--:-- Ryan Hanley: [Intro] My dad looks at me and he goes, "You wanted that, didn't you?" And I smiled and I said, "Yeah, that would be awesome, dad." And he's like, "Well, here's five bucks. Go get it." And I said, "Well, dad, it's $20." And he said, "No." He goes, "Offer her five." He goes, "Here's your first lesson. Let's go."
--:-- Ryan Hanley: The Ryan Hanley Show shares the original ideas, habits, and mindsets of world-class original thinkers you can use to produce extraordinary results in your life and business. This is The Way.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. Incredible to have you here. We have a tremendous conversation for you with Tommy Mello. Tommy's a serial entrepreneur, a powerhouse entrepreneur, taking his one-man garage door service company and turning it into one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States with over 200 million in sales and over 800 employees spread out over 20 states. He's now invested in and owns over 14 businesses and is the host of one of Apple's top business podcasts, the Home Service Expert Podcast.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Tommy's an incredible guy. We talk about what it takes to be a kind of gorilla, boots on the ground entrepreneur, growing that business into a true enterprise, why fitness, wellness, health plays a major role in his success and the impact that his father had on shaping him into the entrepreneur today, as well as many tactics that you can put into your business today. Do not miss this episode. You're going to love this episode.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Guys, leave us your comments, your thoughts. What did Tommy say that got you thinking? Go and leave a review, share your thoughts in the review, or you can head over to YouTube, leave it in the comments, connect with Tommy. Guys, this episode is what this show is all about. Here we go.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: When did you start and how did you start learning the lessons that got you to where you are today to be able to drive hard, to grow big companies, invest, create the content that you do and be as dynamic as your career is now?
--:-- Tommy Mello: I mean, I was exposed to it. My dad owned a transmission shop when I was fairly young, but I didn't know what I was learning. I think the first time I really learned how to negotiate, I was five years old and we were at a garage sale. And I saw this CB radio, police station radio, and it was like 1978 model. It had this long antenna. And I'm five years old and I'm kind of joking around, "Roger, Roger, 509."
--:-- Ryan Hanley: [Laughs]
--:-- Tommy Mello: And it had a $20 price tag of scotch tape on it. And I walked back to the car real slowly and my dad looks at me and he goes, "You wanted that, didn't you?" And I smiled. I said, "Yeah, that would be awesome, dad." And he's like, "Well, here's five bucks. Go get it." And I said, "Well, dad, it's $20." And he said, "No." He goes, "Offer her five. Here's your first lesson."
--:-- Tommy Mello: And I didn't know what to do, man. I had butterflies going and I walked up real slow. And I'm looking back at my dad and he's waving. I walked up to the lady and I picked it up and I said, "Would you take $5 for this?" And that's my dad. And he's waving and smiling at her, and she knew what was going on. Negotiating. It was timid as hell. And she said, "Yes, I'd love to take $5 for this." And I walked back and that was a life lesson.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And my dad was always doing stuff like that about winning. He made me do 100 push-ups a day. He got me involved a lot. And he was the type of guy that was relentless. He'd win. He'd beat me. He didn't take it easy. Beat me at games. He did spank the shit out of me when I was a kid. Not to like black and blue, but I was disciplined. And my mom, my mom used to walk around to every for sale by owner and knock on their door, just shameless.
--:-- Tommy Mello: But I didn't know, as I got older, I started flipping vehicles and hustling. And what I learned was these last few years of success was the hustler had to die. I needed to become more dynamic. I didn't need to outwork more people. I needed to create culture and train more and delegate more and become a master delegator and get into the right rooms. Instead of saying, "I'm going to outwork people," I'm going to find people that are smarter than me, that have been where I want to go and enable them and give them a good pay structure and have them win as well.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And that's a life lesson right there. And most people never hit that spot where they're like, "I don't even understand what you're saying because you're talking over my head." And not like a doctor, but they're like, "Oh, whether it's attribution models of marketing or CFO and getting our tools to count as EBITDA from switching it from three months to three years when the technician gave it added 1.2 million of EBITDA." And just understanding accelerated depreciation gap accounting. And my COO is a wizard, understands our CRM better than I ever will. So I do the things that I chose that I can be the best at and continue to elevate. And I don't want to be a jack of everything. I don't need to understand everything perfectly. I'm going to hire the right people.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And money is the biggest lesson. I just gave my niece and nephews $400 a month and I quiz them for 30 minutes each. We just read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I mean, I've read it a bunch of times, but they understand assets and liabilities and to work for yourself if you're inclined to, but there's a lot of risk and delayed gratification and the lessons that I've learned and what they're going to be learning as they get into college. And the next book I'm having them read is Go for No. And $400 a month, none of them got the $400. One of them got $350. The other two got $375. I was very light on grading. But these are life lessons. And I wish I had somebody that really put it into layman's terms when I was younger. But you got to be ready. Like people say, "Well, if I talk to my 20-year younger self," 20 years younger, I wasn't ready for a lot of advice. I was still like the guy that I felt like I knew a lot. And I was just ready to fail. And that's probably my best asset is I'm not afraid. I'm the biggest failure in the room most of the time.