. And it was overwhelming for Allison to handle everything I've got going. I. I'm still. I bought Jesse Isler's, he calls it the Big ass calendar. And I'm starting to reflect and plan a lot more and putting non negotiables, not just in business, Family, Faith, Fitness as well as finance. Because if you know my life, I worried more about bills than my parents did at 4 years old, which isn't right. And when I was 7, I got a divorce and I felt like it was my job to keep the family together and go make money. And at 7, yeah, yeah. I mean, all I could do then is mow lawns. But mom was working three jobs, so it was. I didn't like going to mom or dad for money. Not when I heard the bills. It was always bills. It was. My dad was. Stayed optimistic through it all and he had a pretty tough life. My mom was worried a lot and stressed out. She goes, I'm not moving my kids out of their school, out of this house. And she made it work. But I got really close to grandma and I spent a long time alone. And people don't understand. Why do you always need to be with people? And I'm like, well, I spent most of. I had Max, my dog, my little Yorkie, but I spent most of my time by myself. So I went to a private school. So I didn't even have friends in the neighborhood until I got to fifth grade. So I've already spent enough time alone. But I work with a little emotion here. I think it'll be.
- [16:56]
B
That's what I want to happen here. A lot of the companies, the people we help, most of them do less than a million bucks. And I noticed a lot of them have ran away from something. That's why they started their business. Rather than running towards a vision, I think that matters. But you've made the transition where there's fear and stress and chaos around money and, and that drove you to some certain point when along the journey did you catch a vision to go towards something? Because what I notice is people will get stuck. So they have a boss they hate. They're not starting a business to fulfill some purpose. They're just trying to escape pain and then they escape it and they're back to homeostasis. They're okay because little companies get the golden handcuffs too because they have a very small vision. What was that like for you? Does that even make sense? Do you understand what I mean?
- [17:50]
A
Oh, it was fear. And I think fear is great to use to start, it's a great motivator. But then it needs to turn into another reason, a different reason. It needs to transform into something greater than yourself. And that fear, fear gets you going and it usually is what it takes to make a tough decision. And then it needs to turn into discipline and motivation.
- [18:16]
B
How did that happen for you? Do you remember? It's a, it's.
- [18:19]
A
Yeah. So first of all, it was always my vision. It was no one else's on the team. So until I started to make it their vision as well. And the best way to describe it is like this. I'm going to pick the bowling lane and I'm going to pick the pins. We're going after you get to pick right or left handed the ball and the holes. So I've learned these things and make it part of their vision. And I. It was 2018 or 2019 when I took everybody in the office and I had it all written out from that day to how to hit a billion in revenue. And I didn't just have a billion. I had how many calls we needed to run, what our booking rate needed to be, what our conversion rate needed to be, what our average ticket and what our cost per lead needed to be. And when I got their input, they all walked out of my office and said we're going to do a billion dollars. And they bought into the vision because before it was just a non written down. This is what we're going to do. Let's all do it. So they're buying and a plan down to the details. If I'm going to get to 8% body fat, that includes sleep, water, nutrition, which is macros, how much cardio, there's a detailed plan in place and there is discipline to execute that. And if I do it correctly, which I will, and I am, there's no way not to hit the goal. And it's just a math formula and thank God I got very good at math at a young age and everything in my mind is an equation.
- [20:00]
B
You have a degree in accounting or bookkeeping or something, don't you?
- [20:03]
A
So I got a master's degree in business and I learned a lot about finance and accounting, but I was pre dental, So I took 64 credits of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, advanced calculus. Just stuff that I don't really use, except there is some calculus, algebra, stuff I still use, but that was kind of useless because I don't think I would have made a great dentist.
- [20:26]
B
Dentistry has a really high depression rate. I don't know if you know.
- [20:29]
A
Yeah, yeah, Suicide rate, depression.
- [20:31]
B
Yeah, yeah, because everybody hates them. I don't know. Everyone's scared of them, I guess I should say so after you hit billionaire status, personally, net worth, whenever that happens, does that mean something to you? What happens after that? Is it just a perpetual yardstick move? And then it's like, let's do 5 billion, let's do 10, let's do. And then you die at some point. And what's that whole rest of the vision look like?
