From Idea to Implementation: How To Get Things Done Right And Fast
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And it's a challenging thing for some people to find is finding what your passion is. You know, you hear that word, you hear it thrown around a lot, but really what is it that you're passionate about? And, you know, I never knew that I was good at what I'm doing now is, you know, being a speaker and I speak every single week. But I think the thing is, is when we find what we're good at, we end up liking it.

I mean, I don't play professional ball, but you know what? If I was good at baseball, suddenly I'd be like, this is the best thing ever. And everybody has a skill. Everybody can contribute something to someone. Find out what you like and make it a passion as long as it's legal, ethical.

Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week, Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields, like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership, to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now, your host, the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello.

Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes, but I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview. So I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text NOTES, N-O-T-E-S, to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299. And you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode.

Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview.

All right, guys, welcome back to the Home Service Expert. Today is going to be awesome. I love podcasts about business. You guys know I get into a lot of things. One of the last podcasts I did was about the Dopamine Nation, a little bit about self-help. This one's going to be back to the basics business. I got David Kogan with me. He's an expert in investment and startups, leadership development, life coaching, and business consulting. A

He's a managing partner and founder at Alliances where entrepreneurs align. He's been doing that since 2013. He's on the Global Advisory Board of DocuSign. Been doing that for about six years. Celebrity talk show host, Heroes Show founder, Richard Branson, Samuel Adams, president of the UN, Money Radio and CRC Broadcasting Company, celebrity on-air personality,

owner everything. He's done it all. David Kogan is the owner, like I said, of Alliances, where entrepreneurs align a vast private community of diverse leaders, including celebrities and billionaires. With corporate experience from IBM and Microsoft, he's also a successful serial entrepreneur in e-commerce, healthcare, and more. David is a DocuSign Global Advisory Board member and adjunct

College professor with an advisor of Eureka Loft and Mayoral Initiative. He's recognized as a key figure in Arizona business community, hosting radio shows, participating in the Mayor-CEO Roundtable, and speaking at events like Startup Week. David has been featured extensively in local and national media and facilitated over 600 events for entrepreneurs and investors. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That sounds really good, Tommy. That is phenomenal. Yeah.

And you just love business. That's what we were talking about. I do. I do. I have a passion. Thank you so much again for inviting me today. I'm honored to be in your presence. You're the guy with the energy. I got to get some of that energy. You know what? I started walking 2,000 steps a day, eating the right food, not black coffee in the morning. That's it. That's my caffeine. Just getting dialed. And man, I feel like so incredible. And I've always had energy, but I used to be like the monster bread bowl guy.

But nothing gets me more excited. Like, I'll be at a party and guys will be like, dude, did you see that play last night? How about that fight? And I'm like, dude, let's talk about business. Like, this is boring. I feel the same way. I'm like living. I don't want to live through that athlete's dream that you wanted to be when you were in high school. Like, I want to do cool shit. Right, right. Exactly. I'm all with you on that.

So let's talk about business. Talk about where you came from, what you did in the past, where you're at today, what you look forward to doing. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, it's interesting. Ever since I can remember, you know, starting at 12 years old, going door to door, selling things just in the neighborhood, trying to figure out how to make some money. There were things that I wanted at that age. And that really taught me a lot. I always dreamed of owning my own business. Was fortunate enough to...

go to school, go to graduate school, worked for some large companies, IBM, Microsoft, and others, and always had a passion to do businesses. So I started various businesses and, um,

I believe that anybody who wants to do it, if they have the passion, the passion is the key to be able to do it. And the drive. I mean, just like yourself, you've got an incredible amount of energy. What you've accomplished, I mean, I see you everywhere. I mean, everywhere. And having a support system. And the drive to be able to do it. Every business has its challenges.

And I kind of look at this as is that, you know, issues. Everybody's going to have issues with it. Everybody's going to have the ups and the downs. It's what do you do? Now everybody's going to like you. That's the nature of it. But you look at it and you go, OK, how can I learn from perhaps those that don't and not try to convince them? But look at what do people like? What's the positive part about it?

Especially, Tommy, you know, there's so much damn negative going on everywhere. Everywhere. Not everybody's going to like you. Somebody's going to complain about you. I got to believe, Tommy, there's somebody out there who's like, you know what? I see too much of them everywhere. A lot of haters. Yeah. Lots and lots of haters. So it's like, how do you not dwell on that and stay positive? Because I believe, you know, and it's not just saying, you know, you hear about it, you know, mine's so powerful. How do you stay positive? You've got to figure it out. I'll give you some good advice of what someone said to me because I

You know, even when you're in a position, and some of you may be listening now, and maybe you're in a job and you're like, oh, you know, I got to go to work each and every single day. Someone gave me good advice and they said, find one thing that you like about what you're doing, because there's got to be something, one thing, focus on that to get going. And if you don't like what you're doing, continue to focus on that, but figure out what else you want to be able to do. And, you know, that worked for me. I started one of my first

First businesses I was working for, I'm not going to say the name of the company, but a top five consulting company. And I was working there full time during the day. I would come home, Tommy. I would shower at six o'clock at night, change clothes, go to what I had as a closet for an office and start building my next company. And fortunately that grew and was able to then leave that company and so on. But you know, so anybody who says that they don't have time,

there's time there's always time there's always time you know i sit down with a lot of people and i've been running a lot of events and i've been in a lot too much in fact next year i'm limiting myself to five events and i'm really learning the ability to say no because i do a lot of stuff for friends and family and neighbors and blah blah blah and i sit at these events and i say who's who plans on selling in the next five years

There's a few hands. Who plans on selling in the next 10 years? A few hands out of big, big, you know, an auditorium full of people and business owners. And since I've had a taste of selling, I'll never get involved with a business that doesn't plan on five years, preferably three years or less. And people say, well, listen, I want to build something big. Well, why can't you do it in three years? Well,

What would you need to say yes to three years? Everybody has a reason why. Well, I got to get the momentum and, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, listen, I understand all your excuses because I've heard them all for the last decade of why you're going to fail and why things aren't going to work right. But your wife or your husband and your kids and your parents don't want to be around a person that's not even present at all. You have no money. Like this is your life savings in this business.

And you're not living your best life and you're not doing the stuff you want. And you're not that, that, that line, not present as an entrepreneur. It's like, yeah, I could be at a baseball game, but I'm not really there. I could be at a party, but I'm not really there. You know what I mean? What is it with us serial entrepreneurs? And it's like, man, if we could just slow down, because one day you wake up and there's a decade and another decade and you go, what do I have to show? Well, I built some businesses. I made a lot of money.

But I don't really have a lot of cool stories and amazing events and these great friendships. Yeah, I completely agree with that 100%. And I would say is, is did you talk to my wife? Because that's, you know, and it's a challenge. It's definitely a challenge. Yeah, it's definitely a challenge. You know, let me tell you something. This is kind of interesting, too, when we talk about skill sets and stuff. I'm an introvert by nature.

and I sold my last company. I built one of the largest home care companies in the northwest part of the valley, and I sold it. And at the contract signing afterwards, I walked out crying. What am I going to do? I think the problem is that some of us, we identify our work as our meaning of life, and it's not that. But I was crying. Okay, what am I going to do? I didn't have enough Google money to never work again, but it certainly could have taken a break.

Well, little did I know that I started contacting some other people, just people that I didn't know. You know, you know people in your circle, certainly in the garage industry. You know every single competitor out there. You probably, you know, know who the owner is, you know what they do and all that. It becomes a small circle. Yep. So I ended up getting a couple people together trying to figure out what to do, people that I didn't know. Little did I know that that actually became the company. And so...

just do a little bit a promo if that's okay with you. I love it. What it is is what developed out of that is called alliances. Many of you in Arizona have heard of that. It's an entrepreneur community and it's a community that consists of billionaires, millionaires, founders, startups, and people living in their car starting a company. And we are the only place every single week we have a round table.