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I agree with what you just said, specifically the last piece around you have to be ready. I consider my awakening to business and really what it takes to be truly successful at the age of 35. And I'd say when I turned 40, and that number doesn't have nothing to do with the number 40, just that was around the time, so this is like around COVID time. I felt like I don't know what the right word is, a little sad, a little... sad is probably the right way, or maybe a little guilty that man, what could I have become if I had thought at 23 I had woken up to these things?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And I agree with everything you said about delegating, about putting people in positions, about being a true cultural leader, providing people the opportunity to become their best self, 100%. But it really took me 35 years to be ready. And it's over the last couple of years, I've come to the conclusion that if you had presented me with these ideas when I was 25, they would have just went right through me. They wouldn't have stuck. For whatever reason, for my life, my journey, it was that age when all of a sudden it started hitting me.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And I said, I was 25 pounds heavier. I'd put on... I was a college baseball player and played after college. But once I stopped playing, I got married and that 10 year period, I let everything go. It was like this moment. And I think we can't, regardless of where we are in our lives, there's this sense that it's, "Well, I'm too late." Right. I'm 42 years old. I'm 50 years old. Well, we can start to make this change at any time. So when you really made that shift from hustle, hustle, hustle to becoming a true leader, we'll call it. What was the impetus of that? What was the spark? What changed your mindset to where you're like, "This is who I need to become now to put my company, myself, my family, my people in the best position?"
--:-- Tommy Mello: I think I'm a guy that's a macro guy. I've got a macro vision and I never self-reflected at all. I was thinking about tomorrow, one year from now, 10 years from now, never thinking about the day that just happened and just kind of thinking about what I could have done better. I've always had a high EQ where I try to put myself in the other person's point of view. But when COVID happened, we really didn't know how bad. We just knew people were dying and there was no PPP money at the time and we learned it was deadly, the corona virus. And it was like, wow, it was on every news station. And we weren't about to put our people in an unsafe position.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And the joker on the office was, "You might have to go back into the field." Because I could have... I'm like, "Give it to me." I didn't really care if I was ready to die. I was ready to die. And that's not the way I live my life, but at that time I'm like, I just was like, "I'm not gonna let this take down the business."
--:-- Tommy Mello: There was a line outside of my door, this office sitting right here, and Tyler came in and said, "Hey brother, I know you must have the world on your shoulders right now trying to figure out which way to navigate this. You've been a great communicator these last few days. I decided, I talked to my wife, I want to cut my pay in half. I want to see the future of this company grow. She makes great money. I'm more than willing to do this for the company." Then the next person walked in and said, "I want you to take all my PTO and give it to somebody that needs it." The next one came in and said, "Take all my sick days and PTO." There was more and more and more throughout the week.
--:-- Tommy Mello: I decided to be the leader I was meant to be. I had to really start focusing on somebody I'd want to work for. Somebody that led in a bigger way. Somebody that really cared about my dreams. Somebody that was focused instead of a performance improvement plan on my vision board, on my vacations, on my quality time with family, on getting me out of my apartment and home ownership and great credit and going on these dream vacations and spending quality time. And when that shifted, little did I know I was going to get 1.8 million in PPP money later. And I put it straight into marketing, which most companies did. That was like the catalyst.
--:-- Tommy Mello: But when that happened, it was like I was reborn and the company was reborn and the culture was reborn and everything changed. And when I get to watch somebody... we have record days, record weeks, record months, record quarters. It's just going like this. We got 63 brand new technicians and installers starting next month. There's 32 here right now. I can tell you records don't mean shit compared to when someone owns a house and changes their family tree. I mean, I literally had no idea I was going to feel this way in my heart. But when I watched somebody win, and what had to happen to me is I had to get the money out of the way.
--:-- Tommy Mello: Because I sat there and listened to mom and dad get a divorce because of bills. I stood on a toilet and listened through the drywall every day of them arguing about money. And it was something that I wasn't able to get married and have kids yet because I needed to get the money out of the way. I wasn't going to let that ruin my family. And it's tough to even talk about. I don't really try to go here to these emotions because they're locked up somewhere for a reason. But I needed to get beyond that.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich talks a lot about 40s. Everything changes. You've done the work, you've partied, you played around, you kind of get your shit together. And 40 was a really good year for me because that was the year we sold half the company to PE and 25 millionaires who had an equity incentive program. 25 people came out anywhere from a million to 15 million. And I didn't have to celebrate on my own. And on this next turn, there will be a hundred people. And you can put into words the people that have helped you. And I done the math. We did way better with everybody rolling in my direction than I could have done by me taking all of the money. So it was two birds with one stone.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Why do you think so many people struggle with that mindset that you just described?