- [20:57]
A
So this, this line I've been using a lot is everybody wants the views, but no one's willing to take the hike. The hike's not easy. It's evolved around discipline. And what I've noticed about myself is when I get the views, there's always a higher mountain. The goal post moves. And I told my mom, I said, mom, I know you worry that I keep going, keep and wins. Enough, enough. But I said, when Tiger woods won four majors in a row, did his mom call him and say, you're good, you're finished, you accomplished the grand slam. No, he still makes contact with a thousand balls a day because he enjoys what he does and I enjoy what I do. And it's still fun. And I think we're off balance on purpose. I think there's seasons of life. And I enjoy thoroughly what I do because I built everything I love and delegate everything else. So I never go to work. And there's some method to my mayhem here. We're building dream houses. And part of that, by the way, is not vanity. I am buying experience. We had my mom's, my dad's, Re's niece's third birthday, but the birthday parties where the whole family comes under one roof and we have a blast and there's no price you can put on that. So, you know, I'm really big into this thing called compound interest. And I still got a lot of fear. I mean, there's A lot of money in my Goldman Sachs account. I still don't feel like it's there. Like, it still hasn't hit. I still got this scarcity mindset. Like, man, what is something. What if the economy. What if World War 3. Like this weird that I still genuinely think 20 is a lot of money. Like, I'm like, I tip really, really well, but I'm, like, very cautious about things. Like, and I think what I've learned to do is a little bit more. I've always been able to make money. It's a whole different thing to keep it. And that's so. But the more I spend, the more I feel like I've got to recoup. It's a weird. You ask me what I fear, and it's this. I didn't live in a trailer. I know you did, but I always say you could take the guy out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of the guy. And that's true for me, too.
- [23:23]
B
Yeah, I always say that to Ashley because her favorite store to shop at is Goodwill, and she loves thrifting. I'm like, you don't have to go there. She's like, I want to go there. I want to get a good deal. Do you think that after having all this cash on hand, it changed anything about you or was there just a resting period to process?
- [23:47]
A
Well, I woke up the next day. I saw the transfer go through, and I feel like I just flipped a page. And what I did is I wrote down everybody that helped me along the way. Several family members got gifted 150 grand. My mom and sister are millionaires. My dad is not. But he moved into my house and he's on an allowance because he'll blow it. Dan, I hope you're not watching, but he's getting a brand new pool table. I just got him. He's got a golden tee. I sent him on golf trips. A lot of people got 30 grand gifted to them. I just said, who helped me along the way? That doesn't work here anymore. And 25 millionaires came out of the process. But what the coolest thing was, I saw them transform their life, their family's life. They got their dreams started to come true. And it's not only material things, but there's a sense of relief. Different schools just really able to help out their family in a bigger way, break that generational curse that a lot of us had placed on us. And, you know, for me, they really just 10x to what my personality was And I think, you know, I've got some big, big, big, big, big plans. I still feel like I'm at. I'm in the first inning. I really am. And I want to change the world. And I've got a way to do it and I'm dead set on it. And it has a lot to do with food and the way that homeless and helping a lot of people around the world. And I really want to go speak to high schools and universities eventually. So the idea of this compound interest, it's going to be such a big amount that I'll be able to help a lot more people. And all my. When I do form all these 50001 3Cs and nonprofits, it's going to go straight towards the cause. It's not going to be. I don't think the government spends money well and I don't think most charities spend money well. So I just want to do something that helps a hundred percent and makes impact. And because I know a lot about business, I think I could do more than most. And I don't feel like I have to, but I feel like a part of my heart needs to, man, I want to.
- [26:05]
B
So you, you have this plan. This is just something you're thinking about. I mean, and you have 50 more years to do all this stuff, right?
- [26:15]
A
Yeah, that, that time. And I've been working on reverse engineering what happened when I was 41, what happened when I was 42. I'm starting to get into this manifestation stage of purpose. My buddy John Rulin died recently. They had four kids, four girls under the age of 15. He was healthy as can be and tomorrow's not promised. So I got to learn to enjoy the journey just as much as the destination. And I think a lot of us forget that. It's tough. Next year is going to be a tough year. It's going to be a hard work year. I get to watch my dreams come to life, the houses, but I don't get to move in them because they're not going to be ready. So next year I'm kind of like, man, next year. Part of me is like, man, next year. Just I can't wait for the next year. After next year, you know, like 20.