Every week it's full and every week it changes of who's there. Nobody does that. This is the last thing in the world that I thought I would ever do because I'm the one conducting it, not by myself. It certainly takes an entire community to be able to do. And we have everyone from the who's who to the not who come together and end up building business resources or friendships.

And how is this a proven model? Because I'm going on our 11th year every week. And not only that, for those of you that are listening, it's also hybrid. It's online and in person at the same time. We're basically doing two events at the same time that's interactive.

So it's crazy. So what does that mean, Tommy? It brings back to the beginning. The problem is, and I do have a fault, I'm not present because I'm continually thinking about alliances and those that are part of the community and what resources can the community provide for them and for their family to be able to exceed. I love it. Well, I'm going to have to come to one of these meetings. Absolutely. You're invited.

I, you know, I will say this. I think there's a certain breed of person that's built for business. A lot of people, you know, most businesses fail. And I think it's over 90% of businesses will never reach a million dollars. 90% of those that reach a million will never hit 10 million. And I think there's some people that they're just not comfortable taking risk. They're very risk adverse.

And I don't like to talk people into starting a business that just aren't cut out because they waste a lot of time. And most of them start out as very, very smart people. They make a good living. But they never take that e-myth and work on the business. They never take that approach. And they want to be a jack of all trades. And then, boom, time goes by. And I'm like, man, you can make $300,000 a year. You can get equity into a business. You can be an entrepreneur. But focus on what you're great at.

Because, you know, an overnight success is 10 years. I mean, and a lot of the people, we've got the shiny light. We're like, oh my God, he's flipping houses. Oh, I want to invest in his bar. It seems like he's killing it. Oh, let's buy that second house. And all of a sudden you divest out of the one asset you're trying to grow. And I see this all the time that people say we deserve it. We've worked hard our whole lives. Hey, honey, we should just do this. We should buy that Harley we talked about. And then it's,

They literally divest out of the one thing that the fruits of their labor. It's like, it's like watering an apple tree and taking all the stuff off of it when it's this big. Imagine if you water it and it grew into thousands of apples. What's your take on that? I think it's right. Building a whole orchard, right? Yeah. I mean, yeah, it is. And it's, it's, uh, I, I do see that. I do see that, uh, amongst people who are doing and starting businesses, um, from the outside though, those that haven't, I mean, it looks like an easy thing.

It looks, you know, okay, I'll just go ahead and start it until you actually start doing it. I think the thing that I've seen though with a lot of people is there's a lot of talk in regards to, well, I'd like to do this, I'd like to do this. Start. There's some point to start.

Well, I don't have enough money. Well, continue to do what you're doing because you're working eight to 10 hours. There's 24 hours in a day. You're going to have to make sacrifices. At least I have. I continue to do. You will make sacrifice regardless of this balanced life, not if you're a business owner. There's no such thing. You're off balance on purpose. Yeah, absolutely.

You know, here's an interesting thing. So, you know, like you, Tommy, I interview a number of people. I've interviewed some of the most famous people in the world. And my son asked me, he says, God, Dad, you know, who would you, you know, if you were to trade places, who would it be? And I had to think about it for a second because I have, you know, we have some members like the co-founder of Pricelines, part of alliances, co-founder of Oculus, who sold his business for $3 billion. Am I bragging? No, because let me tell you the answer that I gave to him after thinking about it.

Anybody who I got to know well enough, I would not change places with. It's as simple as that. Would I want to be their life for maybe a day? Yes. Would I want to change places? No. I got to know them too well to know of things that, well, I wouldn't want to change places with. My wife's grandma said it best, and I think this was good advice too, is if everybody put their troubles outside of their door and saw everybody else's bag full of troubles, they'd grab their own bag and run back in.

That's really wise. I like that. So I think about that. You know, Ken Goodrich, he called me the owner of Gettle, founder of Gettle. And he said, I'd give everything to switch places with you. And you know why he said that? Because I'm 23 years younger than him. It had nothing to do with the money, the looks. I'm not that good looking, but I'm just saying, you know, and here's the facts.

Tell me you wouldn't trade place. You know, you don't want to give up your family, what you built and that. But I will say that there's one thing I don't care. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, they have the same amount of time in the day as us. They get a lot done. They've become expert delegators and get great people. But they would all give it back. Maybe not today, but when health goes a little sideways and they wake up one day and they're not moving as good, they give it all away to get the time back.

And I think you'd agree with that because Steve Jobs, he said, either take your food as your form of medicine or you take a medicine as your food. And man, that guy had it all. He loved it. He was just brilliant and he was creative. And all of a sudden, the clock ran out way too soon for a guy like that. So I think what Ken's purpose of the saying that was, take advantage, breathe it in, enjoy it. He walked into my old training center and he goes, man, tell me how you feel.

He goes, I miss that feeling of the beginning and that drive and that smile. He goes, because sometimes it gets worn out. Sometimes it gets stale. Sometimes it's not, you don't get the feeling again. Or you crave the next biggest feeling. And that's a good thing. And it's a bad thing. We like to win. We're hunters and we do this. But it really meant a lot to me to say, you know, you wake up one day, you get 18 years with your kids. Then the cumulative time, the rest of their lives, you might get a year.

And that hits home. And I don't have kids yet. Wow. Wow. Well, no, that's you. You know what? You're right. I'm very close to my family, very close to my children. I've got two beautiful kids and I've, you know, and I've incorporated them into what I'm doing. I have the ability to be able to do it. But at the same time, Tommy, how do you balance the things when you have to make you have to do things you don't want to be able to do by working perhaps sometimes long hours? Emergencies happen, you know.

I think owning any business is typically it's a 24 hour a day job. I mean, I was in the health care where literally we answered the phone 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day. One of the first roles I filled was someone to take that role of the phone.

But there were times that, you know, I had to take it over. In fact, I remember getting one call. It was, I think, at Christmas Eve. And the person called me. I'm the one that was on the line. I answered the phone live. The first thing she says is, oh, my gosh, you answered the phone live. I said, yes, I did. She said, and she was a competitor. She said, I went down this list. You're the last one that I called. I have a client that I can't help. And they need help. And it's Christmas Eve. We're providing home care, health care to them. She said, can you go ahead and take the case?

I said, yeah, we'll get it filled. Business never sleeps. I went on a panel. I watched this panel of the who's who of home service. And these are the legends. These are the guys that were found to fill in their footsteps. And Jimmy Hiller goes up and everybody's talking about regrets, regrets. Wish I had more time with family. He goes, you know, I missed a lot of stuff for Mike. I really did. I was there most of the time. And I'll just say this is what he said. He said, I was an alcoholic. We lived in a small apartment.

He goes, I couldn't provide for my family. He goes, sure, I could have been around all the time, but we would have been eating breadcrumbs. He goes, now, not only do all my kids have homes, do not all my grandchildren have a scholarship, do not all of them have homes, but we created generational wealth. And I have no regrets because, listen, it took sacrifice. It's just how much sacrifice are you willing to take? Because, listen, some of us, we've made enough to provide for our children and grandchildren.

I think there's a happy dance of figuring this out. And I just, I tell people all the time, I'm like, what do you want to do for the next 20 years? Why do you want to do this business? Because they feel like it's their DNA. And I'm like, if you don't get a test and you look at it like an asset that you're building, you know, A1's my baby, 17 years. And I'll keep taking chunks out. And guess how much the richest man or one of the richest men that goes back and forth from Elon and Jeff Bezos, guess how much of, how much do you think Jeff Bezos owns of Amazon?

30%? 7%. 7%. 7% and he'll most likely be a trillionaire. So people act like, oh, I can never sell. I can never sell. I don't know what to do. He owns a little sliver under 10%.

And this is what people, no one really talks about this stuff. And when you take, live your life as you're growing, smell the roses, enjoy it, take a trip that you wouldn't take, you know, and live it. You know, my grandma, and my grandma used to collect all these pennies saying copper will be worth more than what they're going to, and then eventually the penny was not made with copper. But I was like, man, I never want to live like, you see, especially that day, that era,

Like they would die millionaires, but they would still never live. Right. And I don't think that's fair. I want to go first class. I want to do the things that I was never able to do that my parents were never able to do. I want to bring my niece and nephews and potentially kids. And I want to say, dude, we're going to do the penthouse and we're going to go. We're bringing we're bringing Tim McGraw to us like we don't work this hard to not live it.

