Transcript

February 2025 Live Q&A with Tommy Mello

From Home Service Expert · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 2 min · 11,300 words · 64 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "February 2025 Live Q&A with Tommy Mello", an episode of Home Service Expert published February 28, 2025 (1 h 2 min, about 11,300 words). It mentions 12 people, works and ideas, including Freedom Event, Mandalay Bay, Alan Roar, Executive Co-Pilot, Angie's List.

What this episode is about

In February 2025, Tommy Mello shares personal experiences, including his recent engagement in Bora Bora and an exhilarating outing with a former friend in the pest control industry, where he engaged in shooting activities with a SWAT team. He emphasizes the significance of body language and tone in communication, advocating for the importance of projecting confidence and putting one's best self forward in social situations.

Key takeaways

  • In relationships, confidence trumps skill; even SWAT respects an assertive body language.
  • Upcoming Freedom Event at Mandalay Bay: not just fun, it's a masterclass in business acumen.
  • Profits over revenue: strategizing for margin growth can double your bottom line without acquiring new clients.
  • You're 30 'no's' away from a $20 million opportunity—embrace rejection as a path to success.
  • New software aims to revolutionize company culture by tracking staff milestones—engagement is the new productivity.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Freedom Event, Mandalay Bay, Executive Co-Pilot, Angie's List
  2. – 20:00: Alan Roar, Alex Trosi
  3. – 40:00: Alan Roar, The Courage to be Disliked
  4. – 1:00:00: The Courage to be Disliked
  5. – 1:02:03: Freedom Event, Mandalay Bay

Notable quotes from "February 2025 Live Q&A with Tommy Mello"

  • What's the hotel called ji Mandalay Bay so Mandalay Bay Freedom event.com it's gonna be freaking amazing so yesterday at the re voice event I announced that not only Kevin oy Mr Wonderful is going to be there I got.
    about Freedom Event · at
  • I've got some software we've been working on we just started beta testing one week ago it's called executive co-pilot it allows me to kind of see birthdays and Milestones if…
    about Executive Co-Pilot · at
  • Higher booking rate we got a higher conversion rate higher average ticket lower cost per lead I just got off the phone with Angie's List and I said I'm your biggest client in…
    about Angie's List · at
  • Got really three but Allison's moving over to A1 and then more than likely I've been talking to ARA the CEO of service Titan about like a chief of staff and the idea is you…
    about Service Titan · at
  • I'm working on working out gotta thin out a little bit more cut we going to Mexico next week Pinnacle it's for the elite of the elite the people that made the Pinnacle Club there's 110 of us going it's going to be pretty nutty that's.
    about Pinnacle Club · at
  • One and how did you know they were the right fit well Enrique I'll tell you this I learned a lot from alen Roar Megan likes is pretty amazing I mean they're both two really…
    about Alan Roar · at
  • Post let me go those are screenshots so my camera says this is out of Alex trosi why should you charge so much that it hurts most business owners are not competing on price or value in fact.
    about Alex Trosi · at
  • You I don't think I've read the five types of wealth my next book you know I'm reading right now the courage to be disliked there's a million questions here I'm sorry guys I don't think how did you meet your fin fiance.
    about The Courage to be Disliked · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Alan Roar — Person · Referenced expert (accounting/finance mentor) · 2 mentions · first at
    Cited as someone the host learned from regarding accounting/CFO value; also referenced as an author whose books are recommended to listeners.
  • Alex Trosi — Person · Referenced expert (pricing/positioning) · 1 mention · first at
    Quoted as the source of a pricing framework arguing against competing on price; used to answer a listener question about differentiation in roofing/windows.
  • Biggie Smalls — Person · Referenced artist (cultural analogy) · 1 mention · first at
    Quoted to underscore the host’s reflection on lifestyle change and upward trajectory (“negative to positive”).
    Super private and he we drove back to the airlines in a Rolls-Royce that he ordered for us and I thought of this song by Biggie Smalls it's like damn right you damn right I like the life I live because I went from negative to.

Books & papers

  • Go for No — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    A book recommended for its motivational content on persistence and success.
    Everything I this if you guys are on the Facebook group the home service expert Facebook group hopefully you are I posted a little synopsis of the book go for no and this idea of what if I told you're 30 NOS away from getting $20.
  • The Courage to be Disliked — Book · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at
    A book mentioned as part of the speaker's reading list.
  • The Almanack of Naval Ravikant — Book · Referenced work · 2 mentions
    A book mentioned as part of the speaker's reading list.
    Oh I heard this is really good I haven't read it yet the almanac of Naval rant I spelled that wrong by Eric Jorgenson unreasonable Hospitality the let them's Theory by Mel Robbins.