- [27:08]
B
26, kind of like your 11th grade year in high school. It's like a filler year waiting to be.
- [27:15]
A
And I feel like I got. But.
- [27:16]
C
But why?
- [27:17]
A
Like I'm trying to analyze this and say, what can I do? Like, what did I do when I turned 42? What was that year? What are the Bucket list things that I got done. And, you know, I always have a next goal. I always. Even when I hit 10.5% body fat, I'm like, what's the next goal? What's the next goal? And I have a hard time just going into what people call maintenance mode. I just don't live in maintenance mode. I never have, and I don't like that term. So there's always something different that I'm pursuing.
- [27:51]
B
Well, for the last few minutes, I want to show you something. Just get your thoughts on it. And then also, I want to talk about the economy. There's going to be some people listening to this that are like, man, I do want the tactical stuff, too. So we'll do a couple minutes of that.
- [28:05]
A
Yeah, absolutely. I look forward to that.
- [28:08]
B
But I know that you've talked about being a dad in the future. You know, our core business right now, because I haven't even talked to you about this, is we have this model called decentralized coaching where people are forming these small accountability groups. And one thing I learned when my former coaching company, Conquer, got really big was the bigger it got, the more kind of corporate and sterile that it got. Not on purpose. It's just this huge thing. And these people get lost in this just wild amounts of resources. But when it was really small, it was, like, really special. It was emotional. We had marriages saved. We had people cry regularly at events, but it was small and intimate, and it's almost like it needed to be bottom up instead of top down. So we're doing that as our core thing. But one of the things we built that I think is cool, and I want to get your thoughts on it, is this little simple app for families called Honor and fire Mode. And because my wife and I's heart is for family and you don't have a kid yet, but you're going to be like this insane super dad. Okay. I'm excited for Tommy Jr. He's going to be a maniac. And what this is is basically creating a family brand. Because when Ashley and I almost got divorced, this is how we saved ourselves from divorce. We created a family logo, a family birthright, Core values, Latimer of the month. We had date nights and one on ones with our kids. This is like a simple tracker for families to do that, which is pretty simple. You can also track purple unicorns, which is our code word for special mommy, daddy time, if you know what I mean.
- [29:40]
A
Ah.
- [29:41]
B
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Whatever's measured will improve. Right?
- [29:44]
A
Plan sex.
- [29:45]
B
Yeah. See, this is today. Today. Was a good day. So anyway, and then there's like trainings for the kids in here, you know, that our kids made for their kids and there's all this stuff. I guess when it comes to systems, you don't have a family yet. What do you think about this?
- [30:05]
A
It's fantastic. And there's been a lot of research done by Harvard on writing things down, setting, keeping a great calendar, living your core values, really tailoring your mission and vision to the right things. Not to do it, to do it. And you know, I got this sheet of my one on ones. Who did you spend time with this week? Significant activities. What observations, ideas or insights do you have on a scale from 1 to 10? Rate your performance. What core values did you apply this week? What did you do well this week? What can you improve on next week? What's the most important decision you're facing? What's keeping you from making it? What helper direction do you need? What key activities or priorities are on your mind for next week? And then I've got on the backside, we're getting birthdays, anniversaries, dogs, kids, birthdays, best days you had in the company. And then what commitments are you committed to and you're going to sign off and if there's. And I'm going to sign off that I'm going to remove your obstacles if I can. It's a commitment to one another and then we're going to place this in a spot that you can see it every day and then you're going to tell the team what you're committed to. But what you're doing with this app is a lot like I'm talking about and as long as they have a say, you know, I think it's very tough when they got to have buy in and if the family all has buy in and they're excited about it, it's an amazing app and if they, they've got to use it and there's got to be accountability and there's gotta be gamification and there's gotta be a reason. And it sounds like to me you've nailed this. And it, it's, it looks amazing and I'll definitely, I'd like to check it out as soon as possible.
- [31:56]
B
Yeah, we need to make a couple Tommy Jr. S and get them in there.
- [32:01]
A
Tommy Jr. If I have a girl, it'll be Thomasina.