--:-- Tommy Mello: Well, I think what we say is, "We took all the risk. You work for me. I'm the one that was in jeopardy that had to mortgage my house. I had to write personal checks. I had to take the phone calls. I had to get the cancellations. I was the one that was stolen from. I had a guy, I had the cops show up. I'm the one that dealt with the heat. I deserve this. We deserve this. My family deserves this." And I understand that you did take all the risk, but you signed up for that. That's what you chose to do. And that's something that's super important to realize is someone's taking a risk putting their family's life in your hands, hoping that they found the right career and to be respected and to be involved.
--:-- Tommy Mello: So I think a lot of people, they just haven't hit it. And some people never will. Some people think, "You work for me. Well, why are we doing this? Because I said so." And then you wonder why nobody wants to work for you. When I look at a job ad, where if you go on Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, Monster, Craigslist, it looks like a jail sentence. "Must be available. Background checks, drug tests." Only all these prerequisites. Looks like a sentence. It doesn't look like a place that I want to work for. And also, I don't agree necessarily with going to the unemployment line to hire people. I'd rather steal them and recruit them out of another position.
--:-- Tommy Mello: But I do think we do take a lot of risk. Most businesses fail. Most don't get beyond a million dollars. And most people, they think they deserve the Harley and the second house. They're like, "We worked our ass off. We finally got the money." And they divest out of the one asset that's going to pay them back 10x. So the wife and husband talk and they say, "Well, we need this bigger house." And so they start extracting the one thing that they've invested all their time, effort, and energy into. If they just have a little bit more delayed gratification and put it back into the business, it's like a tree. And the day it starts having apples, you pull all the apples off. If you let it grow, it'll have thousands of apples.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And I understand the point of view because everything I talk about, by the way, I've been guilty of. So I'm not somebody here giving advice from a place of like, "I'm the master, listen to me." It's because I've went down the wrong path and I've made a lot of mistakes and I'm trying to come from a point of help. And if you want to listen, great. If you don't agree, I'm okay with that as well.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: You're pretty physically fit, dude. What does keeping yourself in shape, and whatever that means for you, how does that help you being a leader? Because I'll tell you, and I shared that at 35, I got my shit together and got back into what I call fighting weight and fighting shape. It changed my ability to focus. It changed my ability to be present. It changed my ability to work through the day. I didn't become irritated with things as easily. I can't stress enough to people and do on this show as much as I possibly can, how important I believe health and fitness are. What does that mean to you? And how do you work that into your day as an entrepreneur?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I hear so much from, I do a lot of coaching and I hear from guys, one of the first things I try to address with them is their health and fitness. And I get a lot of pushback. They're like, "Well, I'm not here for that. I'm here for X, Y, Z." And it's like, if you don't have the energy to make it through the day or you're getting annoyed because you're not in proper shape or don't have the right energy levels, you're not going to be able to make the right decisions on a consistent basis. So how has that helped you? How do you make time for it? And what do you recommend to people? How do you recommend people work into their kind of stress-filled, busy entrepreneurial lifestyle a healthy fit life?
--:-- Tommy Mello: Well, when someone starts, I say the first thing you need to do is when you walk on a plane, the stewardess says when the mask drops, put the oxygen mask over your face first. You're never going to be able to help your kids out if you can't breathe. I think a lot of people are trying to be everything for everyone else until they're happy looking at themselves in the mirror with the energy, the confidence, the smile. And I think it's important. What good is becoming a legacy, making a bunch of money, changing a lot of lives if you don't feel healthy and you're going to die and you're going to get cancer or you're going to be on diabetes or you're not going to be able to walk?
--:-- Tommy Mello: I literally this morning walked an hour and a half. I'm getting 20,000 steps a day. I'm very fortunate. I bought back a lot of time. I have a chef, but this is something that happened in the last year. And a driver. And I say that with the most humble respect that I know people can't just afford this stuff, but you could order meals. It's actually cheaper to go shopping than it is to eat out. I had to cut out the alcohol. I had to start supplementing. I'm on a bunch of peptides. I've been on TRT for seven years. It has nothing to do with how I look. You've got to do the work. And people are like, "Oh yeah." By the way, TRT is getting your testosterone to the levels it was when you were in your mid-20s. It's not anabolic. I'm not on D-ball and Sustanon and Deca and Winstrol.
--:-- Tommy Mello: But what I've noticed is everybody's watching me. And when my desk is clean, when I show up to meetings on time, when I show up to work, when I have energy, it's almost like a man of God. I believe in Jesus. When people see your life, they want that. They're like, "You lead by example. You walk, you don't only walk the walk, but you talk the talk." And people are like, "Dude, you're busier." I've been to five states in five days. I'm not flying to New York today. Going to bed at a decent time and tracking everything through this Oura Ring. Knowing my sleep, how much water I'm drinking, my macros, getting on the right supplements. And just doing something hard, whether that's cold plunge, sauna.
--:-- Tommy Mello: I've been doing long walks, but I had to turn the walks up to a faster pace to get my heart rate above 120. And I started doing jumping jacks on the walks and I'll be at 10% body fat by September 25th. But I set SMART goals, right? Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic with a timeline. And then I got a new goal by Christmas and a new goal by January. I can't explain the feeling of just being able to take on the world in a different way. There's no brain fog.
