Unlocking Millionaire Success Habits with Dean Graziosi
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And if you got nothing else from this podcast today, take this. Look at each thing you do. Physically write down on a piece of paper, not even in front of it, the things you do. And next to each one, you put the first one you put. It's a non-negotiable. My company, I love it. I got to be there for my company. I got to do date night once a week. I got to make my kids dances and I got to take them to school, whatever it is. There's non-negotiables. I got to go see mom on Sundays, right? Then it's the hard decisions. Then you got to look at each thing and say,

If it's a non-negotiable and I want to do it, great. But if not, what can I delegate? What can I automate? And what must I eliminate? And when you go through that, what I know, I've been doing this literally for 15 years, you get stronger at what you need. Each year when you want more time, you look at it and go, I'm not going to do that anymore.

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 to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299.

1-299 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 a great day. I got Dean Gracioso in the studio. He's an expert of self-education, sales coaching, and marketing. He's the co-founder of Mastermind.com. Five years ago, he started that with Tony Robbins, and he's the founder of Dean Gracioso.

22 years he spent on every single commercial we could imagine. Facebook, he's murdered. 1.7 million followers. Instagram, massive. Really big on TikTok. Dean Gracios is the co-founder of Mastermind.com and the founder of Dean Enterprises, a television show production company specializing in infomercials.

To date, he has worked behind massive eight and nine figure companies, helping them drive exponential growth, both in that profit and overall reach. Dean is a sought after speaker, host of Own Your Own Future podcast, a New York bestselling author of Millionaire Success Habits and the Underdog Advantage. Dean, I'm really glad you're here today. It's going to be fun. Good to be here. So, you know, first, like I've seen you for years and I see you on a lot of stages. We know a lot of the same people.

A lot of people probably know who you are, but can you just start from the beginning, where you started, where you're at, where you're going? - Yeah, for sure. First off, it's amazing being here. So, an incredible job. When someone shared about what you were doing, all I knew is A1 Garage, right? I didn't know the size, the scope, or what you've done. And to see what you've done on the outside, it empowered so many people around this country to be a better version of themselves.

to have an opportunity to grow in areas where maybe in other organizations they can't. And then to come here and see this facility, see your training, see people in the other room learning, spending four weeks here, I'm just really impressed. So awesome to be here with you. And I see the type of books you read. So we're going to have a fun time. And those of you who watch or are listening right now, I know there's a million things you can

But you're here. So if we're going to spend an hour together, we're going to kick some ass. So let's have some fun. Real quick, you know, some of the stuff you read is a little old. My team should have got you a better bio. But anyway, long story short is I guess no matter where you are, if you're listening to this, if you're an entrepreneur and you're a business owner, you're considered being a business owner, someone that just wants another level. We've been in the same places. So I've been...

The dreamer in school when, you know, I'd go to school without lunch money some days. My dad worked really hard in the collision shop to make about 30 grand a year trying to juggle all those pieces. Parents split and married nine times between different people. Lots of moves, lots of marriages, lots of dysfunction, all this stuff. We all have our own story, not poor me. The only reason I'm saying that is we all have that trigger. If you're listening to a podcast like this, the one thing we haven't come is that you know you're meant for me.

You're listening to this to get a competitive edge, to get inspired, to get motivated, to gain capability, to see something you didn't see a prior day, something that just gets you to move in a way that you never moved before. And I just want to share, no matter what level you're at, you're killing it. It's time for another level. You're just about to kill it or you're making a transition from an old life to a new life. I've been in all those places. I had a collision shop like my dad. I had tow trucks. I had apartments. I built houses. And then I switched places.

I got into real estate, did extremely well in real estate. And then I bought Tony Robbins' course, 27 years ago. And when I got his course, of course, because you studied the same stuff, there was a couple of things that it did. The one thing it did is made me realize that your past can be your anchor or the wind behind your sail, that life can happen for you or to you.

that you have opportunities and you have obstacles, right? You can see what could go right, but you can see what go wrong. You see what you lost or see what you have. Simple things that you guys, you probably share on this podcast over and over again. And I know you've heard that before.

So it fundamentally shifted me to saying, hey, maybe I'm not crazy. I can do more. I might not have a college education. I might be a blue-collar guy, but I got bigger aspirations. But the second thing it did was made me realize that I could go into an industry of selling what I knew. By then, when I got that course, from starting with nothing, I was on my way to being a millionaire because of real estate. I'm like, hey, I'm going to be a millionaire.

I teach people what I did. I can't teach people how to buy multifamily or big apartment complexes or strip malls, but I could teach the average person how to get into a single family home.

So I took a risk and created an infomercial. People ask why I went in the infomercial business because it was 1996 and there was no Facebook or internet or YouTube. So I created an infomercial, created a product. I had no idea what I was doing. I was clueless. And I launched it through trial and error. You get some momentum. I remember the first sale like it was yesterday. And the difference back then, think about this. I know this might seem like a completely different industry than you're in or heard of.

But before the internet, when you had access to people, you had to do an infomercial. I was 100 grand into an infomercial, 50 grand into product. I had to go between product and booking media. So I had to book TV media. I had to buy a call center. I had to get a warehouse. All those before I had one, and the product was 39 bucks, right? It was like a cassette tape. Yeah, it was cassette tapes and videos and cassette tapes and books, right? And that was about 150,000 that was on credit cards. But long story short, I know what it's like to...

want more feel scared nobody understands you the stuff you do in the invisible when no one's watching stuff when you look in the mirror and go can we really do this like i know we're meant for more but like this is hard or i'm not that smart or i didn't go to college i don't understand business my family sat me down like like i was a drug addict with an intervention until i stopped dreaming it's time to get real our family doesn't do stuff like this

So I know all those feelings, but then I also know what it's like to get my first sale, my 10th sale. I know it's like to hit a million a year. I know it's like to hit 100 million a year. I know it's like Tony Robbins, who is the guy that shifted my life. We met 12 years ago. We've been best friends every day since then, and we own 12 companies together. So I know all those sides, and I'd love to share whatever part of those help everybody listening today go to their next tier.

- Yeah, I was sitting down recently. I had Gino Whitman and he wrote the EOS method. - Love it. Gino's a good dude. - He sold 87 and a half percent. And he was sitting there, all the money, all the money, and he felt lost and without purpose. This is his baby. He changed the world with that. And he wrote a book called "Shine." And he said, you know, the money, you think it's the money, you think that's the destination.

And you kind of lose a piece of you when you sell a piece of your company. A lot about the people that are listening to entrepreneurs. I feel great. Now I'm going to build anything to sell. And I'm going to sell within five years. I don't, a lot of people are like, I'm never going to sell. And I'm like, well, he's saying to not compete for your area. You learn a skill. You take it sharp and go on to the next one. And I understand where they're coming from. But after doing it, I feel completely different. But you got a guy like Gino that impacted me.

every you know fortune 500 absolutely in every single continent and it's just really weird to hear a guy like that and he's like i need a lot of therapy and i needed a lot of help you know whether it's by waska or with the different journeys you could take but

When is a lot of people are going after this destination? I feel like this, the success they want people to recognize, want to say, see, mom, I told you I could do it. And yeah, that's great. And everybody's going after this. Like I told you I could do it. But, you know, Dan Martelli was working with this woman. She was doing $7 million and she goes, I'm getting to a hundred million, Dan. And he's like, why? And she goes, cause I can tell them all to F off. And he goes, look up how many women entrepreneurs made it to 7 million. It's 0.02%.

You could already tell him that. Tears are coming out of his eyes. He's telling her this. I mean, as an entrepreneur, what is the goal? What is the goal? What is the plan? You've done it. You've had success. So where do we go? What's the plan? Well, I think you've got to reevaluate what success truly means to you because the one that usually starts you is from the dark side. Like if I really dig in,

I watched my mom work three jobs that have nothing, and I hated watching her struggle. And I hated that my dad didn't have money, didn't pay anything to my mother to help her. So my mom struggled, my dad worked like a fool to not have much. And I can give you all these aspirational reasons why I wanted to be successful. The truth is, I just didn't want to be my dad. 11 brothers and sisters he didn't talk to. His parents didn't talk to him when he died, and my sister doesn't talk to him. And I remember all he did was fight with people, being frustrated, didn't have money, always struggling.