- [32:04]
B
Thomasina. Okay, well, let's end on marketing. We have a saying that marketing is everything and everything is marketing. And what I mean by that is that marketing Is not. Should I use blue or red on my marketing literature? Marketing is sophisticated, choreographed, asymmetrical communication. I mean, the way that you, you look is marketing. The tone and emphasis and voice, inflection, pacing, mirroring everything is marketing. Parenting is marketing. Because when Thomasina is growing up and you want to transfer your, your principles and beliefs into her, there's ways to do it, ways to frame it, ways to. And so we try to teach people, literally, literally everything is marketing. Marketing is everything. With that being said, people are super freaked out right now. There's like World War 3, there's freaking hurricanes, people are panicking. There's pre election stuff, there's nonsense everywhere. Inflation and bacon and all the things from where you sit. What advice do you have to people doing less than a couple million a year on how they should look at this approach IT tactics?
- [33:08]
A
Yeah, I gotta, you know, I can go here for another 10 minutes. Cause this is my jam. As long as you want. Number one, if I was to go help a company out, what's the first thing I do? I think technology is what we need to discuss first. Your CRM, your payroll software, your accounting software. And is your data accurate? Do you have accurate key performance indicators? And then I find the biggest holes and we go after that. And marketing is usually one of them, but it has a lot to do with your call center booking the calls and a lot with your dispatching for dollars, conversion rate and average tickets. So a lot of marketing companies are getting blamed for just really, really poor execution in a company. And then I figure out the orange shirt and there's always missing seats on the bus or the wrong seats. And usually it's in the financial side of the house. They just don't have the numbers. They don't know. They walk into work and don't know what they're supposed to do. And they, they stay busy. You know these people. Josh, man, I put in 70 hours this week. Not productive.
- [34:17]
B
Busy.
- [34:17]
A
Yeah, no productivity. So what I've learned is when I work with Al Levy and my best mentor I've ever had, other than my parents, he really got me to focus on systems manual standard operating procedures and checklists and creating processes and knowing the score. And so I got really good at that. And he came in one day to my office and he printed out my truck on black and white. And he goes, your logo sucks, dude. And he had me call Dan Antonelli with kick charge. So I got the brand dialed in at 40 million. And I just said, al, if you say to do it, I'M doing it. And it was the best move I ever did because now I attracted affluent clients and now people wanted to work for me. My signature was the brand. My yard signs matched my. My story brand by Donald Miller was. I matched the story. My billboards, the tv, radio, the uniforms. I standardized it all. The website, it all felt. And I got to give it up. Dan. It's only. And there's some simple things you could do if you want to get the phone ringing off the hook. There's not. There's no algorithm change with relationships. And I'm not afraid to go meet people. I'm not afraid to go to a B.
- [35:36]
B
And I say that again for the kids in the back. They're rolled right through a mind bomb.
- [35:42]
A
Yeah. So the fact is people always ask me, what do I do right now? And I say I'm going to get back to the grassroots guerrilla marketing. You go meet people and you genuinely. And you smile and you help. You go to a B and I meeting you go to a Rotary Club, you go to a chamber meeting, you knock on real estate. Find the biggest, best. The second thing you can do is what if I told you success leaves clues everywhere. And if you want to get to the best call center, call Housecall Pro or, or, or service center Service Fusion or Jobber. And you get a hold of the founder or somebody at the company that's got access to data and you say in this software, who's using it the best with the highest booking rate? And they say, I can't give you that information. You say, can you contact them and tell them I want to buy the whole office lunch and I want to read their book and I want to come in and fly out to them humbly and I'll help them in any way I can and I want. I'm here to learn. I brought an. I bought a notebook. I'm going to take notes. I'm not going to tell them how big I'm going to get and sell them me. I'm just going to go in with questions. And if you want to get the best product mix, call the manufacturer you work with and say who's selling the best product mix and you'll get the information. If you want to know how to get to the top of Google, just type in H Vac Repair Grand Rapids and find the company that's ranking the best in your market and find out what they're doing and call them and go meet them the next thing. And I've been really big on this because My buddy Kellen came up with this software called Pin Parrot P A R O t dot com and it's an algorithm that runs in the background and it takes pictures out of your CRM and feeds them into your website and your Google My business page. And he said, he called me one day and said I kind of figured out how to beat Google. And I was like, okay, sure you did. And I'm like, you can test it out. How much is it? He's like 700 bucks. I'll do it out five location. I'll give you a free one. Well, my VP of marketing came in and two weeks, two months later he said, I don't know what's going on, but