Companies & orgs

  • Angie's List — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    A lead generation service mentioned in the context of business growth strategies.
  • Service Titan — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    A software company mentioned in the context of potential collaboration.

Products & tech

  • Executive Co-Pilot — Product · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    A new software being developed to enhance business operations and employee engagement.

Places & events

  • Freedom Event — Event · Main event · 3 mentions · first at
    A significant event mentioned in the podcast that is expected to be life-changing for attendees.
  • Mandalay Bay — Place · Setting · 3 mentions · first at
    The venue where the Freedom Event is scheduled to take place.
    Change everyone's life Freedom event.com at Mandalay Bay September 3rd through the 5th you're going to want to be there and you're going to want to bring your team if you got a chance bring your general manager bring your wife bring your.
  • Pinnacle Club — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions
    An exclusive event for top performers in the company.

Full transcript with timestamps

all right the home service expert live Q&A this is February 2025 it's the end of the month if you guys are out there listening I'm going to talk about some cool stuff going on in my life recently engaged uh it's been a little over a month in Bora Bora super exciting times uh you know it's not easy being in relationship but it's not easy being single either um you know there's a lot of great things going on at the company want to talk about an experience erence that just happened I was uh recently A buddy of mine that exited a massive pest control company invited me out his name's Cameron uh Green Mango he's like dude come out of the helicopter going out with a bunch of buddies um bunch of SWAT team Mason PD good buddies of his and it was awesome we actually this Monday we went out shooting and a guy jumped out of the helicopter SWAT team you know obviously with a parachute just one thing I told my crew this morning in

my Thursday meeting so I got all my technicians listening I said the way that I carried myself I'm not a great gun shooter but I act like I was and I had my shoulders back I was listening attentively super nice asked a lot of questions to everybody and they treated me like I was uh I don't know part of the SWAT team I guess they were very cool they were handing me guns it was like I said I demanded respect when I walk in a room I I could see 55% is body language 37% you know is is the words or or the the tonality we use and I think people miss this uh you know when you're going on a first date just remember your tone remember your laughter remember when you're talking to somebody remember when you're trying to impress somebody why don't we always have this tone why don't we always try to emulate the best versions of oursel even if it's a little bit of acting I don't care let's pull the best part out ourselves so I think

this is super super important um so I was thinking about yesterday we were in Vegas uh this yesterday morning at the real event uh sebas was nice enough to give me a opportunity to speak on stage and then I had to go to the Builder show well first before we did that we went to we we were doing some b-roll of uh the September 3rd through the 5th we're going to be at the uh what's the hotel called ji Mandalay Bay Mandalay Bay so Mandalay Bay Freedom event.com um it's gonna be freaking amazing so yesterday at the re voice uh event I announced that not only Kevin oy Mr Wonderful is going to be there uh I got two speaking slots and I'm going to bring the absolute fire I'm so excited to announce some stuff that that like look this Freedom event is going to change everyone's life um Freedom event.com at Mandalay Bay September 3rd through the 5th you're going to want to be there and you're going to want to bring your team

if you got a chance bring your general manager bring your wife bring your husband bring your kids 12 Acres of Fun uh but really dispatch CSR your management team it's important uh but I announced we're gonna have Donald Trump trump Jr now I don't care if you're political or not uh they're good businessmen they know what they're doing uh Donald Trump Jr understands how to make money he understands there's eight trillion dollar sitting on the sideline he knows what's going on with the administration so the secret service will be there uh it's a pretty big deal and I think you guys should want to come just for that uh I think it's going to be pretty Reve revealing and I'm going to make sure that he's prepared to talk about macro microeconomics and what's going on in the home service base uh from his perspective um I've got some software we've been working on we just started beta testing one week ago it's called executive

co-pilot it allows me to kind of see birthdays and Milestones if you hit a goal or if you got a 15year old uh 15 years of marriage I'll know about it uh and allows me to kind of get to know the staff see their pictures really be able to stay if they had their best day all this information pours into this system and I'm telling you the the the early results are just absolutely phenomenal but within a couple months this thing's going to completely shift the way we do things the performance should double like I literally think about one of the things I said on stage yesterday is so many people are trying to add more money to their BS like oh I just need a double what's the easiest way to double it's not get more clients or a high it's literally increase your am margin like double your profit so many people are chasing Revenue but they're not making profit why not hit 30% to the bottom line