What are your thoughts on that? I agree. I agree. I think that just the challenges is just not only in regards to the spending part, though, is and Tommy, I'm not an expert on this.

But it's on my mind 24 hours a day. I'm coming with you to the penthouse when you do it, right? But the thing is, is I'm there. But it is 24. I mean, it's just, it's something like that. I don't know if it's a point of part of being alive, being a meaning, being able to, you know, feel that I'm producing something. I've incorporated. I do try to do as much as I can with my family, with my kids. My kids come, you know, they've come to various alliances events. So does my wife. My wife now helps out a little bit here and there.

But it's it's and I don't know what is perhaps the thing is, is to be able to stay focused into the moment. There have been times where I've seen things and I've been fortunate to. I've gone and seen my son and daughter play, you know, their various sports and stuff. Unfortunately, with technology, right, we can be connected to see what's going, you know, to get a pulse of what's going on. So I've been there. I've been there for them.

But I think what is, and Tommy, you tell us, tell us the audience, tell your listeners, then what is the secret to fully be present and know exactly what's going on and not have to think about work, A1 garage, this person, you know what, something happened, they need me over there, they need an emergency, they got things at night, who am I going to call? My mom's answering the phone, right? Well, it starts out in early stages. Al Levy walked into my office, 2018, seven-power contractor,

And he said, you are the best firefighter I've ever met. He goes, you know it all. He goes, you can fix bad reviews quickly. You know how to get a hold of vendors and make shit happen that no one else does. He goes, I've never seen anything like it. He goes, you get the award for the best firefighter. He goes, Tommy, if you work with me, he goes, there's good and bad to working with me. He goes, the good news is you're going to stop being a firefighter.

Everything's going to have a system and it's going to be vanilla. The bad news is you're not going to be a firefighter anymore. Things are going to be vanilla and you're going to get bored. You're not going to feel as needed. And so what I've learned to do is my CFO, I can't even come close to him. He is the goat of CFOs. My COO, I feel like he's the goat. And so what I've done is I've really tried to deem myself useless except for my vision.

And I've tried to create a culture of just really checking in when things aren't going right and calling somebody and saying, what's going on, man? Is everything okay? And then praising when things do go good. Because if I could be the dumbest guy in the room...

then I won. - Right, right. - And then when I had a manual, standard operating procedure, I have 57 manuals. I've got standard operating procedure. I have checklists. I have a data integrity team. I have, we've got an org chart, but now we've got a depth chart. So people are cross trained if someone can't come in. Our CSRs could be our dispatchers. - Beautiful. - And those things, listen, it's a garage door business. - Beautiful. - Might not sound complex, but if you saw the complexity of this business in 40 markets of getting trucks, when trucks break down, just our checklist for our trucks,

To make sure the technology, and we're not just, I counted technologies the other day, just started writing stuff down, 23 different technologies we use, systems. And people, I'm a technology company that does garage doors, and now I've got AI dispatch. And now I've got Power BI that I put in different information to pull different, now I have 7,000 call tracking numbers. So I think the trick of, to go back to where I was going is, I think the real answer is, is I could leave my company for a month,

and not have any type of communication or checking in or looking at anything. And I know it'll be just as good, if not better. I think what I'm really good at is acceleration of putting on the gas, of building a vision. And as long as that's what I'm doing and I'm having fun, then that's what I continue to do. You know what I've got comfortable with? Things going wrong. Because I know I could have fixed it. I know if you would have called me, I could have got it done right. But when did they go wrong? My question for you is,

Is that going to happen again? We lost 100 grand here. Just tell me we learned. And when I let people start, when I let them start failing and I realized they learned from their mistakes, metaphoric bruises and scars on them that never happened. Sure. The company became so much stronger because it didn't rely on me. So I don't think it's perfect. And I don't think you could just some people just they're dreamers and they're just like me. I'll be at a restaurant and I'll see something come in on this happened the other day where it said the receipt failed.

had three different prices and it said circle one and it had or put your own in for the tip. And I've been working on a tipping app for my installers, but I don't want to do five, 10 or 20%. I want to do one, two or 3%. So it's like 10 bucks, 20 bucks or 30 bucks. Because now if I got an installer that's getting tipped on 15 jobs a week and they're getting 20 bucks, it's not a lot of money, but it's 300 extra dollars.

And I don't feel like that's like, hey, he did a great job. He picked up that for himself. He showed me how everything worked. I don't want my techs to get tips because then they might focus on the tip more than the sale. But the installers are just worried about. Does that make sense? It absolutely does. Yeah, absolutely. So I didn't have the perfect answer for you. I'm curious. You deal with so many founders. I do. A tremendous amount.

And what do you think their biggest problem is going into, I think they're a little clouded and they know how to be the employee and they don't have a plan. And they, everybody says, write down a business plan, get your KPIs, make sure you got good credit, make sure you have enough money to say, make sure you have an org chart, make sure. And they're like, dude, what do I do first? Right. Well, the first thing is, is, is will the idea of what you have actually work? Will it be something of that? And, um, here's the way that I looked at it. And, uh,

A lot of people spend a lot of time in regards to trying to lay everything out. They'll spend a lot of money in regards to perhaps hiring other consultants to help in that. Here's the thing if you know you've got something.

If you've got one sale, great. If you've got two sales, great. If you have three sales and none of those three are from anybody, they're not from a friend that's willing to help you out, they're not from a relative. But on your third sale too, you've got somebody non-related to you, found you, maybe you started a search, whatever, you know, a website, whatever it may be, then I think you've got something. Because now if you've got three, just build upon that. Why did those three find it?

Because at the beginning, there seems to be, you know, and I've been involved with a lot of meetings from people who are looking to start businesses, and they want to lay out everything perfect. By the time you're done laying out something, the market's already changed. There's new technology. I mean, look how quick, right, AI has been taking over and, you know, further being enhanced. I think that that's a lot of it is just get out and do. It's just do. Yeah, but...

To add to that, what I'll tell you is I meet business owners, they get in a big room and they brag. They pump their chest and they talk about how much revenue. They're not making a profit. They're paying themselves $100,000 total. They're in debt. They work seven days a week, holidays, weekends, you name it, special occasions. And I'm like...

And I have people brag to me. I didn't get branded correctly. I don't even have a wrapped truck and I'm booked out to September. Raise your prices. You're not making a profit. Alex Ramosi says, here's how most of us start a business. We go into a marketplace. We offer a little bit more for a little bit less. And that's how we get our pricing. Even though the people you're following are about to go bankrupt.

And all I would say is if you can't get a business up and running to be more profitable than you would have been by working hard for somebody, I love the idea of entrepreneurship. I think that's what makes America such a great place because I came from nothing. Absolutely nothing. I worked three jobs my whole life. My mom worked three jobs. We made things work. The church helped us out with Christmas and Thanksgiving. That's where we got our turkey dinner from. She never went for food stamps. And I love my mom because of that. The church was able to help us, but...

Now, I'm like, and it was hard work, but don't think that you're, people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in five or 10. And that's the sad truth to it. Like, I can't get behind a founder and say, get a three-year plan. I can go behind a business that's already doing 2 million and say, dude, why do you want to get to 100 million?

Well, you did it. Why can't I do it? I said, you could. But at what cost? What are you going to do when you get $100 million? Let's say the business is at 15%. You're going to get a 10x. It's $150 million. Where are you going to spend that? What can't you do with $10 million? If you get 10% on $10 million, that's $1 million a year. And you're still, now you got a pot of gold. And trust me, opportunity will find you. It's a really sad day when you sign your business away. But the next day, you're like, holy shit, now I got 20 more opportunities.