--:-- Tommy Mello: I'm not done drinking forever. I enjoy drinking, but once a month to a certain level, instead of getting blackout and doing binge drinking every day. I'm not going to be on the boat fishing, never having a beer again for the rest of my life. But I think there's a happy medium of everything. So sleep is the most important thing. That's when your body makes HGH and it produces testosterone and recovers. And you eat better. I had to start slowing down how fast I ate. And I enjoy the walks, man. After this interview, I'm going to go walk around the block and jump on a call. And it's just like, it's not hard. And you feel like it's so good and you sleep better.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And I don't want to watch TV and you eat healthier because I'll do this walk for 20, 30 minutes and I'll probably burn between 150 and 180 calories. I come back and have a Fig Newton with more calories than that. Like now I look at labels. I'm like, "I do all this hard work and I push it to the limit. I'm not going to blow it for one 30 second binge of something." And I don't drink my calories anymore either. And I don't do soda. And people are like, "Dude, you're an extreme." And I'm like, "No, I'm just a little more conscious." Mel Robbins wrote The Five Second Rule. Five, four, three, two, one, get out of bed. Five, four, three, two, one, put that down. I'm just more conscious of it. And I think a lot of people in the company and a lot of friends, family, neighbors are starting to see me and they're like, "I want what you have."
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah, dude, I completely agree. I do the walks too. I got, because of Andy Frisella, I got a 40 pound ruck vest. So I wear a 20 pound plate in the front, 20 pound plate in the back, go for 45 minutes. The company that I use is 5.11 is the vest. And then I got two 20 pound weights, one for the front, one for the back from Rogue Fitness. And so I do the walk and I just throw the vest on. So now you got an extra 40 pounds on. And what it does is I found all my stabilizer muscles because now you've got to walk straight up. You lean too far forward, lean too far back, you're going to fall over. So you're stabilizing. You're not just walking, but you're stabilizing the whole time. So now any shoulder or back pain I had is gone.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I do lift a lot. I love like deadlifts. I have a whole routine I do. I built a whole gym in my garage just to stay consistent with that. I like to work out every day, do something. But that ruck vest walk, 45 minutes with that ruck vest on, dude, your calves, your feet, your hips, your back, your abs, all of it just tightens up. And you start to, what I found, is you move different because you've had to stabilize that extra 40 pounds. So when you don't have it on, you just walk with a different cadence because now all those little muscles that are very difficult to train, they had to stay strong through a whole 45 minute walk or you literally tip over. And that's been a huge, huge change.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Do the cold plunge and sauna as well. I just got one of those like garage saunas. Sauna Box is the company. And my buddy recommended it. And I got people going, "What the hell you need a steam sauna in your garage for?" Right. And I'm like, one, it's good for you. Two, it sucks. At 10 minutes, you're literally cooking yourself, and it's not fun. You don't have to breathe. It's hot. You're sweating. And if I can come out at 7 o'clock in the morning and I've already gotten a walk or a workout and a sauna and a plunge in, what the hell could go on in my day that I can't take on at that point? Right. Like you just have this confidence that... it's not even the physical benefit I get from it, which is obviously there. All the science behind sauna and cold plunge is there, especially when you combine the two. But it's the mental of like, "I've already done something harder than 99% of the people are going to do already." And already 7 a.m., I'm waking my kids up, getting them ready for school, and I've already had this intense hour of not just physical strain but mental strain. And then you get into your day and you get that hard call from a client or your employee's got a problem you got to deal with or whatever, and you're like, "I got this. I've already had it. I already tested my brain this morning. This is easy. This is nonsense. I got this." And that has been an absolute game changer for me.
--:-- Tommy Mello: I wear a Whoop. I don't do the Oura. I do Whoop. I have a Whoop. Yeah, I love it. I'm listening to you talk going, "Holy shit." Like I literally do all the same things. And I'm going to give you the testosterone thing. And I know I'm supposed to be interviewing you, but it's my show.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: No, I love this. I can do whatever I want, right?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So I, in January, and I live in upstate New York, Albany area. And in January, I was off. And that's normal for up here because it's freaking cold and you don't see the sun and, you know, whatever. But I supplement and stuff. And I've gone through it for 43 years, so it's not like I'm used to it. But I was just off. And a buddy of mine recommended a company that does testosterone help, different levels. They have an oral before you go TRT. TRT would be the next stage. But I got my testosterone checked and a home test. And a guy in the early 40s should be at a minimum of 500. I always forget if it's milligram, whatever the metric is. Yeah. I was at 77. 77. So my lack of energy, my lack of production in the gym, sex drive, all these things were way off because this number was way down and I wasn't taking care of it. And since I've started supplementing, right now I'm just doing the oral supplement from a company called Maximus. Just since I've started that, dude, it's like you feel like you're back. Right now, not all the way back yet. It's going to take time. It takes about a year on this version because this is a slow drip. But like these kind of things matter. And I try to push our audience and I love having people like you on the show because you're not telling them what to do. You're sharing your story and it like these things matter so much and we just disregard them as if they don't.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: You can disconnect fitness from performance in your marriage, performance with your friends, performance at your work, your career, your hobbies. You cannot disconnect health and wellness from those things. They are the cornerstone, they're the foundation. And I just love when other people share that because if we can touch one person in this conversation who goes and gets a gym membership today and starts moving their body, it's a win. It's a fucking victory.