So I can give you a million reasons, if I really look back. It's like, I just looked at that guy, he's had a bubble, and he's like, yeah, but I don't want to be here, and I need to take care of my... And those are like, that's like the, if you know cars, right? That's like nitrous oxide. You're driving, you hit the nitrous oxide button, you go fast. It's like going to the dark side. I think the dark side can get you, get the rocket off the ground, get the car moving fast. But if you hold the nitrous oxide button on a car, it blows up. You can't hold it for too long, right? It's just a boost.

So I think we can use the dark side as the fuel to say, I don't want to be them. I want to change my family lineage. I want to have freedom that money is not choking me. I can make decisions not based on money, but based on who I want to become and what I want for my family and the father I want to be or the wife I want to be, the husband I want to be, the man I want to be.

I think we have to determine what success is for us or else you get lost and you're just hitting the nitrous oxide button all the time and you're still running away. I know I did it for years. I know there were years starting new companies. I sold a couple of companies and I feel blessed. The company we're building now is doing amazing. I know I went a decade without looking up, just grinding. You wouldn't be here if you didn't do it. You find a different place.

But in recent years, maybe because I'm 55 now, I really identify with success. I love what I do. I work now because I love it. The fact is, and same with you, if I wanted to call it quits and go sit on an island, I could do it. In three generations, underneath me, it would be fine. But I love what I do. I found a way to have life-work integration. I'm not trying to separate work.

you know, life-work balance. How does that work for you? It never does. But when you can find a way to love what you do, you don't know where work ends and life begins and vice versa. And that might sound subtle, but for me, I want life-work integration. I want to love what I do. I need to be in control of my calendar so I can be there for baseball, softball, dance recitals, because I missed too many of those when my kids were younger. If I focus on that every day, control of my calendar, decisions I want to make,

work at the level I want to work and be a good husband to my wife. That's my new definition of success. It wasn't my 20s when I was running away from being broke. It was the first million. It was independence. It was the cars, the houses. It was the plane. And I have to say, people who get there earlier really understanding well or really understanding what success means to them, they just got a different thing to fight for. You look up more. You realize if you're hitting. And then it doesn't mean that when you're hitting, you stop. You just can enjoy the journey of success.

Yeah, I mean, you're right. We're going so fast and you hit your goal, but it's a hundred million, a billion. How much did you celebrate when you hit it? Oh, really good for the one day. And then I put the page. And then two days later, you're comparing yourself to the bigger jet. Oh, it's never good enough. It's a sickness almost. It's an entrepreneurial, you know, we're only 5% of the hunters. We're not a large population. And the chances of success as an entrepreneur, everybody's like, I'm going to go start a company.

And I'm like, I hope you're ready because right now it's going to be all sweat equity. And that's not a business. That's a job. And it's 24 seven. There's no real vacations. There's no real movie theater times. And there's no really present moments because we're always in our own head. That's the last one you just said is the most important. What people don't realize is that, is that, and I, and taking the choice, I do it a thousand times over. So would you, but the moment, the thing that you just talked about being the invisible, and I'll talk about that more in a minute is that,

Our whole life is made up of what we do when no one's watching. I love living by that. What we do as entrepreneurs, I've been trying, I've been doing everything when no one's watching. Are they really doing everything? It's like your friend who's, I got a dear friend I love for 20 years. He's telling me, I'm going to lose this 10 pounds. When I'm with him, the guy eats salads with no dressing on it and grilled chicken. He's 50 pounds overweight. Now, if he loved the 50 pounds, I wouldn't bust his chops. But every time I see him, he goes, I'm getting rid of this. Bro, it's gone.

I'm like, I said to him about a year ago, I said, you're so full of shit. When no one's watching, you are eating and he confessed at night. He just binges at night, right? It's the same thing in the invisible of an entrepreneur's life. You said something that was so powerful is you're never able to shut it off because if you're not actually physically working, you're thinking about the next move, the thing you got to protect yourself, protect the company. Am I going to have enough money for that next venture? Is this going to go wrong? I don't know if I ever heard anybody say that before. It's true. It robs you.

And as long as you have a plan, as long as you're evolving as an entrepreneur, you have to go through that, but you don't have to stay. But you got to go through it. Yeah. And it's not easy. It's very difficult, but it's a work, it's a juice worth the squeeze all day. You know, all the people you just met, a lot of people training in there, there's a female technician, which I'm very excited and proud of, and I think she's going to kill it. And I told them earlier during orientation, I said, you know, guys, show me your credit card bills and show me your calendar.

You might say your kids are your most important thing. You might say your wife is the most important thing. You might say you got a close relationship with your parents, but I'll see. We can look at it right now if one of you want to do it, but we'll see where your priorities are. It's not bad that you're trying to build a better life for your family, but let's just say that. It's a journey in your life. It's a season. It's a season. And it's okay, but sometimes a season lasts way too long, and you're going to miss the years, and you can't go back. And

Many people, most people say, man, if I could go back just to make it to one dance recital, just to be present. I said, you know how much I would give any amount of money when I was young just to play catch with my dad for 10 minutes a week. That's all I wanted. And my dad was he on his own transmission shops. We come from the same history. But you don't understand these kids, the kids, especially they're so susceptibles.

And they know dad's trying. Just a little smidge of time. Fully present time is all they want. That's all they care about. Just, and it gets annoying. I'm not a dad yet. I will be. And they're like, you're working. And they're like, hey, dad, can I just come watch what you're doing? And it's like, it's so important because I've never been a dad, but I've been a son. And you've been a dad, I have a son. Yeah, I have to say just so.

Today, when I leave here, I'm going to play tennis with my... I don't play tennis, but I do now. 17-year-old and 15-year-old will play. So they invited me to go today. And so I have a 17 and 15, a 4-year-old, and an 18-month-old. Right? So my 4-year-old and 18-month-old, I know. You just said something that made me emotional. I'm trying to make up for it because with my little ones...

I was a great dad. I was a great provider. But I was busy hustling. You know, it's like you're starting a new company, starting a new business. They think I'm the greatest dad in the world, but I know I was preoccupied and busy. It was a season. If I could do it over again, I still would hustle. I would do it again. I get up now at 3.45, 4 o'clock every morning. I hustle before I get up. But just understanding that, I have to say,

We don't have to trade out, well, I can either be a good dad or have success. I can either be this or in good shape. We have an opportunity to balance it all. And maybe it took me to 55 years old to figure that out. I don't miss anything with these little kids. I'm not screwing that up. The same way you'll be when you have your kids. And God willing, you do.

I keep going back to that. Maybe this conversation will go into talking about values a little bit because it took me a long time to really dial in what values mean. Everybody's like, "What are your values? What are your core beliefs?" I think I bliged at myself for years, so I really took time to think, "What does that mean? What do you mean by values?" If you really look, that's our operating system. It really is. You wanted to play 10 minutes with your dad. You wanted to play catch.

I could feel your emotions when you said, I felt emotional. You said, I feel it right now because I wish my dad could too. Dad worked on cars till 8 o'clock. He came home with his hands cracked in the winter and working on engines. And I wished he did. Now, everything, I'll cancel anything not to miss a date. I'll cancel. Nothing matters, right? My whole point, I'm getting lost because I'm thinking about when I was a kid. But if you set priorities, and this is the part I want to get to. I apologize. I'll get to the values in a minute.

If you set priorities on what is a must in your life, that's a non-negotiable. If it's spending time with your family, spending time with your wife, creating intimacy, creating moments, getting flowers, going to dance recites, that all that means is that you have to get the best not to do list in your life because there's enough time to do it.

So the only thing I can share, one of the greatest gifts I've ever, and I don't know where I learned it, but it's been at least 15 years, is I make a list. And this is something I would suggest everybody do. And then I'll share what I was talking about with value as a calibrating system. If you really took the time, take an hour and really think about your week and jot down the things you do on an average week. Maybe stop by, see friends. Maybe you jump on this stupid phone and scroll. You think you're going to be five minutes, but it's an hour. You know, you got a buddy you meet for a beer. That's cool, but it ends up being three and too long.

I would look at all the crap that we do on a regular basis and I would judge them in four things. If you got nothing else from this podcast today, take this. Look at each thing you do, write physically, write down on a piece of paper. I ain't gonna fall out of the things you do. And next to each one, you put the first one you put is a non-negotiable. I'm in my company. I love it. I gotta be there for my company. I gotta be there. I gotta do date night once a week. I gotta make my kids dances and I gotta take them to school, whatever it is. There's non-negotiables. I gotta go see mom on Sundays, right?