the calls have tripled in these six areas. And I'm like, I forgot to tell you because I just paid him myself. I just venmoed him or whatever. It's Kellen. And so I've recommended Kellen to 100 people. And some people don't even claim their Google page. Some of them aren't getting reviews with pictures in them. So we track these things and we or some of them pick the wrong location that's in an industrial area that aren't going to get any work. So what Kellen looks at is are you in the wrong location? Do you have a lease? Can you sublease? Can you get multiple locations with showrooms? Because Google, my business is the best ROI we have. And is your LSA maxed out? Like I'm a big fan of Google and I'm a big fan of direct response and I'm a big fan of Valpack and Clipper and I'm a big fan of affiliate marketing. But these simple little things, if I were under $2 million or $1 million, I make sure I'm getting a review on Google, a review on Next door, a review on Shelp and a Yelp and a video testimonial. Another thing is Chirp and there's other softwares that do this. You can do go high level, but it's a revenue recovery tool. So when you don't close a bid, it's a follow up cycle to get them back on the phone and figure out what it's going to take there in their business. Erin Gaynor turned it on to where if you miss a call or don't book a call, there's an automated text message that goes to the client. You'll never get a class action lawsuit if you do it. Do not call list. We haven't had any yet, but he did 370 grand his first week. The average, I think Brian said the average sure person is getting a 10,000% ROI. So these are simple little things. Do more with what you got. Close more deals, book more phone calls, dispatch for dollars, get more reviews, meet more people and have a plan and know your numbers. And hire the things you hate the most. And hire people that are smarter, better, stronger than you, that have been where you want to go. Don't find somebody that wants. If you're a million dollars, don't find a hundred million. Buy somebody that's at 5 or 6 million that's been where you want to go. And then there's Cameron. Harold says a COO most of the time, unless they're really working on themselves, has the potential to double you twice. Double. Double your company twice. Then you might need. We feel this sense of loyalty, but you got to be loyal back. And we've got to hit goals and we've got to have accountability. And I talked to my COO and said, you're the bottleneck. I might have to move you to a different position unless you come up with a good plan in the next two weeks. And he did. And it's killing it. And he's killing it. And he's the right guy. And I told him, you might not be the right guy in a year. And that's not saying anything's wrong with you, but are you committed to this company? I will find you a seat on the bus regardless. And I don't mind having these hard conversations, these fierce conversations. And I got a vivid vision and people are following my vision. And that's my job, is to execute the vision. And I'm not. We don't. We're not a family here. We're a high performing team. And I'm a coach. What happens if the coach loses? Two seasons Josh there. And I'm part of private equity now and I can. If I don't get results and I'm on a losing streak, I could be out. So I gotta, I gotta run the right place. I've got a lot of accountability, but I don't mind it. I flourish. You put me between a rock and a hard spot. That's what I do my best. I'm very, very good with high stress environments and a lot of people aren't. And usually when I interview somebody for a C suite or VP level, my main goal, because they've had so many interviews, the team picked them, is to see if they could tolerate my entrepreneurship style because I'm not your typical corporate 9 to 5. I will call you on weekends, nights and holidays. And they know that. And I'm very. And I'm not changing, I'm not going to try to change myself to adapt to you, you are going to have to adapt to me. And I'm very, very clear on that. So those are some easy ways to win. You know, brand is important if you want to attract the right clients, but more importantly the right coworkers you need in your company.
- [41:57]
B
And we teach a really simple framework, kind of our core framework for small companies. I call it frap. I don't think I've ever talked to you about this, but I never heard of it. I'm writing it's because I made it up. So the FRAP formula is frequency, referrals, average ticket and price. And typically what I do with a small company, you can double the EBITDA of a little business without spending any money on anything just by doing this. Or triple it sometimes. And it's building simple systems to get people to buy more often, which is frequency opening up more distribution through referrals, not just from your customers, but joint ventures, collaboration locally with other people, doing thank you page swaps for example. And that creates a lot of deal flow for these small companies. And then average ticket is cross selling and upselling and pricing. And I'm just curious your thoughts on this. I teach supply and demand pricing, that's elastic based on the demand curve. And when I do this for little companies, it gets insane results fast. For no money, no agency, no ad spend, no nothing. Then we do ad spend, then we start doing paid acquisition because you're running a customer through a frappy business model now where your average ticket's up, your pricing is elastic and up, the referral channels are up and the frequency systems are in place to get people to buy more often. What do you think?