--:-- Tommy Mello: Yeah, no, I agree. And this whole concept of TRT, I love it when a guy gets in shape. And on Facebook, TRT, there's like a thousand comments, TRT, TRT. You think that getting your testosterone levels to back when you were 25 is what creates muscles and makes you work out. Yes, you got more energy. But as a guy that's been on testosterone replacement for seven years, I did get overweight and it wasn't because of the testosterone because I wasn't doing the work. And people might say, "Well, now you got the energy to do the work." Sure, I'm guilty of that. And I wanted the energy. But you know who I find saying it is? The victims. The people that are out of shape. The people that have literally animosity. They're jealous and envious and they think that it's a bad thing. If you're already testing out at 800, then you don't need it. But all it is is to get you back to where you are in the best production.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And then the other thing about doing something tough: I had a gal on my podcast who wrote a book called *Dopamine Nation*. She's at Stanford. She's one of the most highly intellectual people in the world. And our body, what it does with serotonin and dopamine by doing something hard—human beings were designed to do hard things. We become lazy. We don't have to leave our house. We don't have to go grocery shopping. We don't have to really do anything. Dopamine is the happy drug. And when you do hard things and your brain knows it, it releases more of these receptors called dopamine and serotonin. And when that happens, it's a chemical reaction. Now you could do drugs. One of the highest forms of dopamine release that you could do, but it's not natural and it screws you up really, really bad. Cocaine is one of the big ones. Chocolate, just having chocolate, is a small dose. And there's other things. Nicotine is the highest. And that's okay. But I'll tell you, there's a science behind doing hard things that you don't want to do. If cold plunges become easy, that doesn't qualify anymore. It doesn't let off the same dopamine.
--:-- Tommy Mello: But yeah, I want people—I never want to preach at people. I want them to see me and say, "That guy has something I don't. He's content with himself. He tries to make everybody around him better. He's pushing people to go after a big, hairy, audacious goal." And I truly just want to lead by example. And I didn't always do that and can't go backwards. All I can do is change. I'm not focused on the past. Focused on today and tomorrow. I'm focused on what I can control versus what I can't control. Focused on getting around the right people. And I got to tell you, you interview a lot of people. I'm truly happy. This isn't a mask I'm wearing. This isn't like you go watch my personal life and you say, "This guy's a liar." Like I want to live in a way that if there was a camera on me, Bree would be happy about my decisions. That my mom would be happy. That my grandma looking down on me from heaven would be happy. And if there was a recorder recording my life and I got to review it, I'd smile and say, "I became the best version of myself." I always say I'm the best I've ever been, but the worst I'll ever be, because tomorrow I'm gonna be one percent better.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I love that, dude. I absolutely love that. I mean that. There's the chart that James Clear put in his book *Atomic Habits* around if you get one percent better every day throughout the course of the year, just one percent better, you're not 37 percent better at the end of the year, you're 37.5 times better at whatever that thing is that you put effort in. And you think about that level of growth. And I just recorded a podcast a couple days ago with a guy by the name of Angus Reid. Phenomenal guy. Could be a great interview for you guys. He played 13 years in the Canadian Football League. By every metric, he shouldn't have played. As an offensive lineman, it's one of the few positions where your physical metrics are an absolute barrier. If you don't have a certain hand size, a certain wingspan, a certain height, and a certain foot size, they will not take you. And he was the smallest in every single one of those metrics and below the barrier for all of those metrics in the Canadian Football League. And he was able to push himself to the point and become the best version of himself where he was able to overcome those physical limitations and be a 13-year pro, win a Canadian championship. And I think he was all-pro like two or three times.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And what I took from him was this idea, and this is what I hear you saying: he says, "Move the mirror to the side and look out the window." Right? We spend so much time on "me, mine, what I deserve, what I should have, why don't I have that? I should have six-pack abs. I should have the great job. I should have a woman or a man or someone, whatever. I should have all that." And it's like, none of that comes from looking in the mirror. It only comes from looking out the window and providing to a community. For him, it was he felt this unyielding responsibility to his teammates to be the best at his particular function that he could be. He said, "I couldn't get past it. If I missed a block, it killed me, not because I missed the block, because I messed up something for the team. He let the team down."