Then it's the hard decisions. Then you got to look at each thing and say, if it's a non-negotiable and I want to do it, great. But if not, what can I delegate? What can I automate? And what must I eliminate? And when you go through that, what I know, I've been doing this literally for 15 years, you get stronger at what you need. Each year when you want more time, you look at and go, I'm not going to do that anymore.

Like I'm going to place my, I don't go to, we get invited. It's one of those things when you're younger and you want to go to all this fancy stuff, nobody asks you. And then you get the opportunity to go to everything. I do not, I say no to everything because I like being home with my kids. I love being with my wife. Right? So I'm at a point where pretty much everything gets a no because the non-negotiables is being there for my kids, keeping a good relationship with my wife and growing my company because I love the impact Tony and I get to make.

It's a pretty much no to everything else. So I'm able to grow a company and hustle and work out seven days a week and do it. But I had to get strict on no rather than yes. Somebody said to me, yes, get you out of Egypt. No, takes you to the promised land. Yeah, the power of no. I use Eisenhower's matrix to say, I need to do this now. I can put it off. I could delegate or I could eliminate it. And people always say like, there's all these influencers out there. A lot of them have never really made money.

And a lot of them are not great. They're not great lawyers. They're not great parents. And they say they're going to outwork everybody. And I believe they can, but they never learned how to delegate. They never learned the eight steps of delegation. Here's what needs to get done. Here's why. Here's when. I learned that from a mentor. And I think it's so important. And I, you know, I will say this. My mom's birthday was March 4th. My birthday is March 4th. She had me when she was 29 and it was her 70th birthday.

And they made a really cool video. And I just said, and I didn't do a great job yet, but I said, you know, the one thing I know you want more than anything is time. And my mom's the type of lady that if I said I killed somebody to be like, I got a bad back, but I'm going to bring the shovel. She'd show up. Like, I don't care if I was in prison. Like that's who my mom is. She always said, she just said she loves me no matter what, you know what I mean? And that's, that's who I had in my corner. And that's nice because not a lot of people have those people in their corner. And yeah,

I sat down to this lady that does psychology and she got raped when she was 12 and she was born in the 1930s and she calls it the Mary, the Mary method, Maryland method. And she goes into prisons and meets with rapists. And she says, leave up the guards got to leave. And she would just say, I see you as a little boy. And she said, there's three things you got to know about these people.

How close was the person that did it to him? How often and how violent was it? And there's some people that never got a hug. She'd sit there at the end of every single session

And she'd give them all a hug and they'd call her mom. Mike Tyson calls her mom. And they'd shake because no one ever loved them before. So I try to see that version of people. I've had it made. I can tell you about war stories when I was a kid. I used to listen to my mom and dad argue about money. But that's nothing. And we live in the United States of America. Greatest place. You can never forget that. I think it's really interesting. I'm going to pivot here. I'm going to get into values in a minute. But...

You know, you got into Tony Robbins and you were always kind of a star. You were on TV since like infomercials began. I mean, you know, it's kind of funny because I went out to Rhode Island and I met the Ginsu Knife guys. One of them was passed away, but that was like back in the day. Yeah, yeah. Tomato and yeah. Anyways, how did you just come about and start this business with mastermind.com?

So Tony and I met about 12 years ago. Somebody introduced this and we just hit it off. We were going to meet for a half hour. We ended up spending six hours together. And about a week later, I flew down to his house. And for me, I just can say it like it is for me. If I could have met anybody in the world 12 years ago to say thank you, it would have been Tony. Because when I got his stuff in 1996,

I had success with a collision shop and auto sales, had apartments, but I was running so hard away from the life I was talking about that I wasn't enjoying anything. I didn't understand personal development. I didn't, I was just, like you said, I could outwork anybody, but I didn't have an ounce of understanding of what a leadership was and those things. When I got Tony's course, it was like a part of me just got pressure released. I was just as

ambitious, just as motivated, but I looked at life in a different way and growth was exponential. And his principles have stuck with me ever since. So I wrote down in my journal 20 something years ago, if I ever see him, I just want to shake his hand and say, thank you. So I was excited to meet him and we just, we hit it off. So it became real great friends. We talk almost every day still. We were friends for about five years and I watched every time I was with him, somebody would start off as a friend and then offer a business deal. We should do this deal together. We should do this deal. I'm like, you know what?

I was doing good by then. By the time we met, my businesses were doing extremely well. I'm not doing business with this guy. I'm just making a point that we're friends. Let's keep the friends. I don't need it because it only could cloud it. But we grew. Our friendship grew so much that we were on a golf course. I golfed twice a year. So to see we golfed two times a year. We golfed together. It gives us four hours to catch up. And we're on a golf course. And we said, if we were going to start a business, what would we start?

and we both agreed it was jim rohn who shifted his life right 17 years old he went to a jim rohn event life changed forever it's tony for me i download personal power you know not download back then it was cassette tapes right this is a personal power on my sony walkman it shifted my life and we said this industry is becoming more available everybody has knowledge they should share everybody has a skill a life experience that's valuable to somebody else we're like

We love self-education so much. Why don't we start a self-education company to teach other people how to get in our business? That's literally how it started. And we love masterminds. The collective wisdom of two or more people together that creates a third mind is just something that shifted our lives. So we named it Mastermind. We got mastermind.com and we started creating training so people could extract their knowledge, impact others and turn it into a business.

And our first year we ended up doing, I think the biggest launch in internet history. It was unbelievable. You know? Um, and since then we've done 11 big events together, averaging about a million person, million people, each event that we've done, million people registered. Wow. The last 11 we've done, one of them had two and a half million. Is that in live or is that the virtual? You got that virtual? Yeah. All around us. Yeah. We can see everybody. That's what Alex Ramozy launched with. Yeah. I was just with Alex all day yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. He's a good guy. Smart guy.

And, uh, so that's what we said. I mean, even I read, um, cause we have this model of helping people turn their life experience into a course or a workshop or a membership or a community. And it's just growing unbelievable. I mean, it's 130 countries. Mastermind is growing exponentially. I read green lights.

Yeah. By Matthew McConaughey. I got done reading it. I was listening to it and I was mad it was over. And I'm like, I want more McConaughey. So I was lucky enough to have a mutual friend. I reached out to him. I said, hey, let's turn that book into a course. That's what we do. So we ended up doing, I don't know if you saw that. We did a fun event with McConaughey. I didn't see that. We had two and a half million people show up day one and we launched his course. It was fun. So long story short, how did it start? Because self-education changed our life. We said, let's make self-education the new norm. And I think we've been doing a good job of getting more people

I mean, at the end of the day, your guys are learning specialized knowledge, right? That's why you got 150 guys, whatever in there, four weeks here learning specialized knowledge. What the world has realized is that traditional education in a lot of ways gives you general knowledge. No matter how much general knowledge you get, it doesn't lead to success. Success only happens when you go deep and get specialized knowledge. So the world has realized, hey, I could go back to college. I could learn on my own.

Or I could find somebody who's already done what I want to do and just get the path. And that's why this industry, when we started five years ago, it was a $300 million a day industry. It's at a billion dollars a day in less than five years. And they just predicted it'll be a trillion a year by 28. It's just skyrocketing. And so we teach people how to extract their life experience and turn it into a product and monetize it. And it's been fun as hell. Have you heard of the book Automatic Customer by John Warlow? Yeah.

I think that's such a great book. He's got a lot of, I believe his other book is Built to Sell. It's an amazing book too. Built to Sell, I like too. You mentioned every single person listening right now should build a digital brochure, even if it's nothing big, a pamphlet, a book. Explain that just if there's owners or entrepreneurs out there, why is that important? What should they be thinking about? So if you think of the value, we, and really hear this

People say we're in the information age. We are drowning in information. There's information everywhere, but we lack wisdom. And those that stand out with wisdom that deliver capabilities or deliver accountability or educate someone in the right process, that's why courses and trainings and a digital brochure kind of feel is so valuable when you know how to put it together because people want wisdom, right? So for example, I was at dinner the other night with my wife and a friend with his wife

And he said, what are you guys doing? You're doing the, we're Tony and I are doing a live event in June because what's it called? And what are you doing? He goes, how does an information product, how would that, how would that be a part of my business? I was, let me take my wife, my wife. I met her cause she's, she was voted the top hairstylist in Arizona, eight out of 10 years. And she has a salons called extension bar.