And the business didn't define me. I defined the business. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, and I think that was the way that I felt, you know, I've had other exits too. I've been fortunate to that. But, you know, I do look at this, Tommy, even if it was the fact of Google money never having to work, I still would do, I can safely tell you this, what I'm doing now, I would still be doing. That's great. Well, you're helping a lot of people. I'm in a position, there is nothing else that I would rather do than what I'm doing now.

And we put on other events. We have got a huge event coming up. Our signature event takes place in September. It takes place at Arizona State University, Sky Song. We take the largest hall of people flying from all over the world and it's full access to people. And it's unlike anything that they've ever attended before. In fact, uh,

Yeah, there's a co-founder of Guitar Hero will be there, Oculus, as I mentioned. We've got a number of TV celebrities, red carpet. But here's the thing what it's not. It's not where you've got one speaker speaking the entire time and off they go into a separate room. This is full access. So even if you're in the crowd,

there's people well-known probably sitting next to you. And it's not based upon, you know, hey, you have to have this requirement to attend, you've got to be this rich or whatever it may be. It's full access and the magic happens. That's on September, I'm going to tell you, September 10th.

To find out more information, go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Alliance is the only place where entrepreneurs align. But Tommy, I got to tell you, I couldn't do this alone. And I'm not doing it alone. It's the community that makes it possible for me to be able to come and do what I'm able to do. And it's because people are getting a lot out of it. And they're helping one another. They're assisting one another. And they're getting assistance.

And that's been part of the magic of it. I think it is. And I think getting around, I had a couple of people come over this past week and I never joined YPO. Yeah, I've never been part of it. Tiger 21, none of that. And this guy came in, he just sold his business for $165 million. We were whiteboarding in my game room. And I learned so much from this guy. And I'm like, I literally think you become, he goes, Tommy, I only allow three people to get it or five people to get advice.

on any particular year he goes here's my list there's two there would you be the third person i said i'd love that if we can share ideas together and getting in the right rooms is half the battle because so many people are willing to help so many people help me when i didn't have a pot to piss in when i was nothing for some reason if you ask great questions and you're genuinely interested they're glad to tell their story and pay it forward

And I've been very fortunate to be that younger, younger guy, almost a kid taking notes. And I don't know why they did it, but now I feel like it's an obligation to do it back. And, but I still love being in the rooms where I'm like, man, that guy's everybody in here is so far advanced. I'm curious. You've done a lot of interviews.

You've seen a lot of speakers, a lot of celebrities. What's the one person that you were like blew your mind, maybe switched your perspective on something? Oh, God, that's a challenge. I've done, yeah, probably over a thousand interviews now, maybe even more. Let me think about that for a minute. That's a challenge. I'm going to kind of tell you this is each one that I've interviewed, I've gotten something out of it, something unique.

One of the interviews that stands out most to me, and I'm going to tell you why it stands out most to me, was because it really kind of set me straight. I interviewed Richard Branson, which you all know Richard Branson, and I did it in a hotel room. I was with my son on vacation, and this was the time that Richard Branson could do it. So I'm like telling him, and he's maybe 7, 10, maybe 9, 8, 9, something like that. I'm like, I'm going to be interviewing Richard Branson.

And he's like, okay. I'm like, no, the Richard Branson. He's like, okay. So I'm like, we have to do this in the hotel room. So we're doing the interview in the hotel room. My son's in the back and he's doing all those bottle flips, you know, where you take the bottle and you flip it and all this, and it's making the noise. And I said, here, I throw my wallet at him. I said, you know what? Just be quiet for the next 20 minutes. You could have what's ever in there and stuff like that. But here's the thing that struck me afterwards. And it was a great interview. We had a great time and stuff.

It struck me at that point is my son didn't care. He was having a good time with me. He didn't care who I was going to speak with. It didn't matter. And I think what mattered most is that we were together. It wasn't a thing as is that doesn't define you. And I kind of said it at the beginning is, is a lot of us, we define who we are based upon the work that we do. It shouldn't be that way. It should be the type of person that you are, not the work that you specifically do.

And that, you know, and I continue and I think about that. So it wasn't so much as what did I get specifically from Richard Branson, but it was more of the thing is my son's like, so what? That, you know, that nice, but it doesn't define you as a father, doesn't define you as a person. And that's when I figured, you know what, you're right.

It doesn't. So now he's a little bit older. He's, you know, started college and stuff. Now he talks about Richard Brands. He's like, yeah, you know, tell me more about Richard Brands than you interviewed and stuff. So, um, I love that story. You know, his kids, I think that what they, there was a study done and don't quote me exactly on this, but, but it's pretty close is they tested kids at five years old and 90% of the kids tested as genius. Yeah.

because their creativity was still intact. And the world changes us. The world has us look at popularity and fame and money. And, you know, my brother-in-law went to India and he was GE Healthcare, 25 years, the CIO. Managed $7 billion over 3,500 internal developers, 3,500. He's part of my team now on the TMV, Tommy Mello Venture. Genius, genius.

And I remember him telling me in India, there was all these kids packed in this Volkswagen bus. And they're all screaming out the windows and singing. They're all broke. They don't have shirts on. And happiness is defined in the eye of the beholder. And we like to create things. We like to have self-worth. But I think, you know, in the United States and a lot of other countries, we might have got things wrong.

Because there's a story of this kid and his father, and his father is very, very wealthy. They live in a mansion. And he says to his son, hey, I want you to go down to the village where everybody doesn't have money. And I want you to live there for a week. And I want you to come back and tell me your story. The kid comes back in a week and he goes, dad, you're not going to believe it. They don't watch TV. Instead, they have bonfires and they dance.

He goes, dad, you're not going to believe this. Instead of cell phones, they go out and they fish. And they fish all day and they cook up the fish at night. And his dad's like,

Well, do you want that? And he goes, it was so amazing. I just went to the Masters recently. Couldn't bring a cell phone out there. I'm like, what am I going to do? No cell phones. They had like this old Kodak, you know, the Insta flash that like you could actually turn it in and get your pictures back. I haven't seen one of those in 20 years. Wow. And I'm like, no phone, no camera, no checking up on Goldman Sachs, nothing, no Sarah. And the first two hours I was like, this sucks. And then I was like, boom, all of a sudden everything changed.

And I'm like, no phone. And like, I just remember leaving the masters going, I just want two days to have no phone. And it's really hard to get to them. And I don't know if we're just perfectly aligned. We both like to build things. We both like to help out communities and take care of our coworkers. I just think, I think there's more. And I do want to live in this world where I can live in the now. And it's not easy because my brain races a million miles an hour, as you can suspect.

And I love that story about your son because, you know, everybody is the same as me. I mean, Tom Cruise is a great actor and he's famous. You know, Jim Carrey said, I wish everybody was rich and famous. So they realized that that's not the answer. Beautiful. Yep. Yep. You're right. Yep. Yep.

well we're always striving i think it's in human nature you know of how can we continue to build i mean we are builders we're all contributors in some way and i think everybody can contribute in some way and that's kind of the beauty again going back to the alliances community the way that it's formed and the way it's built and the reason why it's been so successful is not because of me but because of people who are part of it and the process is very simple is is

Anybody who's doing, you know, building things, anybody who's doing any events that are out there, I always get the question, so how do you feel? You know, how do you do this? How does it happen every single week? Plus other events. We got another event right after this actually to do. How does it work? The thing is simple. Get people to the event and give people a reason to come back. Get people there and give people a reason to come back. So if you're doing business, those of you that have any business, get customers and give them a reason to come back.

Because if not, they're going to go somewhere else. And it's the people that make the community. Yeah. Yeah, you know, you get the right people in a room, it changes lives. You know, tell me a little bit about DocuSign Global Advisory Board. Yeah, great. So everybody's pretty much familiar with DocuSign. And I was appointed to be on their global advisory council from the CEO of the company. And that came to be actually we got to know each other from doing an interview.