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And what I hear you saying, and I just think this is so freaking phenomenal, is that you really turned into who you are today when you slid the mirror to the side and started looking out the window at your team and said, "Making these people better, making good for my family, making good for the people who have invested and taken risk in me and what my mission is and what I think we can do." That forced you to become the best version of yourself. And I think he's a hundred percent right. We cannot become the best version of ourselves staring into the mirror. It only comes through looking out the window. And that metaphor, I just connected with it so strongly. And I feel I just hear you reiterating it over and over again.
--:-- Tommy Mello: Accountability, brother. I've got my big event. It's called Freedom Event, Home Service Freedom. And it's September 25th. And I told everybody I was going to be at 10%. I didn't tell one or two people. I told the world. And I got a lot of help. I invest a lot into my personal development. And I encourage everybody here. I'll pay for anything anybody wants. If you want to get trained more, if you want to come back to Phoenix, where Apex grows your service. We're in 20 states, 37 markets. And I feel like I'm just getting started. I'm in the fetal stages. Because of all the change that's happening all the time here and the projects and the people running at goals, I'm still super, super into this company. It feels like a new company every month.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And we had an opportunity. My buddy owns this company called Rillo Voice. It's AI. It helped us out dramatically. And he got Nick Saban to come to this event. And Nick Saban is one of the most successful college coaches of all time. And it just reminded me about this Angus guy. I said, "What's more important? Is it mindset or is it teachability? Like nature versus nurture, if you will." And he said, "Tommy, it's both." Believe it or not, I can't take a small little guy and turn him into a starting offensive lineman. You know what I mean? He said, "Nobody knows this about me, but I was a better recruiter than I am a coach. But we created accountability. We let the team come up with curfews and they held each other accountable. Accountability partners."
--:-- Tommy Mello: And when I started to do this with Bree, and she went and got the DEXA scan and realized she was 37% fat, which is considered obese, and her visceral fat was up, within a month she lost 37 pounds because she knew where she was. And people do not want to look at that. They don't want to know. And when I'm tracking, I'm a KPI-driven person. I'm a data-driven guy. Like I know everything, and it's only going to get better. And I want people to just see this idea of—you know what hell on earth is? It's when you see a person walking down the beach, they got their family, their dog running with them. Hell on earth would be meeting the best version of yourself, knowing if you just would have tried and got rid of the excuses.
--:-- Tommy Mello: Everybody says, "Listen, my why is my family." Show me your calendar and your credit card bills. We'll see if that's true. Let's see if you're really—I got to peel the onion back a lot. If it was really your family, you wouldn't be working. You wouldn't be non-present when you go to the baseball games. Yeah, but you're just thinking about work. You're not where your feet are. You're not present. And that's what business does to us. We do give up a lot. We give up relationships. We give up time. And it's easy for me to say now, but no one knows the four years I lived at the apartments we bought and lived with the technicians. No one knows that I was the last one to buy a new vehicle until every tech had a new vehicle. No one knows about closing four markets. No one knows about the guy that died on the 4th of July with a fireworks accident that was a great friend of mine that worked with me. If people think I'm an overnight success, I'm an overnight success of two decades of staying focused on one thing. Racehorses wear blinders.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And I used to be a jack of all trades, shiny light. "I'm going to go do this. Oh, I'm going to flip houses. Oh, I'm going to invest in this. I'm going to do this." And I didn't realize I was divesting from the one thing that gave me the most and helped the most people and made the most impact. There's a lot that I just went off on, but no, they're real.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah, I, you know. The ability—it's the ability to say no. Right? We all want to say yes to everything and we see all these opportunities. And this was the biggest mistake I made until the age of 35. I saw opportunity in everything. And I wanted, "Well, I can do this. Well, my friend's a real estate agent. He's got 17 apartments. Why can't I have 17?" And I found the same thing. I was an inch deep and a mile wide. And I was okay at a bunch of stuff. And it wasn't until I was like, "Well, what do I love doing? I love having conversations. I love putting on performances on stage. And I love helping team members of the companies that I've run develop." Oftentimes, I care less about the product and the growth than I do about the people in the company. And what happens is, surprisingly, as I think you've already described, when you care more about the people that are growing your product than you care about growing your product, your product grows even faster than you could have ever imagined. Because if you're dragging them, you're never going to get there. But if they're dragging you, you don't even know how far you can go.
--:-- Tommy Mello: I agree. That was well said. That's 100%. I hired a guy. His name is Dan Martell. He wrote a book called *Buy Back Your Time*. And I did everything he told me to do. He said, "Dude, you're thinking in numbers. Unfortunately, you're thinking about dollar bills and numbers instead of fractions. He goes, "You need to get a driver. You need a chef. You're going to get a house manager. You're going to get organized in your personal life." And he said, "Tommy, a guy like you"—because he said I'm a lot like him—"you're going to lose billions of dollars a year of opportunities and you need to be okay with that because you're going to be super focused."