So extension bar, I didn't know what extensions are. Women who get extensions, about $2,000 a pop. My wife was doing extremely well. When I met her, she was driving a G-Wagon. I'm like, what is she doing? A hairstylist? Anyway, so long story short, she's an amazing woman and she's a badass. And now she's spending most of her time being a mom to our two amazing children. But we were at dinner and my buddy said, well, how would an information product work for your wife? And I was just riffing. I'm like, okay. So I said, babe, when...

Girls in your chair are done putting cinches in. Do they try to upsell them shampoo and conditioner? He goes, yeah. I said, what do you make on that? She said, I don't know, $3 or $4. I said, okay, you could do that. Or imagine if my wife, in today's world, because it's way easier, the game has changed completely.

if my wife created a course, my wife had Propecia at one time where hair falls out and she changed her diet and everything my wife does, she has this beautiful hair. I said, what if my wife, what if she created a course where women could take it,

take it home and learn what food to eat for their hair, how to make it shine, how to keep their extensions to last longer. They're expensive. And all the things to make her hair look beautiful. My wife has done so well because my wife truly loves making women look beautiful and confident. That's why, you know, she doesn't, she's like, I've never sold anything about it. She doesn't. She just loves women and she loves empowering. She loves when they leave with a big smile on their face. I said it.

Imagine you created that course and at the end of every session, instead of selling a $10 bottle of shampoo, said, hey, as you're checking out, our founder, Lisa Graziosi, she created a seven-step course on how to make your hair look beautiful. Extensions last longer. Do you want me to add that to the cart for just 39 bucks? And she's like, oh my God, babe, why aren't we doing that? I said, well, how much does that product cost you? Said nothing. It's a digital product. Inventory, nothing.

You could pay the girls a heck of a ton more commission. They'd be super excited. My wife's literally laying out the course like shit. And it was, I just never thought it because it's so close to me, but that's the kind of thing. If you're a mortgage broker, imagine creating a program that said the seven deadly sins of getting the wrong mortgage at the wrong time with the wrong company. And it was a training on just how to understand how the metrics are and what is a point here. I mean, we know this stuff cause we do it every day, but imagine each

Somebody could have an extra product to sell, like my wife, that would be on her P&L next year. It's probably the most profitable product she sells. But simultaneously, if you're in real estate, if you're in so many different services, why not have something that makes you stand out from somebody else, that you can educate first? I believe the reason Tony and I will do an event and we go live for three days is because we need to build reciprocity first. We need to do value in advance first.

There's nothing worse than being a part of something and it's a two-hour pitch and you're just sold for two hours and you feel like you didn't get any value. You would do anything to get your time back. So when you have the opportunity to create products and services that deliver value before you ask anything, it gives you a competitive edge. So I think we're at a time in history where every company, there is a way to create a product or a course or an information product to get you to stand out.

I agree. And if you could get it now, here's what's really cool that a lot of people don't understand. I'm sitting down. I shouldn't go into this piece. This is proprietary. But anyway,

If you've got, we always talk about EBITDA, right? It's a fancy word for profit. But when you get a reoccurring SaaS model, it goes off of ARR, annual reoccurring revenue. Exponential. And that is a mind blower because we always focus on profit. And when you're selling garage doors or air conditioning or plumbing or roofing, it's EBITDA.

But when you can sell something like a SaaS product or an information product that keeps going, it's a multiple of revenue. And the multiples are almost the same. So if you're at 15%, imagine getting seven times as much because you're getting a multiple of revenue. It's freaking nutty. And when I learned what arbitrage was, man, that's my favorite word in the English dictionary. Arbitrage. Wait a minute. If Pablo Escobar knew what this was, he probably would have been into something else. I always tell people that. It's crazy to me.

I love it because you could buy. So I used to buy Bowflexes. And the story goes like this. I watched this same infomercial that you were doing at this time, probably at the same time. I remember the Bowflex commercial. And I was like, and it was the older. And I go, man, I want one of those. But they're like $2,200. So I go in the Arizona Republic. And I mean, this is the first year Craigslist. Craigslist. Craigslist came out. So I'm in the Arizona Republic and I find one. The same week.

Then I saw the infomercial and I wanted to buy it. So I go, I call the guy Sunday morning, got the Sunday paper. And he goes, dude, you're the 20th person that's called me a guy already picked it up. I go, you just listed it today. He goes, I know. He's like, it was 800 bucks. You saved a lot of money, but I just never used it. And my roommate walks by. He goes, have you heard of that Craigslist? And I'm like, on the internet? World Wide Web. So I go, craigslist.com. And what do you know? There was five Bowflexes. I went and I bought every single one of them.

I put an ad in the Arizona Republic and I said, I want to pay for an ad every single week for the year. And every Bowflex that hit. So I put out, they had this thing where an email you when something popped up, I go buy it, put them in my backyard. I set it up with guy and his dad, kid and his dad would come over, show him how to use it. And I sold hundreds and hundreds of Bowflexes. So one day, so I buy it for 300 bucks, sell it for a thousand. And then one day Chuck Norris pops on with a total, Jim.

So now I'm in a total gyms at Bowflex's and every, I'm just buying them on Craigslist, selling them in Arizona public. And that's arbitrage. That is arbitrage. It's freaking awesome. So you want to know the funny, the, the, one of the first trainings I ever did and where I made money with arbitrage at 19, 20 years old with cars. I didn't have a lot of money to buy cars.

So just, I love the word myself. So what I realized is if you go to trade a car in, you always get offered way less than you want as a trade-in, right? You get a trade-in, people are pissed. They leave the dealership. I know it would be easy. I could just leave the car and take my new one. So I used to run an ad in the classified before Craigslist. This is late 80s, early 90s. And it said, if you've been offered two less for a trade-in on your car, or you've been insulted by the offer you got in trade-in, if you're a call me.

And I would, the calls were coming in nonstop. And I would go look at the car and they say, "They only offered me 6,000 bucks." I'm like, "Great."

If I could get you 7,000 or 6,500, would you take it? Give me two weeks and then you can sell it. And then I would run a better ad. I would clean the car. I'd bring some there and sell it. And I'd make a thousand bucks in between. And that's how I, that's how I made money at 20 years. That's how I started my collision shop, my auto sales. And then I couldn't do it anymore because it was so much, but I was racing. I had cars everywhere in the call. I'd have my phone be ringing. And it was so long ago. I had a bag phone. It was before car phones.

It was literally, it was a cellular phone that was in a bag. Oh yeah. It was this big. It was just heavy. Yeah. So I used to carry that around and be on the phone. Like, all right, I'll be right over. I'll come look at your car anyway. So I get it. I, you know, I did flip over a thousand cars and I only bought G20 infinities or Honda civics or Honda Accords.

And I bought tires, $40, $50 for brand new tires. And I bought 50 at a time of each. And first thing I do is I had a detailer. I'd go by the car, I'd detail it, and I'd change the tires and I'd change the oil. And all I would do is clean it. And I'd put it up for an extra two grand. And that's all I did. But here's what I didn't know that was illegal. Yeah.

I never put the title in my name. - But you signed it from one person to another. - I would just, whoever I bought it from, I'd roll it over to them. And then I was dating this gal, her name was Julia. And she's like, "I feel so bad." She was a prosecutor for the state of Arizona. And she goes, "There's this guy and his dad, "and they bought and sold over 100 cars, "but they were skipping the title." And I never told her. I go, "What did you do?" I go, "They didn't know it was a leak." 'Cause I didn't know.

And she's like, well, I got to do something. She's like, I think I'm going to let him off for the morning. I'm like, you should probably let him off for the morning. I was like, oh, my God. I'm like, I didn't realize that was legal. I'm out of the seven year window here. Hey, I hope you're enjoying today's podcast. I just wanted to let you know that the super early bird tickets for the Freedom Event are now available. This means 800 bucks off the elite or VIP tickets and 20 percent discount on general admission tickets.