- [43:19]
A
I. I want to show you a quick video. I think you'll really like this video, if you don't mind. It's. It's about one minute. I just gotta find it and then I'll share it. I think this is it.
- [43:32]
C
Liberty Mutual.
- [43:33]
B
Customize my card.
- [43:35]
A
This is the ad. And then I'm going to stream the screen.
- [43:37]
C
Thought I'd get a wax figure of myself.
- [43:40]
B
Got to get YouTube Premium.
- [43:42]
A
Tommy, you know I have it. I just, I had Ashley buy it. Okay. Check out this video. And those of you that aren't watching, just listen. It's. I guess it's 1 minute, 30 seconds.
- [43:57]
C
I'm sure you've noticed that in every industry, in every town, there's always some jackass that gobbles up the lion's share of the business. And it's never because of the best.
- [44:06]
A
At what they do.
- [44:07]
C
Remember I said jackass. I'll bet this just pisses you off in my life. So what does this ding dong know about business that do? What's his secret view through power? And how is this fair in any way, shape or form? Fact is, it ain't fair. If you deliver a better product or a better service, you should win. But homie, business ain't fair in today's market. The secret is learning to play with an unfair. The chances are our knuckle driving friend has simply stumbled across one of the only three ways in the world to grow a good business. And there really are only three. Number one, he's getting more customers. But imagine what if you could get three times as many customers to your business? Your business would grow by 300% overnight. Number two, you may be making more profit per sale than you are. But what if you knew the McDonald's secret? To triple your profits on every single second. Compound that with those new customers and your profits would rise by 900%. Number three, he may be getting his customers to come back more often than you. But what if you knew the Starbucks secret? To get your customers to come back like a boomerang, at least three times.
- [45:16]
A
More often than they do all three.
- [45:18]
C
And your business would grow by 2700%. It's a mathematical search.
- [45:25]
B
That is fire. Who wrote the script on that? It was hilarious. It was. Great copy. Great copy.
- [45:30]
A
Perry Belcher.
- [45:31]
B
Perry Belcher wrote that for you.
- [45:34]
A
That's his voice. Oh, that's awesome.
- [45:36]
B
Oh, that's awesome. Oh, I got it. Yeah, yeah, that's the same idea. The frat. I'll take that as a. You agree with the frat formula because it's based on logic.
- [45:45]
A
Yeah. You get more customers, you keep them coming back. If you ever read the Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes, what he did is he studied businesses and he'd write case studies. And there was a carpet company and the average carpet cleaning was done 18 months. 18 months, they go back to clean the carpet. And so they did a study and they found that carpet actually makes the work environment, the home environment way healthier. It actually collects germs, but after six months, it actually spreads germs. So when he came out with the study and he educated his clients, guess what happened? He got it to every six months and tripled his income. Like this said so. If you triple your average ticket, you triple your frequency, and you increase your conversion, and you get more leads and conversion rates of play on that, too. You could do crazy things. I. I'm very, very. I'm. I'm very, very good at numbers. And I think most people just don't know the score. And that's the problem. They don't know the score. And I'll tell you, there's a book out by Joe Chrisara. It's called what Should We Do? And he teaches you how to give options, not ultimatums. And you should be giving every one of your client six options, at least three. And if you price it right. And I've been studying a lot with Robert Cialdini. He's actually speaking at an event this week. He's 79 years old. He wrote the book Influence and Persuasion. And that's one thing, too. Josh is. I'm a student for life. I am the most humble student and the best student. When I work with you, I literally tell you, Josh, I'm going to be the best student you've ever worked with. Not only because I learned, but because I implement. And I will only focus on what you teach me. I will not read a bunch of books. I'm going to do podcasts, but I will master what you teach me, and I find the best, and I pay for access. In fact, I spend a probably a million dollars this year on coaches for myself. One guy charged me 300 grand a year, and I'm glad to pay it, and it's a great roi. So I think the more I work on me, the better things get.