So it led to one thing another. And really the positions has evolved over time and more it's more of now just a promoting DocuSign. DocuSign started off as this. Here's how DocuSign actually happened. I asked the question to, this was to the CEO and founder of the company, and I said,

You know, you're doing something that has always been done on pen and paper. You know, they've had it where you, any contract that you needed signed had to be done, you know, where you actually had to sign it. I said, how did you know this would hold up, hold up in court? And he said this, and this was very important. Are you ready for this listeners? Nobody said that it wouldn't. Well, it was never tried before, but it was the point is, is nobody said it couldn't. So they ran with it.

And that company has just gotten significantly huge. How big is that company? Huge. Oh, I don't even know what's in a billion. So it's, it's, um, and there's other competitors that are out there and now they're looking to do it for notaries. You know, there's a way to now do notaries where you don't have to, in the past you had a, you know, go somewhere, someone had a bell. Now they're doing things where you can validate that stuff through cameras and different things. So the technology, uh,

is continually enhanced. But I use, I mean, have you used DocuSign? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a, you know, and others have tried to

get involved with it and stuff. So yeah, great. And I'm on there. And what's interesting about it is, is other people that serve on the global advisory council is for example, the NASA administrator for the past three presidents. And once you know it, he's part of the alliances community too. So it becomes, everything becomes a small world. You get to know people within your field. Like in the home care, I would knew pretty much all my competitors. I knew all that just like in the garage industry, you know, everybody within it, it becomes that small bubble.

And that's why, again, going back to kind of the alliances, what's so unique about it is, is that you don't know everybody because it's everybody from all of these different industries and different ethnicities and religion and cultures. I mean, it just, it's a whole, it's that. You know, the world seems to get a, I keep seeing the same people, the same places and success leaves clues everywhere. The one thing I'd really want to get more familiar with is technology.

I understand business in the United States and Canada pretty well. I don't understand business in Europe. I don't understand business in China. I've been to China, been to South America, but it's a whole different, but there's so many advantages. I just, I'm going to Australia for my second time and I'm like, this is like taking candy from a baby. Like the algorithm still works from 10 years ago. Like number one, Australians have like, I think every day in Australia is a holiday.

And I think, you know, they're very into unions and they're very into like, if you have a baby, you get seven years off. What? No, that's not true. You get eight months. Seven days? You get like an eight-month leave. Oh, wow. And it's like, listen, I'm like, oh, my gosh. So if we actually had people that worked, we would automatically win. Like just five days a week. Because no one works there five days a week. They love their leave. I've heard a lot about like they've got this thing in Europe called

for like lunch called a, what is it called, Giuseppe? A siente or something? Siesta? Siesta. Like they just eat for four hours. They shut down their businesses. Right, right. And they go eat. Like we're not going to work for four hours. I'm like, what if I just took a two-hour siesta? Right. I'm like, I'd kill everybody. Right. And like, you know, when you sign up to do business, it means you're going to be available when your clients need you.

Right. I was actually mentioned that I was traveling through Europe, backpack through Europe, and I was at a restaurant and that took place. And like, we're, I'm eating there still with somebody and like, you know, the chef and everybody there at the table together and they're all having their meal. And I was like, well, what do I do? How do I order? Well, you're going to have to wait until we're done. It's just, it's such a,

It's so different. Yeah, right? Americans, yeah, we want it. We want it now. We want it 24 hours. We want it on demand, and we want it right.

You know, I love the United States of America. I'm proud to be an American. Given the chance, I would fight for this country. I stand up for everything we are. I think it's a weird time right now. I think it's a very weird time. And I know people have said that since the beginning of time. But just watching, like, I do believe, you know, I don't want to go into the politics and that I believe I'm truly a male. But it's just a weird time to be alive.

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Now let's get back to today's episode. You know, you're a pretty skilled negotiator. Yes. And I love negotiation. I'm actually meeting with Chris Voss. I've met him a few times. He's jumping on the podcast. What are the key principles you emphasize in your training programs and consulting for individuals and businesses? What kind of negotiation skills do we need?

Well, I think it's, I mean, that's a great question. And I am, I feel I'm a very good negotiator. In fact, we've formed, you know, formal alliance ships where it's a sponsorships and partnerships, which I never thought would take place before. We had a, at one point we were with ASU Sky Song. We've done it with the Phoenix Suns, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Arizona Rattlers. I mean, we're not even a sports team, right? Arizona, uh, coyotes. And I think the thing is, is, uh, along with others, which, uh, caliber co, let me make sure I'm not forgetting anybody too, is, um, you know, this, the, uh,

Yeah, there's probably a couple out there. But anyways, it's important, I think, to look from their standpoint is what's in it for them. I mean, we all, you know, they tune in with them, right? Well, yeah, what's in it for them? And I think that's important. And also, too, is being extremely genuine, genuine with what you could do and what you could provide, and then over-delivering it. And these were put together to help the people in our community. I mean, that was it. And

It's a delicate part. It's a delicate way to go about doing it. I've been successful at it. I think a lot of it just comes from being very genuine. Keeping your promise and when you shake somebody's hand, it's gold. And over-delivering. I really like that. I'm going to have to look up some of these others too. People ask me, they're like, how do you get the answer so quickly?

Like they ask me, how do you know how to just dominate Angie's Lister? How do you figure out Pinterest? I'm like, just go to the number one company on Pinterest when you search for countertops. And if they hold the whole page...

Call that company up and ask them who they're using and how they're doing it. Right. Absolutely. I'm going to go back to that. So let me tell you the other sponsors that we have too. And of course, you know, I, these are extremely important ones to max six train, you will caliber money radio, of course, uh, the Phoenix suns, uh, oxygen for life, uh,

All Remo, all very important ones to the ethos of the community. So let me go back to Angie's List. I interviewed the founder of Angie's List, Angie. I interviewed the founder of, let's see, Craigslist, Craig. I wanted to bring them both together, but it's interesting. And you know, I'm just going to tell you a short story is as many people don't know is, you

You know, Angie was the one doing the commercials for it. She did not want to, she wanted to be behind the scenes. She's the shy one actually. And they said, well, you know, it's going to be best for you to do it. So again, kind of like me being an introvert, you would never know. Uh, she ended up being out there and doing the commercials. I think maybe she recently sold the company. I'm not sure. Home advisors. She sold the home advisors to home advisors.

So everybody's got a great story, you know, and Tommy, I think I, you know, one of the things that I loved about you is, is cause this kind of ties to my family too, is, is it wasn't at your mom that was answering the phone? My mother. Yeah. Your mother answering the phone. So my mother comes to as many of the alliances events as she can. And for some reason too, when my family's there or my mother's there, I'm more comfortable just from the fact is, is, you know, look at, you know, this is,

And I think that's cool that, you know, she was answering the phone. I was listening to your podcast. You're like, I showed up. Basically, everything was already done. Yeah. My mom was like, you can't believe, you know, your mom goes, you know, yeah, I'm going to send over this great person, et cetera. They're going to really, I'm going to make sure that they help you out and everything. And you said something like, well, the sale was already closed. Like I just showed up. They give me a hug. Right. Who's that lady? She's amazing. And I go, oh,

Wow. And that's completely like you look back at your experiences and you're like, man, mom, the genuine, the overdelivery, the caring, the what she said, what you were just saying is just so in line. It's like you hear people try to fake it. And then you heard my mom literally give a shit. She's like, oh, my gosh, honey, I couldn't even imagine. I am so sorry that this is I'm going to send our best technician out. She never say I'm her son.

And I'd show up at the, like, whatever the door needs. Just, I never had customer service like that. You know? That was me clapping. I love it. Yeah. I really enjoyed the opportunity to work with my mom, my dad, my stepdad. And they all got involved. My sister had worked for me for some time. And what's nice is the family still stayed intact. And a lot of families can't say that. Right. And I think it's difficult. Absolutely.