--:-- Tommy Mello: And my buddy Dave Carson a long time ago said—I said, "Dave, I like to put my eggs in a lot of baskets. You know, what if one falls? I got plenty to spare." He goes, "What if you put all your eggs in one basket? How quick would it overflow into new things?" Like imagine this basket overflows and now you've got a team and now you can take on more. I think a lot of people—it doesn't mean you can't take on new things. I've got a family office. We invest in a lot of companies. It's a very, very robust team, smarter people than me. But I had to get to that level and I had to become a master delegator. And I don't think people understand it doesn't mean this is the one thing you're choosing for the rest of your life. It just means we're going to make this super successful into our mega power, our mega strength.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And what we're going to learn in the process will allow us to do more things and build more robust teams and delegate more. And when that's done, you kind of get to have your cake and eat it too, but it takes a lot of time and discipline and saying no. And the other thing I would add is take a big ass calendar, like a big one, like blow up one of those big desk calendars, and put the time you're going to spend with family and friends and set 2025 up and 2026 up of non-negotiables. If there's stuff, if there's meetings you have to attend and conferences you have to attend, put those on there too. And make the things that are important in your life. Do one thing crazy every year that you're never going to forget and make it a trip, make it a destination, make it an experience. And hold yourself accountable to that. And it doesn't need to cost a lot of money.
--:-- Tommy Mello: You know, people—the way that I've built this company is through making breakfast for people. And making lunch and making dinner and sharing stories. That's what we do at Thanksgiving. And if you treat people like family, you make best friends at work. And it happens outside of work with those lunches and bowling. Bisquick doesn't cost that much from Costco. You can afford it.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah. You know, I think one of the big ideas that I'm taking away from this and just hearing you talk is understanding the season of life that you're currently in. And that there are times when you do need to hustle. You do need to put in 16, 18 hours, but that should be a season. And when that season is over, you have to give up what that season required and embrace what the next season of your life requires. And a big project, mastery of a task or a company or an idea—and I feel like we've lost sight of this word "mastery" and how important it is, or at least the pursuit of mastery. But it could take 10 seasons of life to get to that goal that you initially set, right? And you're gonna have to change 10 times or adjust or iterate or learn a new skill. But we want—I feel like we're completely, we do not teach enough the idea that you will not be the same. And if you are the same, you're never gonna get there, right? We hit a certain point in our lives and we just feel like "this is who I am now." And I'm like, "No, I don't accept that. I don't accept that this version of me right here is who I will be for the rest of my life." There is a more dialed-in version. I'm going to have another season of my life in which I'm going to need to be a different person or attain different skills or make different decisions. And the awareness to see that and adjust—it's paramount. It's what you just described. 20 years. I mean, just think about it. From what you've said, without me prodding, I've heard four different seasons in the 20 years that it took you to get where you are today, right? And I'm sure there's more in there. And to be this version of yourself, which is both the best and, as you said, the worst version of yourself, right? That mentality, you wouldn't have had it or didn't even need in previous seasons, right? In previous seasons, you probably didn't even need to have that mentality to be successful. It's not what it required. And that core idea of change being the constant and adjusting to it and accepting it—we've just completely lost it, in my opinion. And I just love hearing your story, man. It's phenomenal. It's so inspiring to me.
--:-- Tommy Mello: There's a book that I haven't talked about in years. It's by Dan Thurmon. It's called *Off Balance on Purpose*. And what it describes in that book is you cannot pray 10 times a day, eat perfectly, hang out with your family for eight hours, work great, and also meditate. Like, there's all these different factors and you got to decide in the season of life. If you're a parent and you're a husband or wife and you're a son or daughter, there is some type of balancing. But at the same time, it takes dedication and it takes really, really—you know, Harvard did a study and the three percent of people that actually write down their goals with timelines were like 383 percent more likely to achieve them. And they're measuring everything. And I just think people—yeah, we know we're supposed to write down goals. We know we're supposed to journal. We know we're supposed to have a vision board. But nobody really does it.
--:-- Tommy Mello: The people that are so far ahead—and you would think, you know, $560 million is the number the company was valued at in 2022. We took half of that off the table. And this big check Christmas Eve got wired into my account in 2022. This massive amount of money, hundreds of millions. And I didn't feel complete. I was like, "This is what I was going for. I'm here. I've reached the destination." And then I realized I'm going to go back to work tomorrow. I've got more to do. And people are chasing the money, but it's really what you want to do is chase the experience. You know, you take all the money away—I truly, truly mean this—that's who I had to become to get here. You can't take that away. You can't take away my relationships. You can't take away who I've had to become.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And Gino Wickman, I had him on the podcast about a month ago. He wrote a book called *Shine*. Everyone's chasing this magic bullet, this silver bullet, this destination. But if you learn to enjoy the journey—talking to somebody that's done this—you wake up and it's not this happiness. Yes, you get more freedom because money is a tool. Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. But money opens up a lot of doors. But it's who you have to become. People understand that and they're willing to make the delayed gratification and the effort.