Listen, if you enjoyed Freedom 2023, this year we're taking the event to a whole new level. Jocko Willick, the Navy SEAL who wrote the book Extreme Ownership, is already confirmed as one of our keynote speakers, and there's still a lot more to come. So go to freedomevent.com forward slash podcast and get your super early bird tickets now. That's freedomevent.com forward slash podcast. Just make sure you do it before the prices go up on June 3rd. Now let's get back to today's episode.

So, you know, it was interesting because you said Tony Robbins really changed your life. And this morning's call with we had every employee, my coworkers, and we call it bring the fire. And I called Andy Elliott last week and I said, hey, dude, I need you to just show up. He goes, you got to understand, man, can't do 7 a.m. I don't start. I'm with my kids. And I go, dude, 30 minutes. Do me a favor. He's like, I'll for you. I'll do it.

And you had recently, I don't know when Andy reached out, but tell us the story of Andy Elliott, because I like Andy Elliott. A lot of people like the deal is, is either you love him or hate him. And he'd rather it be that way because he wants to get rid of all the haters and just, he'd rather take the select few that love him. But I think he, you changed his life. So tell me a little bit about that. You know, I, you know, when you, a couple of people told me, you got to meet this guy. He's got an incredible story about,

Tony and I did a live event five years ago. He watched it and we were talking about the same thing, about you have a skill that's valuable and you can, instead of doing this skill, you could keep doing the skill, but you could take the skill that you learned and train others. And at the time, I didn't know Andy Elliott was a car dealer or car salesman doing amazing. And he watched this training Tony and I did and he bought our course and stopped being in car sales and started teaching car salesmen how to be better at it.

And it was a great story. And he said, I watched those tapes every day. Tony got me motivated. You taught me how to, the marketing and the, you know, he just, so long story short, about three or four people, Russell Brunson interviewed him. Russell calls me, goes, you gotta meet this Andy guy. He's,

your course changed him right so finally my wife and i went to dinner with him and i didn't watch much of his stuff i just knew i'd watch something i watch him like intense energy yeah you know i don't judge like that's that's who he is and and uh man he was just at dinner he was just humble and sweet his wife jackie is amazing they were incredible amazing incredible couple my wife's

Mexican, his wife's Mexican. They both speak in Spanish. They both love the same food. It was just, it was, it was, I met a guy that loves his wife, loves his kids, loves working hard.

realizes he did some things in his past that he didn't love and he doesn't, that part of him is dead and gone. And that's the guy I got to meet. And I really enjoyed the story and he was giving me way too much credit. I'm like, I was just a spark, dude. You were the rocket ship going to take off. I just happened to be the guy that helped spark the way. So it's a great story. It's a great story. Speaking of that, I don't know any entrepreneur that doesn't have some type of clouds and rainy storms in their past. Because it's like the...

And if I could get my hands on it, I was flipping it. And it was not good stuff at all times. You know what I mean? And I'm not proud of it, but I haven't really met a lot of people

I could go on and on and on. There's certain tax shadows. It's crazy how that works. I mean, even, I don't think these politicians, I mean, watching what's going on with Trump, I'm like, man, and half of it's fake. I'm not talking, this isn't political, but it's like crazy. And I think you could dig hard enough, you could find anything. And, you know, a lot of people didn't have the, that gal Marilyn was explaining, like trauma for people could be a dog dying.

It's all relevant. It's all relevant. It's relevant to your life. Absolutely. It could be your best friend moves away. Yeah. And it could hurt just as bad. So we've all had to deal with trauma our whole lives in some way or another. It's just how you deal with trauma. And do you come back from it? Because look, it's okay to mourn. And I believe in Jesus Christ. And I think I'm going to a better place. And I don't celebrate when somebody dies. I pray that they're not. It's tough. You're mourning. But I pray that people celebrate when I die.

And I hope that's a long time from now, but I hope there's fireworks. It's outside and don't wear black. Yeah. And just remember that hopefully I shook your hand and you were a better person for it. And I kept my word. That's what I care about. You know, you talked a lot about the stuff in the invisible and we're going to talk a little bit where this will lead into the values, but you know, what does that mean? Stuff that happens in the invisible. I look at it in two ways. One. And when you,

When you have kids, and I do wish that for you, because I could tell what kind of dad you're going to be. So I'm going to send some good vibes your way on making that happen someday. And I know you will. I always taught my kids, they're both played sports, is you don't win games on the field. You win games in the invisible. So my daughter pitched since she was little, softball, and my son played baseball. And when it's summertime in Arizona, last thing kid wants to do is go outside and throw 100 balls into a net.

But I told them, it's like, you love the glory of being on the field and winning the game, but you don't win the game there. You win the game in the invisible. When you're sweating, you don't feel like doing it. Your friends are going to grab breakfast and you tell them you can't and you're pissed off you undo that, but you still go outside and you hit a hundred balls or you throw a hundred balls. That's the invisible. Now that's just a simple approach for teenage kids or 12 year old kids as they grow up. But isn't that, isn't that the invisible of every successful entrepreneur? You know, a lot of times you see somebody and you're like, ah, it's

your brain goes, ah, they probably got there easier. Then when you climb under the hood, they didn't get there easier. They're doing the work when no one's watching. They're sacrificing certain things so they can do this. They're worrying about the things that they never stop worrying about for a phase in their life. And to me, that's the invisible. And how that leads into a deeper part of it is...

And if you don't mind, I transition there. And this might not sound like it's part of business and growth, but I believe it is. I think we got to get all the way into the deep part of our operating system, like our values of what they stand for. And I believe that's the same concept. When people say, who are you really? I think sometimes we could be someone for our significant other. We could be someone for our parents. We could be someone in front of our kids, at our church, at work, as a team member.

Yeah, we have alter egos. We got all these different pieces, right? We're not the same person to our mom as we are loved, you know, as our wife, as we are to our people. I've got alter egos that are a little bit different. Yeah, for sure. And what I think when it comes down to the core values, I believe who we are, and maybe this is just my analogy, but because you said something about family, the reason I brought this, you said about family and before the

We went on the air, you talked about getting your wife flowers and you're pushing people. Just surprise your wife with flowers. Take your kids to the game, like do the thing, right? And then you said, give me your credit card statement. I'll see what you really do, right? - Yeah, then you count it in your credit card statement. - Yeah, so my point is who are we really is who we are when no one's watching. So I'll give you, I'll just tell you in my personal life and then I'll bring it into business.

I was married and divorced. Not proud of it, but I was. And I just knew I couldn't bring the same version of me to the next relationship. I wanted an amazing woman. And for me to want an amazing woman, it can't just be maybe I have money or maybe I'm successful. I had to be the whole package. So I worked on me. I wanted to bring a better version of me. If I'm going to ask for this amazing woman, I better be that dude, right? Darren Hardy writes about this. Yeah. And one of the things that shifted for me that really set me apart, like changed my life,

I said, what if, and I met my wife and she was my fiance and then my wife. And I remember saying to myself, what if my wife could get a secret camera on me for an entire week? Every single bit, there was nothing hidden. I said, I want to be the man that if she watched all of it with my four kids, when I came home, they would run to me and hug me and love me even more.

And that's the state you gave your standards. You're going to be 10% body fat. You count your macros. You're like, you are, when you say you're going to do something, you do it. That's how extreme I was with this. That's the man I wanted to be. I never want one thing that if she was watching and I,

That has set a standard to allow me to leave my phone open, to have no, I'm not different in any other circumstance anymore. And that wasn't my whole life. I was variable. I was different people in different places. And it's allowed me to be congruent in so many areas because I'm aligned with that. But it's the same way I am with my partnership with Tony Robbins. I've died for that guy. And I know he would for me.

We were on stage one day and he looked over, he goes, my best friend, because I know if I was in a bar fight, it was an analogy, of course, because if we were in a bar fight, he'd help me. He's six, seven, I'm five, seven. Those hands, he could take people out. But he's like, you're the guy I'd want on my back and I would never have to turn around because I know I'd be safe. I want my partners. If I'm going to have business partners or the team I see you create, they'd go back, they'd cheer you. They're not cheering you because of any other reason, but they know you're a team member then. You're not just a boss, right?

But I would love to make it so if Tony looked through my phone at every business deal I did for the last three months because we're partners in multiple companies, he'd go, damn, that's my fucking brother. I would love my wife to look at text messages for the last two years and go, goddammit, that's my husband. That wasn't always me. I'm not trying to act like I've always been that way. I'm ashamed of some of the stuff I've done in my past time.