And I think that brings to one of the keys is the success of businesses is being able to have the right people surround you, the right people, you know, work with you or work for you in that. And, um, I've been very privileged, uh, of those that have worked with me and it's because of them that, uh, I'm here where I am today and, you know, never forget. And it's so important. So important. Yeah. You know, my brother-in-law, uh,

I kind of gave him an ultimatum. I said, listen, you're my sister's husband. You're my niece and nephew's father. I want to give you an opportunity. You don't have to do it, but I'd love for you to come with me. Wow. And he said, I'm in. He said, as long as you let me build my own team, because I know how to build teams. And I said, I'll give you anything and everything, whatever resources and money. And he goes, we're going to make billions. And I believe him because he's very high up the corporate ladder.

And he goes, just never make me go back to corporate. He goes, I hate it. He goes, I like that I can come to you and get a decision. And there's not racing at the quarter to make sure that certain people have their stock price and options. And you worked in both. You worked in an entrepreneurial setting and you've worked in corporate settings. Yes, I have. Yes. Talk to me about the good, bad and the ugly. You know what?

Every job that I've ever had, I've treated it like gold and I've done the absolute best that I could possibly do. You know, I, when I, I was working at, um, IBM, um,

And, uh, when I was working there, everybody talked about, Oh, you know, the, you know, cause I was in sales and marketing. Oh, you know, those consultants have, it's so easy and everything of that, you know, God, those consultants are so, you know, they great. They just go and they service, they consult. I ended up getting sponsored by IBM to get my MBA, got my MBA.

And ended up getting recruited from one of the top five accounting firms in the United States. Went to work for them. And now suddenly I was on the consulting side. I'm like, things aren't that great or easy. You're on the consulting side. And ended up, fortunately, again, building companies and doing things from scratch and starting companies. I think everything has its pros and cons. But let me just tell you something, Tommy, is even for me, when I worked even, for example, at IBM or any of the companies that I worked for,

I remember going, here's one of the things I remember, I was with a coworker and he said, "God, this is a great job at IBM. At five o'clock, I'm done." And I'm thinking, "God, do we work for the same company?" Because afterwards I'm here every day late, but I enjoy what I'm doing. I'm thinking about work on the weekend, probably doing some work and stuff of that. So it wouldn't matter whether I'm doing my own doing it, which feels like almost 24 hours, to working for somebody. I take it on myself.

And it is certainly, some of it is by choice. Of course, some of them there's deadlines and things that are due. But it could be by, you know, it is by choice. You know, but it's a passion. It's a passion. You know, it's a passion. I enjoy what I'm doing. I've always enjoyed what I've done. I've made it good of whatever job that I had. And part of it, I believe, is to be a mindset. Why are there two people that come in? In fact, it happens at alliances. Two people can come in. They can come in within the same industry.

One goes, hmm, this was great. It was a nice meeting, but I really couldn't connect with anyone. The other one, same exact thing within that, and they go, this is a goldmine. This is the best thing. I can't believe everybody. There's so many people I want to talk to. I don't even know where to start. And I'm thinking, did they both come to the same place? Why is that? Well, it's part of mindset.

So if you're in a job right now and you're like, ah, I hate this job, find something you like about it. Figure it out. Maybe it's something that you can do then on the side and grow your own. Do it the way that you want and continue to work there. I'm no different. It's no super skill. I had a challenging school. College wasn't easy. In fact, too, is when I was going for my MBA, I had to work full time, got married in between that, and go to school at night. But it worked out.

And not everything does, but, you know, it worked out. You know, I'd like to think it's a little bit different than you probably do. I partner with a company called Cortec. So technically, I'm an employee. I'm the CEO of this company. Okay. I'm the largest investor and own more than Cortec does. But they do have the right to fire me if I really screwed up, really screwed up. They've got limited partners and investors. And some of these are pension funds that rely on the success of this company.

The reason I did it is because Ken Goodrich called me and said, can you imagine how much you're going to learn about how they raise capital, about the things that go in on that bill, about their LPs when you speak at their events? And for me, I was like, you know, when Luke started, he had his own company, our COO.

And he said, man, I've learned so much in the last six years. I could go do anything. Right, right. And so some people I just feel like, and I just go back to this, is like I went from a completely sole entrepreneur business. I was the decision maker. Now if there's really big decisions, I've got to confide and ask. You know, I don't necessarily ask permission because they bought me. They bought the decision maker. They like the decisions. I don't feel like a piece of me was taken. I really don't. They really trust me and control me.

But at the same time, there's a board and, you know, the normal stuff. And so I actually maybe in some people's minds took a step back. Maybe they say for the money, but I really look at this and Ken's like, dude, you probably Tommy, I give you a Ph.D. in home service. But he goes, you're a kindergartner when it comes to dealmaking, acquisitions, understanding integration processes, knowing how to raise capital, understanding the P.E. white collar world. And I looked at and I said, you're right.

and I said, so I'm going to take this next three years as an opportunity and I'm going to be deadly. And so I don't necessarily think that you need to go out there and figure it out on your own, because if you don't think I could buy 10 books on private equity and learn how to raise capital, or I could watch it be done and watch them, what they do and they shake hands and how they work, because there is a lot of like relationships in it. Like I don't care what you know, it's who you know. And this has put me on a map in a whole new way

And that's one of the things I was going to ask you too, is like, you've seen a lot of successful people and I don't just success off money or fame. I judge it off of like, you know, I want to see like, if you've got a lot of money and fame and you go to the strip club every day, cheating on your wife, never showing up for your kids and haven't talked to your parents. Is that really success? There's a lot of people that commit suicide that are billionaires that have the fame. So what attributes do you see of the successful? And we can just talk about business in general, or you can just talk about people, right?

in general, but what do you see when you go, wow, this guy's really got it? Or this gal, you know, when I say guy, it could be guys or girls. Yeah, that's, I mean, I think that's a very good question to ask. What I see is a lot of it is the drive to be able to do something better than something that is perhaps being already done.

You know, the list just because the people that I've interviewed, it's it's you're right. It is. And each, by the way, each person that I've interviewed, I do take something away from it. You know, I mean, even for example, I recently interviewed the founder of GoDaddy. Yeah. I want to join his golf course. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I can probably hook you up with him. He's local too. Yeah. Uh,

You know, and his thing was, is, is again, it was almost the same point is, is somebody said, well, you know, how, how are you going to be able to do what you're going to be able to do? He's like, I'm just going to go ahead and do it. I'm going to try it. I'm going to see what happens with it. He had an interesting story. I don't want to get too much off track of your question, but he had an interesting story because his aha moment he shared with me is, is he was getting his car parked by a valet driver.

And he was all pissed off because he went from, I don't know, 60, whatever it was, gazillion dollars to basically like 30 million or whatever, all that. And he's like, eh. And what his turning point was is he saw the valet guy and the valet guy was so happy. And he knows, he's like, this valet guy is making $12 an hour and here I am, 30 million, 40 million, whatever it was, millions. And he's like, I'm just not happy. What is the problem with this?

and that was his aha moment is this something's got to change but i see the successful people it's it becomes a mindset it really becomes a mindset you know i can't say oh you know because they have this education or because they came from money a lot of them didn't you know even i mean richard branson i mean you know he had a history i mean his his history was he was explaining me his mother got mad at him while they were driving the car he was doing something threw him out of the car

He's like, nowadays, he's even told me this on the air. He's like, you know, she probably would have gotten arrested. But you know what? I learned a lot from that. So I think we learn a lot from the positive that happens with our childhood. And we learn a lot too from the negative of it. And I was a latchkey kid. I came home. Nobody was home. My mother had to work. Parents were divorced. And, you know, I came home, had to figure out very young age and okay, how do I make my own sandwich, do my own thing? Now I look at it like that was one of the best things that happened.