--:-- Tommy Mello: There's two voices. And I got this right outside of here. This Cherokee grandson goes up to his grandfather and says, "Hey, what goes on in our heads?" And he goes, "Well, there's a good wolf and a bad wolf. The good wolf is full of empathy and love and tenderness and success. The bad wolf is envious and jealous and angry." And the kid says, "Well, which wolf wins?" And the grandfather says, "Whichever one you feed." And I finally started listening to the good one. And the one that knew I had to do stuff when I didn't want to, that I had to get out of bed, that I had to put the candy or popcorn back on the shelf. Those little things that don't bring me that much joy. Nobody is ever like, "Man, I'm so glad I got that candy bar and spent an hour on TikTok yesterday. I'm so glad I got through that Netflix special." No one's like, "Man, my life wouldn't have been as good if I wasn't able to..." The things that like literally sit on the couch all day and watch football. Like, "Man, did you see that game?" And they talk with your buddies and you're like, "Dude, get." You're wishing you're watching other people doing what you want to do that you've never been able to do and pretending like that's your team, that's your guy, and he's getting rich and you're sitting there watching and making money. And I'm not saying being a sports enthusiast is a bad thing. It's like, why don't you get up and create something that everyone else wants to be?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Dude. Phenomenal. So glad he came on the show and such a pleasure to meet you. This has been tremendous. Where can people get the podcast, learn more about you? How do they go deeper down the rabbit hole into your world?
--:-- Tommy Mello: Yeah, there's a lot of things. So my podcast is called *The Home Service Expert*. Pretty proud. We just hit number one in business management in North America on Apple, number 12 in business in the nation. The podcast is not only home service. It's everything I need. It was kind of something I chose to do selfishly to learn more about myself and my business and get the experts that I get advice from. So really enjoy that. If you go to TommyMello.com—there's no W, T-O-M-M-Y-M-E-L-L-O.com—you can find all my social media profiles. I've got a newsletter. The first few issues are free. I don't make money. It actually takes a lot of time. It's TommyMello.com forward slash news.
--:-- Tommy Mello: And this new event I got coming up. I got Jocko Willink gonna be there. I got Steve Sims that wrote *Bluefishing* and *Go For Stupid*. I've got Darius Mirshahzadeh, one of the smartest business minds there is. And these conferences—I really want—I think we lose about 300 grand on these, which I'm good with because I got the talent. It's not only mindset at my conferences. And it's not only tactics. It's a combination of both. And there's about 80 people that were at the last conference out of twelve hundred that have lost 50 pounds, that are smiling again, that have become better for their families. And there's miracle stories of people getting a divorce that didn't get a divorce. And I just want to be a positive impact. I want people to come to my funeral in hopefully 50 years and it's outside. No one's wearing black. It's a celebration and there's fireworks. And that's what this event's about. It's truly about freedom and finding yourself and being a positive influence and living your best life. So that's FreedomEvent.com. It's September 25th through the 27th in San Diego. And I promise if you don't think it's worth it, I'll give you your money back. You just come up to me at the show. No questions asked. You can leave. It's not something where I'm trying to sell you into a bunch of programs and email blast the shit out of you. And this isn't the big pyramid thing. It's literally impact. So that's probably the biggest thing I could do is you show up. I'll be your friend. I'll take your phone calls. I make my money in my garage door company. That's where I make my money. And we do very, very well. And I'm not shy about it. We worked hard and everyone here does well. And everybody's entitled to make a lot of money here and have equity. There's a lot of people with equity. And there's a lot of people that get massive bonuses and they get PTO and they get pet insurance and they get new vehicles. So that's how I make my money. If you guys want to come to that, I promise you, I won't let you down. I feel a huge obligation to deliver. And I don't stop thinking about just making sure that people have impact and they make a difference in their lives and mostly in their business. Because that's where you spend more time than anything is in your business. No one works 50 hours. If you have a business, it's always on your mind. You're taking phone calls. You're at the grocery store thinking about it. You're at your kid's ballgame thinking about it. Your wife and you are talking about it.
--:-- Tommy Mello: We want to make it easier and more successful.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Well, we've only known each other for 50 minutes and 35 seconds, but I promise you're making an impact, man. You already have on me. Thank you so much. I wish you nothing but the best, brother.
--:-- Tommy Mello: Yeah. I'll get you on my podcast too. I really appreciate you and you do a great job and I love what you're doing out there and you had a lot of great insights. I think the biggest takeaway for me was learning how to say no. And that's a skill that most people don't possess. And if anybody ever wants to come to this shop, I don't charge for it. We do shop tours a couple of times a month. Love to have you. We'll show you our training center, how we do things. We'll feed you. We'll give you a bunch of books. It's TommyMello.com forward slash shop. What it does for me is it allows me to praise my team. It keeps the place super clean and organized and we get to change lives. And it's hot in Phoenix right now. We're right by the airport. So maybe not the best month to come visit, but if anybody wants to get out of the—like you out of New York and the winter—it's a great time to come visit. And I really appreciate the opportunity to come on your program.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Absolutely. My pleasure. Let's go.
--:-- Tommy Mello: Yeah. Make it look, make it look, make it look.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Thank you for listening to The Ryan Hanley Show. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts.
--:-- [Promotional segment]
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