But that's who I've become. And I just want to say it's so freaking liberating that I'm just one human. Like, you meet me on the streets, meet me anywhere. From the way I talk about my wife, if somebody set me up, I wouldn't fail. Set me up with the right girl at the right time after a cocktail, I'm not going to fail. I'm not going to fail on talking shit in the wrong way about a partner or...

And it's just allowed my, and ever since I've done that, the reason I'm saying my business is exponentially grown. My happiness has grown. My children are more connected. I don't know if that resonates with who you're listening to here today. Maybe need to hear it. But it's like I had buddies that would say, I love my wife the same way, but they're DMing people on the side or when they take a trip, they're doing their own thing. And I'm not judgmental in any way, please guilty of, of just as bad as anybody else has done. But the day I made that commitment,

My life has just exploded. Yeah, you don't have to. It's hard to lie because you lie about a lie, then you lie about a lie. And, you know, I don't understand. Like, even in my life, I go to these events. And even sometimes at A1, and it's very rare, we've got top pedigree of people.

But I notice there's people that congregate together, and either it's positive or negative. You know, this is my test. When I open my phone and I feel it ringing, depending on if I smile and I want to answer it quickly, if I go, what's this going to be about? Like, this is my test. It's the phone test.

And I just thought about it because it happens all the time. Like it's never anything good. And I've noticed to stay away from those people. I look at my circle and if I'm not motivated, it turns into a cage and I know it limits me. And I believe that. And I mean, you're limited by the people you're around and when you could just, there's a lot of people that people talk shit about. I mean, these tech strands, I mean, with a lot of people,

And I've just never really, I never felt better by making someone else feel. How old are you now? I'm 41. Amazing what you've accomplished. Seriously. Thank you. Incredible. It's the same exact age. It's so funny. Some of the things you're saying here today, because I, in my forties, I made a commitment to myself that if I look at my phone and go, oh, that exact emotion that you just said, they got to be out of my life. And I've done, and my circle is small.

extremely small and i'm really good with it because i went with depth rather than wide and i also think like a bookshelf if your bookshelf is filled with so many books there's no room for the right person to come in sometimes you got to look at your bookshelf and just like a hypothetical bookshelf right you have to throw out some of the books that don't serve you and leave them open because the universe god your belief will fill them in with the right type of people yeah and and i

A lot of stuff changes. You're going to see that the success you've had, the impact you're making doing these podcasts, which is incredible. You don't need to do this. I know you're doing it to give back. It's incredible that you're doing all this.

But I promise you, your next 10 years is going to be the best 10 years of your life. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. 40s are, your wisdom is there. You're still young, healthy. You're in great shape. But you're going to look through the lens, completely different lens of your 30s. Napoleon Hill says your 40s are when everything changes for men. And it is. It is. And I believe that. I mean, listen, I listen to all the books. I read all the books. And, you know, I've, this podcast, I started selfishly for me because I could talk to guys like you.

And at first it started out as a hobby. I never missed a week since 2017, not one episode. And there was nobody listening to the first hundred. And it was just me. And Giuseppe started a long time ago, my Italian Stalin over there. And slowly, but surely people are like, I listened to your podcast. Cause I'm,

You were at 10 million during this podcast. And then I started listening and I know how you got to 13 million. And then I saw you get to 100 million. Oh, that's cool. And then I saw you pass 200 million. And the question you're asking, like one guy said, I listened to one through 40. It helped me triple. Then I listened to 40 through 80. It caused me to double. And really, it's just been like, I'm having a problem with HR. And they're growing with you. Yeah, it's super cool because, and man, when I listened to my first podcast and I'm like, oh. Yeah, you want to hide under the table. Believe me, I can't even read my first books I wrote. I literally cannot read. Yeah.

I love this stuff. So tell me again. So how do you go from what happens behind closed doors and the invisible to the values? Because in business, all I want is... Here's what I tell people. Listen.

My mom worked three jobs. My mom kept us in our same school zone. My mom hustled. She had blisters on her feet. She was a realtor by day and night. She was serving tables and bartending. She was picking up cleaning houses, doing whatever she could to survive. And I didn't see her a lot, but when I did see her, it was magical. She made enough time. But all I know is that I tell clients, because when I was in my early twenties fixing garage doors, they go, now, Tommy, what would you do if I was your mother?

And so I started saying, this is, you know, this is what I do. This is really what I would do for mom. Yeah. I went to my mom's house after she moved in a brand new home with the builder that they put on builder crap. So I rebuilt the whole door, put it in a new opener and that was brand new door. And I say, this is what I did for my mom. This is what I do for mom. I don't think this is anything more genuine. And I said, listen, if it was your grandma, your uncle, your grandpa that raised you, I told the whole orientation group, I said, just be honest with people.

Because you're the doctor when you step in the garage. And if they're flipping the house, like you know a lot about, let's say, how can I, do you care about curb appeal? And just do the right thing by them and give them options and let them choose. And I think it's so cool because I don't feel like I sell anybody anything. I don't have to sell. Let's just do the right thing. And we were at, so a few of my guys that flew in town for Robert Cedini's meeting this weekend.

And it was really great. They learned so much. And there's this manipulation tactic or there's true influence for the right things. And an influence, he explains, or a persuasion, he explains that this can be used for evil.

Because what you're going to learn could be used in a bad way. And you really spent a lot of time. What's more important to you, marketing or sales, if you had to pick in a business? They're equally important. But to me, I'd probably lean more towards marketing. Thank you. Because if you bring somebody in who's pre-qualified, predisposed, already trust you, you already gave them value, the sale is much easier and you don't feel like a salesman. You're just providing a service that outperforms somebody else. At the end of the day, when people say to me, why are you so good at sales?

There's a lot of reasons. The main reason is I love what I do so much. I love the product. Like you said, your garage door, give it to your mom. I love my product so much that I feel bad not getting a yes from somebody. I know that sounds simple and I know you teach it, but the truth of the matter is there's only two things can happen if someone doesn't say yes to me. They do nothing and they continue to suffer or don't reach the goal that they want. Or they buy from someone who's a really good salesperson with a shitty product.

And I don't want either one of those to happen. So when you look through the lens- You have conviction and passion in your product. Yeah, it changes. I mean, and that's, I would say, watching the conviction of the group that I just saw of your company, they know the product. Look at the education, the history of the garage, all the things that you just showed me.

I mean, people can make money selling anything. Shitty cars, good cars. Shitty garage doors, you know, great garage doors. Great products, bad products. You can make money doing anything, but life changes exponentially when you can look somebody in the eye and go, I'm...

I'm going to over deliver in a way they can't imagine. And it gives you another step of swag, confidence, courage to ask for the money because you know you're doing something great. So foundationally, if you don't love what you're currently doing, step up your product

switch companies if you're with a company, but find something you can really believe in. And sales will automatically go up. And then it's time to learn Cialdini and persuasion and communication and the art and how long you should be in the room and pet the dog and say hi. All those things are a part of a process. We all have a sales process. But if you don't believe in your product and you don't care about people, you never last. People are like, what do you teach for sales? Then I'm like, I teach smiling.

I teach asking great questions, active listening without thinking about what you're going to say next. I think it's important to mention their name, Mr. Smith. Now call me Greg. Greg, can you come here and take a peek at this?

And matching the tone of just like if grandma's talking and you're talking way faster, that's very rude. And if they offer you iced tea, say, thank you very much. I appreciate that. I'd absolutely take you up on an iced tea. And if grandma needs help moving down the Christmas tree, then do it and go above and beyond. I had a guy jumpstart two elderly people's cars the other day when he was in their garage. And we have that. One of my guys, this is last year. This lady's walking out of Walmart. She's got one leg and

And she falls over onto the bench. And Justin goes up to her and she goes, they wouldn't give me any water. And he goes, wait here, ma'am. And he comes out, grabs it. He's got one of those foam coolers and he fills it up.