oh that's impossible not for us it's not we're doing it so you might say how are they doing it well we buy better we do have a higher booking rate we got a higher conversion rate higher average ticket lower cost per lead I just got off the phone with Angie Angie's List and I said I'm your biggest client in the garage space let's figure out a way to 10x our leads there's a place called leads con um leads Con in it's probably in Vegas it might be in New York and then there's another one called affiliate Summit and I will have ref uh I will have representation there those are two things I used to go to all the time really about generating leads uh so this new software I'm building is going to be off the charts you know I say this and I say this and it's the honest to God truth you're one relationship away from changing everything I this if you guys are on the Facebook group the home service expert

Facebook group hopefully you are I posted a little synopsis of the book go for no and this idea of uh what if I told you you're 30 NOS away from getting $20 million from a from a check for $20 million you're 30 NOS away would you go out and get as many NOS as possible yes you would so don't be afraid be curious be curious to start getting more NOS like just don't be afraid to ask um I got a new podcast dropping in a few months called the Melo millionaire so I I love the home service expert this is like pride and joy but we started we wanted to be a little bit more broad we got Joo will willink uh we got um with so many great people are going to be on here it's like how multi multi-millionaires but regardless of the money it's just G to be really fun interesting it's allowing me to learn more that's kind of how my cheat that's how I cheat right I ask questions and I Implement quickly like this is kind of

like my counselor is like I get to ask a million questions and rip off a duplicate so it's going to be a cool podcast it's not really going to help your home service business but I guarantee you it'll help every piece of your life uh so I want to dive into some questions but uh exciting things going on man like uh we were we went to this secret place at the uh MGM that no one knows about you got to you got to have a$ hundred million line there and uh my architect that's building us a house in PV invited us there unlimited the Chinese like a lot of Asian people but this room was just no one's there it's super private and uh he we we drove back to the the airlines in a Rolls-Royce that he ordered for us and I thought of this song by Biggie Smalls it's like uh damn right you damn right I like the life I live because I went from negative to positive and and it it's like I got to tell you guys like if you saw my

schedule if you seen my life you'd go how is that capable yesterday I got 30,000 steps I speak on stages I'm doing two podcasts I'm writing three books a1's still my number one priority typ a thousand but uh these things help grow A1 they really do it's something I need but is it worth it is this crazy chaos worth it is it worth running like a like a mad man I think it is I think uh but people say can you ever stop and I don't want to stop you know I've got two EAS I got really three but Allison's moving over to A1 and then more than likely I've been talking to ARA the CEO of uh service Titan about like a chief of staff and the idea is you know potentially that that my time becomes so important I don't really have to do much except for show up to certain things like podcast and events I like to help people but you know I want little tomies and thomasena running around one of these days so I got to make priorities

and uh time that I spend with other people is robbing sometimes for my friends and family and I think you guys starting to realize that although I love to help people I just want to help more on a public forum doesn't mean in private I don't have a lot of relationships a lot most of my relationships now are home service Home Improvement I got a birthday coming up next week I'm gonna be the crazy 42 feels like just yesterday I was 24 flip it 42 I still feel 24 I think if I uh I don't know if I get a a facial uh peel or something I might be able to look 24 again I mean that's what I'm working on working out gotta thin out a little bit more cut we going to Mexico next week Pinnacle it's for the elite of the elite the people that made the Pinnacle um Club there's 110 of us going it's going to be pretty nutty uh that's that's 110 people think about it the top performers the best sales guys in the

company all the management for the most part uh everybody's going to be gone for for about a week in Mexico in D Cabo do you think that all the top management the SE Suite the VPS the the directors all the top sales guys being gone for a week do you think we're probably gonna like the the company's going to crash like the numbers are going to get hurt what's crazy is they don't get hurt at all like we we will not miss a beat and I'm pretty proud of that I got a lot of pride in that so I guess I should probably get some q&as going considering this is a Q&A um so Enrique said would you say it's better to invest in a higher cost account early on if you're generating under $10,000 a month or gradually upgrade to a more expensive one as the business grows and transactions increase also what did you look for when hiring one and how did you know they were the right fit well Enrique I'll tell you

this uh I learned a lot from alen Roar Megan likes is pretty amazing I mean they're both two really good people when it comes to accounting um but there's more that goes on a cfo's job is not just to know the books I mean right now we got you guys heard of Doge uh it's just cuts in the government right they're finding waste we've got a doge initiative at a at A1 Garage Door Service to cut 500 Grand renegotiate with certain vendors cut certain things instead of premium gas in the uh we found out like half the guys are putting premium gas those calls don't the vehicles don't call for premium gas they call for regular that's not a lot it's 10,000 bucks a month that we found that's 120 Grand a year and we keep finding this stuff and his initiative you know part of his bonus is him to find 500 Grand this year easy little things and I told you guys we're killing it on the bottom line what else could