- [47:52]
B
A lot of small companies are scared to pay a thousand bucks to try to level themselves up. And you have people like you are spending a million dollars a year. And I know there's different levels, but were you always willing to make those investments, even when your company was small?
- [48:06]
A
Al Levy charged me a lot of fricking money, man. A lot of money. More than I'd like to even say. But it was the best investment I've ever made.
- [48:18]
B
You know, another thing I really respect about you is how you edify and honor where you learned things. And a pet peeve of mine is everybody just says stuff and tries to act cool. You never do that, and you constantly edify these other people that have helped you. You close the transaction for generational wealth and all that, and then you make a list of all the people that helped you. I just. I just want to recognize that in you because it's epic.
- [48:45]
A
I literally, oh, there's so many Adam Cronenberg that came into 2014. You know, I worked with Dan Martell, and Dan said to me, you know what happened, Tommy? That changed everything for me is I used to be a deal maker. Always looking for a discount, always looking for a hustle. And he goes, I just decided one day to buy like I want to be bought from. No more negotiations, no more deal making. And he goes, it's crazy what the world did. No longer do people want to make deals with me. No longer did people say, I can't afford that. They pay my full price. And I started doing that. I started saying, just let me pay the full price. I'll even put a bonus program in for you. I'd rather pay you more. And it's crazy what the world, you know, Jesus, karma, whatever you believe in, it's just weird when you buy like you want to be bought. And so many people, they're afraid to spend the money. And, you know, I've got a program that we do and. But people don't do the work. And I've realized home service companies, it's very hard to get a quiet moment. Your phone's going off, you're in the firefight, you're in the dogfight. You can't build manuals. You never. You. You order LD's program online that he built, and it's. It's like 10 grand or 8 grand or something. And the problem is you don't do the work. I was lucky enough to have him in my office. We put our cell phones off, and he said, we're locking ourselves in here until we come to a conclusion and finish this manual. And he came in twice a week, and he almost fired me three times. He said, stop. We're not doing that. You're not doing this to. You master these particular things. And he was really rough with me, and I needed it. I needed it bad. And I said, why are we working on this? He said, because you haven't mastered this yet. He goes, until the manuals and the org chart, the depth chart are done, and it's communicated and it's read every single day. And every single technician reads it out loud and initials every page and signs the end. And it's a breathing, living document. We're not going to do anything else. And he had to make it part of our culture. And, man, I do give Al a lot of credit, but it's. It's. And he brought Alan Rohr in, and she taught us the financial quick check. And I've had a Lot of mentors. You know, that's. That's how I kind of travel through time quicker.
- [51:12]
B
Well, I feel like some people. A lot of people have mentors, but they don't edify them after the fact. I mean, and we don't have to spend a lot of time on that. I just want it. I think it's awesome that you do that. I think it's a big deal. I try to do that, you know, when. If I say a quote that I got from you, I say that I got it from you, and I think that's just a respect thing, and I think that's really cool.
- [51:34]
C
Then you're right.
- [51:35]
A
Yeah. You know, I do a lot of R D. I accidentally rip off and duplicate people, and sometimes I think they're original thoughts. They read so many books that I'm podcasting all the time. I don't want to probably tell somebody about frap, but I'll give you credit, because that's a very distinct one. But, you know, sometimes we. We. I don't think people realize that they're not giving credit because they just subconsciously. I. I don't necessarily know if they want to take credit. Maybe they're just that type of person. But, you know, I'll continue to get help. I'll continue to ask for help, get more organized, get into this mindset of flow, and start with the hard things first. And a lot of people, Josh, I. I know we got to get going here. Their definition of great would not even be a D player at my company. It's all they know. I know the number one technician in service type. His name is Phil. This year in h vac in the field, he'll do $23 million. Most definition of good in h vac killer is 2 million. He's 10xing that. So I think we got to redefine what good is. You need to redefine what your goals is because you're thinking too small. And if you're. If a lot of money for you is $100,000 that you. You're limited by your mindset. And I still think 100,000 is a lot of money. But now it's weird. It's like monopoly money for me. I'm like. Like, we did 987,000 yesterday. And I'm like, okay, how do we get to 2 million a day? And I. But also, I do tell the team, this is amazing. Was a great day. It's a great week, and we do celebrate. But they're like, are you ever happy? I'M like, I'm over. I'm thrilled. It's phenomenal. It's exciting. What's next?