It's all got Gatorade and waters, put some ice in it and buys her a bus ticket and helps her get on the bus. And he comes back to me and he goes, Tommy, there's a lot of people that are dehydrated that are homeless. Can we do a water drive? And I was like, sure. And by the way, you know, I don't think he'd mind me saying this. He was, he was living out of his car when he met me and the impact, I think people miss the impact of just doing one thing, this domino effect in the community, what it changes your family, all these things. And I just, I,

The garage drawer is a 40% of your curb appeal. It's a smile of your home. It's a number one ROI in the home. And I can say all these things, but I just, I watched a James Bond movie and I'm like, that's a clope. You know, like I'm really freaking passionate about what I do. And I love it because this is what put me on the map. And I love this company and it's my baby. And I'm doing a lot of cool things, but I think what you're missing on the marketing side

is half those people were in there because they followed me and they wanted to work by my side and I'm their coworker. And without the marketing, nothing exists. There's no leads that happen. You can be great at sales, but without leads, without a hierarchy, a pedestal of anything, like he was the best at marketing. You know, I was on Grant Cardone's podcast and he goes, what's more important? And I go, well, sales is super important, but yes, marketing is the king. It's like 10 X. I think it's,

I can sell kind of crappy if I got more leads. You'll make a lot of money. Now, if you're the greatest salesman and you got one lead a day, and you're not even thinking the same about the sale because you're like, you're fragile. You're like, well, this is my baby. It's like when you got leads coming in, I don't think, I mean, this is kind of cocky, but like, this is, I don't try to do everything. I try to, they call it spray and pray.

I focus on one thing and I master it. Then I move on to the next. Now I'm on Angie's list. And you want to know how I dominated Angie's list? I call Angie's list. I'm at the CRO. I flew them out here.

And then I followed the three top companies in other industries that were on the top of Angie with the most reviews. I called them up because they'll take my phone call now. Success leaves clues. And I studied them and I bought them lunch and I read their books and I showed up. We're doing two shop tours. I'm going to companies that are not even as big as us, but I'm learning what they know, how their superpower. And they're glad to teach us because we share, we collaborate together. And I think it's so important.

I love what you're doing. I mean, there's a lot of things I want to go through, but I know we're running out of time, but what do you think is the most important thing? There's a lot of people I know that are just getting into business and they haven't made the decision yet, but they know they're good at a job. And you know, the E-Myth, Michael Gerber revisited and all that. And they're so good at what they do. When's the right time to even start a business? And I don't think there's ever a right time, but they're underfunded.

And they don't know financials, KPIs, OKRs. They don't understand hiring and logistics. And they don't understand what a CRM is and the finance portion, selling financing and how to get trucks. But they're good at worker. Yeah. And how long is that going to take? And when is the right time? Yeah. So a couple of things. And I could talk to you about marketing all day. I know we're hitting some high level topics. A couple of things I just want to share on marketing that shifted my life. I love this. Stay in marketing. No, and I'll answer that other question I think is great. But

Some of the things I say to myself, I mean, marketing has been my life for almost 30 years, right? We do, we do do the biggest events online. We do, we'll put this event we're doing June 13th. We're hoping to put a million people in that event.

And one of the things I always think is we get in our own heads, we get in our own lives. You're not focused on the same thing today you were. You're focusing on EBITDA changes, exits, buying other companies. I mean, that wasn't your focus a decade ago or the decade before that. Each decade changes. You kind of lose your old self, find the new self. And sometimes in that journey in marketing, we forget to live inside the mind of our prospect.

because we're too much in our mind. You might be thinking what plane to get or what country club, or I'm not saying you personally, and I've always wanted to stay, and I see that with you immediately, is live inside the mind of your prospect. So number one, answer their questions.

right? Meet them where they are. Remind yourself of what their fears are, what their desires are, what their goals are, what their dreams are. If you don't, or you can't remember, go find a Facebook group with your ideal client living in there and see, post in there. What is your biggest fear? What are your biggest worries? Answer their questions, help them get to their goals, help them. You know, the other thing is people buy from you when they feel understood, not when they understand you. It's the car deal that comes out and go, I could tell

I can tell Tommy, single? Wow, you're looking for a sports car. Let me tell you, I've been doing this for 37 years. I know the sports car. You know that car dealer compared to the other person that comes out and goes, hey man, pleasure to meet you. So why are you here today?

So subtle and so different. One wants you to feel understood. Hey, are you married? Do you have kids? Are you thinking about it? One is, so I always see when I see somebody who's a salesperson that is just fine-tuned, they know when to say it, they smile at the same time, they glisten on their tooth, ding. Like I know that person's $100,000 a year for life or 150 grand a year will be good at sales.

When I see someone that lets others feel understood and I watch it on stages, I've been watching stages for 25 years. I'll watch a speaker where people watch and go, oh, that guy was good. Didn't take a note and someone else would come up and they're writing notes. Unbelievable. One, understand me. I made it. This is how I did it. The other one makes them feel understood. Like this guy gets me. He knows what I'm dealing with. He knows my fears. He knows I'm freaking scared. He knows what I'm worried about. When you're saying to somebody, this person understands me,

That is marketing at its finest. They will follow you. They will become a tribe. They'll become, you said, a little cultish because when you walk in that room, that group, I bet if I interviewed the 50 people I just saw, they would say, Tommy gets me. I could just tell they weren't there like, oh, this is our leader who's got lots of money. They were like, yes, right? All of them think you know what they're dealing with because you do. And it's the same with marketing. And I watch everybody miss it.

People say to me, how are you so good at marketing? Because I care about people. I want to know what they're worried about. I want to know what they're scared about. I want to know what their dreams are. And if I can't help them, I want to recommend them to go to somebody who can. But if I can, I'm going to do everything in my power to get them to say yes, because I'll change their life, right? And that's a conviction that changes marketing.

It seems simple, but most people don't do it. It's hard to do. I mean, it's hard to actually get educated on where people are coming from because I've been in this business for two decades and it's really refreshing to ask questions. I met this guy named Joel Weldon. He's just like, I know Joel. Yeah. He's, he's amazing. Been a speaker forever. Yeah. Forever and ever. And he's like, Tommy, quit saying I. He's like, if you look at Apple, they've, the reason they were so successful, they say you.

So now instead of saying, when I was 22, say, can you imagine being 22 years old and you're in a situation like this? Have them live through our prospecting. And it's so hard. It's so hard to break because, you know, you're telling a story, but it's so powerful to say you. Well, I'll tell you, here's an easy one. Even if you forget, because sometimes we all say I, but as you're telling the story, look for the exit points where you can bring them into the story.

right so you're telling the story you know i was 23 years old i knew i was meant for more part of me said stay in the collision shop you're doing well with apartments and the other part was like an inch away like i was crazy my brain the other brain you know said you stay what you're doing you're crazy you're not tony robbins you don't have money you don't have an education and then inch away there was another voice that said hey you're meant for more you can do anything you put your mind to that you and then immediately you go

You ever been in a story like that? You ever take that hypothetical walk where like you feel crazy, like you feel crazy because one part is going, stay where you are. You're lucky. You should, you're better than your parents are now and you'll, you'll lose everything. And then right here is it. Have you, can you think of a part who can think of a part like that? Yeah, I see that. I see your cry. Like all of a sudden now they're not thinking about my walk. They're thinking about their vision. So sometimes it's, you tell the story and then just stop and find an entry point. Have you ever been, have you been in that spot?

You ever watch the comedian Sebastian? He's the Italian guy. He's funny. And he's like, he's the funniest guy ever. And he's like, how many of you ever been to the airport? And this is my, one of my favorite skits. And he's like, so, you know, you go to the airport and they're never smiling. They're like, can I help you at the, at the ticket? Have you heard this one? No, I haven't. So he's like, they're always like angry. Could I help you? And then all of a sudden, you know, the bag can't weigh more than 60 pounds.

And then all of a sudden the smile, it weighs 64 pounds. You're going to have to remove four pounds. And he's like, what do I do? Take out my boxers, one sock, a boot. So I take this stuff out and I'm like, they're like, you're going to have to put it on your overhead. And he's like,

It's going on the same plane. And then he's like, so funny. And it's so true. And then he's like, and then I go over and see this 400 pound fat ass. He's just, but what I love about what he does is he makes me visualize being at the airport when they, I've been over, I mean, he talks or the subway or whatever it is, or like, he just says what he went to his buddy's house. And he's like, this guy's into like combat. He's got every weapon in the house. And he goes, he's got this compound bow and arrow.