And I'm very, very close with both my parents, you know. So you can't say, you can't tie, I don't think, Tommy, you could tie it to specific things in general. And I think the thing is, you know, someone may always say, again, either I don't have enough money, I didn't have the right upbringing, I didn't have this, that. Yet you look at people who are, people who I've interviewed, who have come from various backgrounds and socioeconomic, and they've

They've been successful at it. I think it's surrounding yourself with positive people. I think positive is the biggest thing of ever. And it's just like to it, the round table that we have every single week. And again, guests are invited. I can't wait for you to attend. Everybody's got crap going on. And the thing we tell them, just like I told you at the beginning, that's fine. Leave it at the door. This is the oasis. This is the oasis for entrepreneurs. The bag will be out there when you leave. Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's definitely, it's real. And I think, you know, I had these guys over. One's at $2.4 billion, one just sold for $165 million. You know, just a day whiteboarding with these guys for a few hours. Now, it hasn't been done yet, but it'll be done by the end of Q3. We're going into Q3. I added $10 million to eBay just by adding these few things.

And it's just these little things that make the company better. Just things that I haven't thought about, just different way of looking at things. Just one little thing that'll add $4 million in the next month, literally to EBITDA. And I'm like, yeah, no, I didn't think about it that way. So you never know. And it's really important because I always go, you know why you can't come to my event? I got an event in September 25th through the 27th called Freedom. It's in San Diego. And I say, you know why you can't come?

because you can't afford to because if you leave everything's going to fall and how long then a year is going to go by and you can't afford to come again and then you know five years go by and you're sitting there going well this guy came in and he marketed better than me this guy does sales better and this guy or you got every reason why you're not winning and you know i was on grant cardone's podcast and he asked me a question and i was strong about one answer and coming from your background i think you will be too but what's more important sales or marketing oh god

Well, which one is the physical part where you're actually seeing or talking to someone, right? Is that on the sales part? I mean, you know, are you considering that on the marketing part? Well, I would say... I mean, they're both important. What would you consider this right now, this podcast? Is this sales or marketing? I think on the marketing end. It's marketing. You know? So I don't care if you're Rico Suave, the best salesman that ever lived here, the Wolf of Wall Street, or whoever you want to say. I will out... If I'm a better marketer...

I don't need to be good at sales because I'm getting in front of 100,000 customers. We are closing 20,000 jobs a month in the garage door. So even if you are really, really amazing at sales, unless it's like getting a big account, it's the gift that keeps giving, right? You got outside sales. That's a little bit different, but that's a form of marketing in itself, right? If you're doing door-to-door sales, that's marketing.

you're the marketing right right so i i think kind of marketing i agree and i know it's you know you get a really great sales guy you don't need a lot of opportunities to make a lot of money you know jeremy minor and i were together we we went and got bria an amg this weekend and that's her birthday and christmas present and it's you know hopefully she sleeps with the keys for the next three years i was like i got about a week on this so i think advantage she's happy so i'm happy

But that's a really, it's an important question, I think, because I became obsessed with marketing and that's what I attribute to the success of this company. Sales is super important. I love sales. I love learning about it. Well, what's the key aspect for marketing that's done for you to make it so successful? Well, what I think is number one, I needed to realize every garage store owner is not my client. Number two, I needed perfect attribution. Number three...

I think starting the podcast and I think putting myself in rooms and asking more questions is what made it. And now out of there's 42 guys training next door in our training center, brand new, half of them wanted to come be my coworker. They knew about me before they met me. They wanted to come work with us because of me.

And I'm hoping one day I'm just going to say, listen, we're hiring in Nashville and there will be 100 Navy SEAL, SEAL Team 6 badass people that show up and say, sir, yes, sir, I'm ready to come aboard. Great. And I think it's really, you know, I've had to switch. Here's what really happened for me is I used to market for clients. Now I market for internal clients.

Because if you get the right people on the bus, you know where you're going. And so my marketing brain had to pivot and say, man, what if I just stack the deck? And I think a lot of people miss that. And by the way, I don't hire anymore. I recruit. Hiring is just putting an ad on Craigslist and D-Class or Monster and ZipRecruiter or whatever. I try to go to someone that's already got a job, that's already happy, that's doing what they love and say, I'll give you more.

And I'll make you happier and I'll pull your whole family in on it and we'll focus on your success. That's the elevate mindset. I got to tell you a quick story. I went to a dry cleaner. This is one of my earlier companies. I went to a dry cleaner and this lady, actually lady, it's a young girl. And she approaches me when I come into this, you know, to drop off my laundry, pick up my laundry, whatever it was.

And I couldn't believe how much she treated me like gold, like as if I was some famous person coming in there. She worked for this cleaners and I had never experienced something like that before. Made me feel so welcome. Guess what? I hired her. I hired her because it was such a feeling. It was a feeling and she did phenomenal. But it was interesting, again, being on the lookout for

For people that are like that, again, she would have never had the opportunity. She says, you know, here, drop off your thing. But I felt like the most important thing. And you know what? I didn't hire her on the spot, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. And not about her, but the experience. Yeah. Walking in there, opening the door. And I was like, you know, welcome to, you know, and it was just a cleaner's place. But it was interesting. It was attitude. It was attitude. Attitude determines altitude, right? We've heard of that. Yep. Yep.

I recently had an event and, you know, we're in the business of not only growing greenfield strategy and organically, but partnering with companies. And I talked to our VP of corporate development and I said, there's a lot of companies that want to partner with us. I said, you were four seasons and you wanted to give a world-class experience. What do you think they would do? They'd probably be calling you on a Saturday. How amazed we are by you. Booking a flight to come see you. Wine and dining you.

laughing at your jokes, taking notes, painting this vision. And I said, they wouldn't probably wait till Monday. They'd probably paint the picture. They'd answer all your questions. They'd make sure it's the right fit. They'd make sure to tell you the good, the bad, do a SWOT analysis. And they'd be very upfront because I think what's world-class? What's world-class? What's that world-class experience?

And I don't think we were giving world-class experiences to our future partners. And that's something, once again, that, you know, what I love about not being involved in the day-to-day is that it allows me to see beyond the day. It allows me to look at the vision. Right, right. And that's a big deal.

You know, interesting is, is, is cause I, you know, I talked, talked about your audience, how much I work and stuff that I took a two week, two week trip, uh, from my previous company. And I was nervous as hell. I went international. So I'm like, Oh my gosh, how am I going to, I can't connect, you know, phone service sucks out here in this country and so on. Anyways, you know what? I came back and they had closed more deals than when I was gone. And when I, you know, as I was gone, then I went, then as if I was there and I was like, okay,

But I felt a little sad. Yeah. I was like, okay, I guess, you know. Well, they wanted to impress you. Yeah. They wanted to show that they could do it without you. And they did. What is one piece of advice you'd give to aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners based on your personal experience? Wait, one piece? One piece. One piece of advice to aspiring ones.

You know, I've done mentoring at Arizona State University and I've worked with a lot of students that have an idea that wanted looking at launching something. And my thing is, is that one piece of advice. Don't wait. Don't wait. There's never going to be the perfect time to launch. There's never going to be the right amount of money to have to launch. You can do all the analysis that you want, but just don't wait and just start, start, start doing it.

Sounds like having kids. You know what? You don't have this perfect time. There is never. You're right. There is not a perfect time. Well, we'll wait till we have a house. We'll wait till I'm more established in business. There's not. Fortunate enough, you know, I got married and my wife's like, yeah, let's have kids. I was like, what?

We did. And I, you know, I was single. I, you know, I have a stepbrother, but, you know, I grew up alone. And now, fortunately, we have two kids. Now I look back and I'm like, you know what? Maybe it would have been nice having more than two. Really? Yeah. Yeah. In fact, when you come to our roundtable, you'll see, you see most people when they start off an event or something, they talk about, well, you know, this person, famous person said this, and this famous person said this. I actually share a lesson that I learned from my children.

every single week. True lessons and lesson changes every single week. And I do those. Part of it was is because at that time, I really didn't know anybody except those that were in my field. Now I know so many people that I can't even remember all the people of each specific lesson because there's so many. How big are those events usually? So, um,

private round table that takes place each and every single week that changes every week again who's there and stuff are online and in person we have about 70 people that attend and it's more than register but actually attend is 70 and then our grand table and stuff and this doesn't include the one online we take the largest hall and it's a I think we cap it at 250.