Adrien and his team find Leanne and and the whole team like it's absolutely phenomenal watching my team but I always think if I had the right CFO 15 years ago I'd already be a multi-billionaire uh actually I know I would be it was the one missing piece it's the missing piece that most of you guys need right now everybody listening I had to say tell you this but you're probably missing somebody great on the finance side somebody that helps with HR they understand accounts receivable they understand how to negotiate below the line above the line that work with service of the merchant services and like blah blah blah blah blah blah blah it goes on and on procurement there's so many things that I think you're missing on so I would invest more in this person because they'll figure out a way to save like shoot we're negotiating gas and WX cards and camera systems and software and not to mention if you if your AR

sits at five or six% you're losing your ass I was at 6% that's why we were sub 20% to the bottom line so Enrique my point is you can find people that don't cost a ton of money like a fractional whatever CM uh CFO possibly a uh a CPA or a bookkeeper I just think invest in people make them happy get the right person what do you look for uh you look for past results I think one of the biggest problems in home service service and Home Improvement is uh it's definitely the interview process and the way we we hire in fact G to talk to Jim Leslie about that probably one of the most interesting things are how do you check referrals past results equal future results the history is a glimpse into the future so if somebody turned over a lot of their resume and you you check ask people if they're hireable like higher slow like if you were going to 10x I'd say you'd have to be the best recruiter on the planet build the

biggest funnel and be the best interviewer and have a great culture that's all you would need and be able to pay the people you did that they're going to build the business for you one of the things is that I'm really good at it's getting the hell out of the way now like I I I don't take I shouldn't take any credit because it took a lot of hard work to get here then I said why why do I got to learn how to do this let's just hire somebody that knows how to do it that's already got a proven track record of doing it they could do it and give them a stake in the outcome so they start sprinting like I do I mean I think sometimes like I'm taking like my best thinking is taking a hot shower and I think how did I bu how did we build this and I'm like I know what happened one day I decided put my ego to the side and hire somebody so much better than I'll ever be able to become at this one thing with experience that studies as part of

the best Practice Group that's meeting with their cohort all the time like like Adrien or Luke or or you know even so the VP level like everybody around me is Geniuses at their one thing I am the most curious guy I I I think I I treat them fairly uh I think I motivate the technicians and installers and I think I Implement quickly uh and I read a lot but you know if you would to asked 10 year older Tommy the TW 32 year old Tommy come into this business I would have been lost it would have failed within three months but I continued to learn and ask questions so something to think about like how much are you learning how much are you investing into yourself how much are you asking questions and implementing and are you hiring people that are smarter than you and are you making a place like do you have stickiness or you make it a place that's fun to work come fun to fun to come in Ari said in Roofing in Windows most

companies offer competitive quotes rely on strong reviews and followup While others price much higher and use high pressure and on the spot discounts to close on the spot knowing that once they leave the chance of the homeowner calling back is almost zero as all of the other quotes the homeowner will take will likely be way cheaper since most companies offer lifetime warranties and have great reviews differentiation is tough if you were running a roofing company which approach would you take I'm going to read something for you Ari and I posted this again if you're not on the home service expert page I'm telling you guys go on there read all the stuff I post um let me go those are screenshots so my camera says this is out of Alex trosi why should you charge so much that it hurts most business owners are not competing on price or value in fact they're not actually competing on anything at all they're pricing process

typically looks something like this number one look at the marketplace number c two see what everybody else is offering three take the average four go slightly below to remain competitive five provide what their competitor offers with a little more six end up with a proposition value More For Less and the big secret of these companies they are copying are dead broke so why on Earth would you copy them and then here here's something that's interesting it says here what happens when you decrease your price you decrease your client's emotional investment you decrease your pro clients perceive value you decrease your clients results you decrease uh you attract the worst clients so probably you're talking about the bigger companies that learned that sales is emotional you got to follow up with logic you got to back it up with logic yeah when everybody's offering a lifetime warranty but who's been in