And he's like, I'm like, Tony, what the hell do you need a compound bow and arrow for? And he goes, home invasion. And he's like, home invasion. He said, can you imagine the poor bastard that breaks in their house? He steps into the house. He's grabbing a couple of jewelry. And there my buddy goes. He's like, what am I, in a casino? And he's, what he does is he makes you feel like you're there. And he makes you like, and that's why I love watching comedians too.

Let me share one more thing. You had that other question. And I'll try to give a short answer. Sometimes when we are, and you already know this because you do this from everybody you mentioned, from us having similar friends, books you've read,

When we start something new, we don't realize that if we had a career to start, we don't realize that people fall into a career mindset. It took me a long time to realize that because I never have worked for anybody. I started cutting firewood in high school. That's how I made money in high school. I bought my first wreck car at 17, fixed it up, flipped it, and I started the arbitrage of cars. Then I got deemed collision center. By the time I was 22, I was deemed collision center. I was hustling cars. I bought one tow truck, two tow trucks, three tow trucks. Bought my first rundown apartment house, started flipping houses. I've never worked for anybody.

And even though I'm in this industry, I love sharing the entrepreneurial mindset. I am an entrepreneur advocate. I will do everything in my power to help people to fuel entrepreneurs. But I never took the time in my 20s and 30s, maybe in my 40s, to realize that so many people...

were trained to be in a career from the college they went to, the grades they got, to the way they applied for a job and went for the application and went through the interview process and got the job. And they went in with all these aspirations, like, I'm going to get raises, I'm going to get promotions, I'm going to help run this company. And then things happen when they're in a company. They get a boss that squeezes their head every time he tries to come up with something new, or he's at a board table and he finally gets a seat and nobody's listening to him or her

And over time, what happens is you get trained to just shut up and do your job. Your vision's not needed here. And all of a sudden, you become this complacent, like, hey, if I just put my head down, do my job, I can get my raises, get my vacation, get my 401k.

And it's just unsettling, especially if someone on the inside knows they're meant for more and they're meant to do their own thing. But without realizing the residual of that career mindset lingers. So now all of a sudden you didn't realize over this time, this thing that you hated actually put guardrails up. And even though you hated it was consistent and you bounced off the side and you kept going straight. Now people think of being entrepreneur and they look and go, oh shit, there's no guardrails on that road. I could fall. You know, we take pride as an entrepreneur that's like, oh my God, I got this. Oh my God, I'm

to lose everything. I want to lose it. Oh my God. No, no, it's finally going to work. I'm here. No, I'm not. I'm going broke. Everybody's going to hate me. We look, look at a smile. We know that to be true. Someone who spent too much time in a career looks like it thinks that's hell when that's actually life. That's when we're the most alive. He reads shoe dog at the end of shoe dog. He's like, I wish I would have known why I was in it. That was when I was alive. When, when I couldn't pay the creditors and I was having to come in separate doors and we figured out how to stay open. Oh my God. That's when I was alive.

So I would just say the first and foremost, first and foremost, realize you might, if it's time to shift your hesitancy might be that you've just been in a career. It's not your fault. And it's clouded your vision on what's possible. You have limitless possibility. You know that, and you got to find a bigger purpose, a bigger reason to fight for it. You got to overcome those obstacles, overcome those fears. And the only thing that's going to do it is something that makes, puts tears in your eyes.

When I was scared and I wanted to move forward as a kid, the reason I started cutting firewood at 17 is because my mom worked three jobs. I don't want to try to model you, but she cleaned houses, cut hair, and she painted houses. And she'd come home at nine o'clock and my sister and I learned to do laundry and cook and take care of her. And she'd come home with blisters on her feet and her hands with her. She got arthritis at a young age. And I was, I remember being 17, like bullshit. I'm supporting my mom. By 25, I retired my mom. I've been sending her a check every week since I was 25.

And I buy her a house. I just bought her a brand new house. I buy her a car. She just stopped driving. So you need a big enough purpose. And even if it's, like I said in the beginning, a little bit of the dark side, you need something so strong that it overcomes that career mindset, the fear, that today's world, they call it imposter syndrome. It's just, you're scared. That's okay. We're scared. So the first thing is you need something strong enough to drive you. And then the second thing I would say is our brains start going, well, how? How do I understand what profit margin is? How do I do marketing?

replace how with who find somebody who's already done find somebody who's already done what you want to do read their book hire them as a mentor buy their course get their training but someone has got real depth and breath like you said that and i'm not trying to be a hater but there's

Internet has allowed a lot of access to people who act like they're business people who've never been in business. So I'm not saying it to be rude. I love everybody that tries to be a hustle, but just find somebody that has depth and breadth and has actually built businesses and actually been around for a long time and model what they do. So if you have a big enough purpose and you model proven practices, it just expedites the learning curve. Yeah. And I tell people all the time on stage, I speak to a lot of people,

And I'm like, you're not going to like this. Some of you guys weren't meant to own a business. It's a true story. Because you don't show up to your people. You don't like to work weekends. And you thought this was going to be easy. Some of you guys, I look at your Google My Business page at GVP. It's closed on weekends. It closes at 4 p.m. People have problems 24-7. And I'm like, that's why. And I always say this to kind of get under their skin. I'm like, what market are you in? What do you do? That's my next market. I'm going into that industry. I'm kind of an asshole.

So do us this, Dean. You got this awesome event. That's a good way to end, Dan. That was good. I can see you doing that. I just do that. So June 13th, Dean Riff on The Game Has Changed. Yeah, I'll just tell you. Tony and I go live once a year for Mastermind. And we'll call it The Game Has Changed this year. And we usually put anywhere from 700,000 to a million people. And who goes? It's

people in an unfulfilling career and you want to shift that and look for an opportunity. People in business that want to add an information or a digital product to their business or somebody looking to start a new industry, a new business in their world. And what we're going to show you over this three, it's called The Game Has Changed. It's three days, about three hours a day. And over three days, we're going to show you how your life experience

And if this is new to you, it's going to seem odd, but how valuable your life experience is, how to identify what piece is the most valuable, how to package it, who wants it all on day one. And then Tony does about an hour and a half on day one. That's just amazing on beliefs. You know, you know, Tony on beliefs. These are best in the world. Doesn't matter if you heard it 10 times by the end of day one, you'll go, wow, I do have a product.

I know how I could sell it. And I think I could do this. Day two, it's my day on marketing and sales. I kill it on marketing and sales. It's my favorite part to teach.

And day three is about how to deliver it with confidence. So our whole goal is to show you over three days that you have a product. This is the way you should deliver it. And you should be in this business. And we call it the game has changed because AI, we literally spent the last year building an AI that thinks like Tony Knights. Isn't it insane that we're in a place where I can ask something on my phone and it answers just like me. We loaded in about 60 years worth of

our, our nuances and how I market, how we teach us. And now it thinks like us. So what used to take months to figure out, you'd go in and ask and say, Hey, what would I name my product? What are five things I could teach in my product? What would be a headline? What would be a through line? What would be an email I send people? And it's not chat GPT. So we're going to, we're going to share that and show people how to use it. So it's, if you're someone that knows you're meant for more, you want to try something else. You want to add an information product. You want to start a business online.

Not a magical money machine, how to get rich overnight. It's two guys been doing this for 74 years between the two of us. It's been an amazing event. And you can go at, it's Tony and Dean Live. Dean and Tony Live. Or deanandtonylive.com forward slash Tommy. And I'm sure you'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, I'll put it in the show notes. And last thing I say, it's free. The event is free. It's free. Not kind of free. It's totally free. And it's spectacular. Well, I'm going to go to it. And I'm looking forward to it, Dean. Well, you live in...

Arcadia? I do. Yeah. So we were talking about Paradise Valley versus Arcadia. Kids are Arcadia. I moved because of the kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I moved because of the kids. So listen, I really appreciate your time today. I got a lot out of this. It was like, listen, I'm the type of guy ADHD bounce around. Yeah, we were all over the place. Every entrepreneur. I did this in a huge crowd of 1,500. I said, who here has got a touch of ADHD? As an entrepreneur, it's like, we do. We all do. Because we've got to bounce around.

But I really appreciated everything. If someone wants to know more about you or just learn, how would somebody go about learning more or getting ahold of you? At Dean Graziosi on Instagram is great. Great place to start. Cool. Well, I really appreciate it, brother. Thank you so much. See ya. All right. See you guys later. Thank you.

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.