And now what is, give me a little bit of the foundation and structure. Like how does, how do you, who speaks and when and how long is it? Yeah, that's great. So at our private round table, everybody has an opportunity to present. We have a specific formula of how they go about presenting. It's called our 3G methodology. A 3G methodology. Think of it as the improved elevator speech. A 3G methodology is, is what have you got? So it's, you know, again, what do you have? What do you, what do you got? What is your give?

So what are you looking to freely provide? And what is your get? What do you need? And we call it the 3G methodology trademarked. I like that. And it works. And it's right to the core. And all of these things were put together, again, kind of almost through thin air.

You know, this was something that started. I wasn't even looking at doing something this. I'm an introvert. I got a couple people together. It ended up growing. We were thrown out of one office because too many people were there. We ended up going to Panera Bread where we had this. They gave us a room there. And what happened at Panera Bread is right when the doors opened up,

We took over the whole restaurant. The manager came to me and said, you know what? We can't have you anywhere. I said, why? What do we do? He said, because when you end your session here, you're taking up the whole restaurant. We're still open to the public because people were having meetings. But each of these came out because I was getting together a group. Here's the thing. It was for the purpose to see what I was going to do next. Little did I know that this was my calling. And I was in the position to be able to do it. And it was the timing in life to be able to do it.

And it's made up of the community. It's driven by the community. Decisions are driven and put together because of the community. And then we do many, many other events that take place. And I owe a lot to those that are part of the community, our sponsors that make it happen, because without them, I would not be able to do it. Mac six played a vital role because when we went COVID, so we went, you know, COVID took place. Not any single week were we down.

COVID took place and we were down for one week, one week. And the first week that we were down, I remember it was March. I was getting calls from members and the calls went anywhere from something like this.

God, this COVID thing, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm getting government contracts moving to the front of the line. Instead of doing net 30 or 60, they're giving me net 15 because they needed face mask things. They needed all these things. Then I was also getting the other calls of like my business is failing. We have people that own restaurants and stuff. I don't know what I'm going to do. And there was one call that changed my entire mindset. And this is what it was. And I'll never forget this. Person called me up and they said,

I mean, I get choked up by this. Said, David, I don't know what you're going to do, but you better do something. I hung up the phone. My kids were all at home, my wife. And I just was like, I was ready to cry. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Yeah.

So we ended up, I ended up getting other members together. We pulled it together. We tried to mimic exactly what goes inside in person. And again, there's a whole formula. There's a process that takes place of having it in person. We mimicked almost exact things.

of having it online, even with breakout rooms, which we got a new sponsor, which was Remo. So it's almost, it's a custom design, no different than if you were in person where you can walk and go table to table easily just by clicking in. It's called Remo.co. Then suddenly the world opened up. Well, when the world opened up, we were like, what are we going to do now? Now we have members that are throughout the world. So there goes that. Well, we teamed up with Max6.com

And they put together with us to be able to do a hybrid model online and in person. And by the way, as a plug for them, this is a room that you can also rent going to max6.com where you can do and run events online and in person at the same time. It's not a bragging. It's simply the fact is we're the only ones that are doing it and doing it consistently. And it takes a lot of work. Oh, yeah. Everything takes a lot of work.

I love this. So if somebody wants to get a hold of you, David, and they want to reach out, what's the best way to do that? Best thing to do is go to alliances.com. Again, that's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Again, that's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Of course, you're welcome to Google my name, David Kogan. David, C-O-G-A-N. Think of like Hulk Hogan, but with a C.

and there's access, there's different ways you can apply to attend a roundtable. Certainly be an honor of having anybody as your guest also come and attend. And again, that's whether maybe you have an idea, right? Napkin to idea. Maybe you're somebody who's established as a well-known CEO and this could be from anywhere in the world. You know, all CFO may be an expert, right?

But if you have a passion, and here's the thing, you have a passion to help others. I don't care how rich you are, poor you are. Everybody has something they can contribute. And I'm simply the talking head that, you know, helps pull every people together. But it's our community that drives it. And that's where I take my marching orders. Love it.

David, if there's a book, not the Bible, not the E-Myth, not Blue Ocean Strategy, not The Richest Man in Babylon, not Robert Kiyosaki, but a book that we don't really know of that's like a gem that you learned a lot from. Do you have anything that comes to mind?

Boy, that's okay. Let me think about that for a minute because there's been a number of books. I mean, I certainly think, you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad comes to mind. I've interviewed Sharon Lecter. I think that's a great book. I would probably recommend that book. That's, you know, real quick on that. And Kiyosaki, you know, I've met him and stuff. So my niece and two nephews...

My brother-in-law is in town right now, and I said, hey, listen, I'd like to give your kids some money to read a book. And I'm going to do it each month, $400 each. But you're going to be the – I'm going to ask tough questions, and neither – none of them are getting the same questions.

And it's not going to be like what color was the guy's hat on page, you know what I mean? And I said if they do okay, that's $200. If they do pretty good, that's $300. If they do great, it's $400. We're starting with Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Wow. Let me sign up. Yeah. That's great. So that's a possibility that you can each make $5,000 a year. Yeah. No, I think that's great. I think it's good. Yeah.

Yeah, I think reading is important. Unfortunately, I do a lot where I'm watching things online and stuff like that. But yeah, those are good. Well, I'm excited about you being able to come. Yeah, we'll set that up. I'll get with my EA and she'll set it up. Last thing I ask here, David. Yep. We've talked about a lot of stuff. We know Alliances is the place to be. Yep. We understand September. Yep. The ASU Sky Song.

Is that what it's guys on? Yeah, ASU Sky Song. Yep, September 10th, our grand table. So just close us out. Maybe we didn't talk about something. Maybe there's something you need the listeners to know. Maybe that's just to go do this today or think about this or just really focus on this attribute. But I don't know what it is, but I'll let you close us out. I think for me what it's been is, and it's a challenging thing for some people to find, is finding what your passion is.

You know, you hear that word, you hear it thrown around a lot, but really what, what is it that you're passionate about? And, you know, I never knew that I was good at what I'm doing now is, is, you know, being a speaker and I speak every single week. But I think the thing is, is when we find what we're good at, we end up liking it.

I mean, I don't play professional ball, but you know what? If I was good at baseball, suddenly I'd be like, this is the best thing ever. And everybody has a skill. Everybody can contribute something to someone. Find out what you like and make it a passion as long as it's legal, ethical and all the other things and find that. Some people never find it. Some people find it, you know, as a young person.

Lately, I've been taking my dog for walks, although not with the weather, but when I've been taking my dog for walks, and here's what I found. We take this walk and we walk by a school. The kids see my dog and they all come running out. And they're all laughing and having a good time, screaming for fun. And it makes me just think about it going, you know what? Look how happy they are at their age. Somewhere along the line, we lose that. How can we continue to keep that? They're at school.

It's elementary school, yet they're having so fun just looking at my dog, asking a million questions, jumping up and down, having tremendous amount of energy. So find your passion, find what you like, and enjoy. Wow.

Thank you, David. Absolutely. I appreciate it. You're great. I need you, Tommy, to do me a favor, though. I need you to be able to somehow figure out how to bottle your energy. No, you've got this aura, and I'm not just saying it. I've been interviewed by a number of people. You've got this aura and energy. It's contagious in a good way. You've got to figure out how can you teach others that part.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm going to have to work on that. I'm on it. Let's figure out how to bottle it. He's like, yeah, we're going to put it in a bottle. All right. Excellent. Thank you again, Tommy. It's been an honor. Appreciate you. Absolutely.

Hey there. Thanks for tuning into the podcast today. Before I let you go, I want to let everybody know that Elevate is out and ready to buy. I can share with you how I attracted a winning team of over 700 employees in over 20 states. The insights in this book are powerful and can be applied to any business or organization. It's a real game changer for anyone looking to build and develop a high-performing team like over here at A1 Garage Door Service. So if you want to learn the secrets that helped me transfer my team from stealing the toilet paper

to a group of 700 plus employees rowing in the same direction, head over to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast and grab a copy of the book. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch up with you next time on the podcast.