- [53:30]
B
And I got to work and thank you for your time. I'm going to let you go. I just. But I have noticed that what people think big even is dictates how long it takes for them to achieve. If you think a million dollar business is this pinnacle thing, It'll take you 10 years to build it where someone like you would rip past it like on accident on your way to your version of big. So I think that's really powerful perspective, man. I appreciate your time.
- [53:54]
A
One last thing.
- [53:55]
B
Yeah. Okay.
- [53:56]
A
John Warlow, Built to sell. I went through a transaction we were prepared for. It was the best thing I've ever done. Most people forget about the money that's working for them. That when they take chips off the table and this idea of selling a business, people feel like their identity is warped into the business. And I get that. And there's this book, it's called Shine eos Brain Farting. But you, you, you do feel this. You, you, you get this money and you fill this void in your life. And if you understand the goal of a business is to build it successfully and sell it. Your kids don't want your business. I'm sorry, they might act like they want it, but they don't. They want freedom. So now that I've gone through a transaction, everything is in a three year plan that I get involved in. Three years or less, I do an equity incentive program. A lot of people win. It recruits people. It keeps them here and it keeps them rolling in the same direction fast. And their families will benefit from it. And I've proven that. And I think these little tips, if you do them right and you're focused and you just. Racehorses wear blinders. They don't flip houses. They don't buy extravagant things and keep up with the Joneses. They have delayed gratification and they sprint in the right direction. They avoid the noise and they're focused. Essentialism and the One thing by Gary Keller. If you do these things. They've interviewed 50 billionaires and there was one common trait of all of them. They read one book a week, nonfiction, all self help. So if money's your freedom and you're looking for it and it's a tool for you, you need to make some really hard choices, stay focused and stay disciplined and say, what's in it for them? If you have this concept every time you sit down is what's in it for them? And you could pay more, you could recruit better. You understand what top grading is. You're going to win big. And I love you, buddy. Listen, I always have a blast. I know our future. We're going to be spending more time. I'm building the house in standpoint. You guys are going to come out there, you bring the kids, we're going to fish, we're going to golf, going to go out on the boat and.
- [56:04]
B
My younger daughters will play with Thomasita.
- [56:07]
A
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. When that happens, listen, this place will be built in 2026 and for me, it's, it's a, it's a, it's. I, I get to spend time with the people I love the most and experiences and just, I cannot wait for my A1 team to come. Like, the most exciting thing for me is my family and my A1 team here to get there and to look at their faces when they're living their best life. And that's true. Genuine, real. Like, I, I'm happy in my apartment. It's a thousand square feet. I don't need nice things. It's. It's when you've been broke and you had nothing. I'm the worst competitor of all because I could have nothing and still be happy. And I'm always willing to put it on the line. So money does not make me happy. But these fun tokens and being on a boat and being able to take the people I care about the most and live our best life is really what makes me tick. So I appreciate being on here. I hope some, I hope you took some notes and you're ready to implement some of these things and just go to church. Find a church you love. Catholic church was tough for me. I got up, did the communion, you know, it's all, half of it's in Latin. I found a church I loved and I enjoyed and they didn't talk about, they gave me real actionable items and talked about love and caring about your neighbors and find something you love, faith, fitness, family and finance and you'll be on the right road.
- [57:34]
B
Amen. Love you, bro. You're so fascinating. Have a great rest of your day and thank you for taking so much time.
- [57:41]
A
I had a blast. Thank you. Appreciate it.
- [57:47]
B
Do you want to weaponize your brain and turn it into a money making MA machine? Consider joining Warplan Coaching. You'll get thousands of dollars in exclusive courses and training, a private community, a chance to come to in person meetups at War Plan studios, and access to myself for Q and A every single month. Want to know the best part? It's free. Plus, we'll send you a private weekly newsletter full of money making tips and cutting edge ideas. Just go to warplan.com to sign up. Hey, I'm your biggest fan rooting for you. We'll see you next time.