business more than five years let's look at the r the restro a contract s who's able to fight those and win uh me I wouldn't be the very top top top of the market but I'd have something to differentiates myself from everybody if you can't figure out a way to completely change the narrative when you're in a home about why you're different then it's only Apples to Apples but when it's Apples to Apples as you guys know I sell oranges I don't want to ever compete selling the same things as the other company yes I'd go in there one time close knowing that there's other people that are cheaper than me and I'd educate them and say listen if you're are you looking for the cheapest and I would have a cheap economic option I say listen if you want the run-of-the-mill Builder grade and by the way most companies that's what they're doing they're slapping a lifetime warranty on it but ask about their labor

rate when they got to change it in four years I gotta educate them usually on Roofing it's a 20 30 $40,000 sale sometimes more it's going to be a two hour presentation after I spent two hours on the roof I am not sitting down outside giving them a presentation I'm getting in their couch playing with their dogs learning about their family learning about talking to them about this investment I've got the freaking uh camera uh the GoPros and I'm circling all the things that we're going to look at that no one else is talking about I'm differentiating myself from all the companies I'm going through looking at the ROC complaints talking about the problem with the other like my three biggest competitors product line and yes I'm carrying the best of the products that I pay way more for but also I'm giving options I'm giving six options if you wanted the cheapest or most economical Builder grade we could do

that and give the warranty that the other companies are giving because they're actually charging you for labor when they got to replace it their whole business models every four to five years come out replac it they'll cover the product because they pay nothing for the product they're getting labor from you every time so Ari I gotta tell you I don't think I choose either of those models I choose give the best product charge appropriately for it and give options and make sure you're spending a long time differentiating yourself uh and and and selling what you would sell your mother he said do you and your team do video interview thing for every level of higher an A1 you know we we got in away a little bit we still do the video stuff it's it's optional though um we learned that some people didn't want to do the video and a players sometimes in this blue color industry it's okay if they don't

and you know the caliber of people has gone been G going through the roof so I think it's an added bonus but it's not a must uh Quon trick said what's the minimum Revenue you think a business should hit before going to a second Market well that's a pretty vague question I would tell you that you should be you know in almost any industry you should be over 15 million before you go to a second Market what's the point give me a really really valid reason why you should go to a second Market without being 15 million I mean think about it well what so you want to drive to another market and take your best guys to go to that market when a guy quits you don't know anybody there no one's ever heard of you literally there's no brand Equity what give me a really really really great point of like why we would rush to go to another Market without owning our current market where the you know we go to church and where our kids

played you know high school ball and like where our all of our relationships are give me a reason why if I don't own this Market if I'm not number one that I'd scale I mean give me like in the notes Here in the section tell me a really good reason why you want to scale when you haven't proven that you could dominate in one market and take market share why opening up somewhere else that you gotta travel to and take your best people it's a complete different operation by the way when you're in more one more in one one other Geo like one Geo compared to two completely different business model way harder and if I go back in time I would have owned my areas before I expanded what but it's different look if I got 100 million backing me I'm gonna open up a bunch of them knowing they're going to grow but but you know how much money you got to play with now if you if you got just if you're a billionaire and

you want to take the market by storm and you don't want to franchise yes you open up a bunch of markets knowing over time they're going to grow into big markets very hard to do when you're small and you don't have a ton of money so let's see Tyler said what would your advice be to someone who wants to wants a seat at the table I love your podcast and I know that the size of a company does it void of implementing practices of highly successful company I'm still learning but running a small drywall company with only a few Subs to and having a gross profit of only 170k a gross profit of 100 yeah so that's not even net sometimes has me feeling a little lost and discouraged while when listening I want to grow my business it genuinely excites me but it seems like a daunting task I feel like I over complicate things and sometimes I don't know what to focus on Tyler welcome to be an entrepreneur there's a lot of stuff

going on I don't know what to focus on you know you're not making enough money you know Al Le's on here he he reminded me that I had to write him my first several checks I mean the majority of the checks that he in in 2017 or from my personal account I didn't have enough money in my business account even though I was bringing in 17 million so um it's interesting you know just just know this it took me it took me a decade working in the business just not knowing anything before things started to catch on I didn't have a podcast to listen to I didn't have books I didn't have mentors 2017 was really my first Mentor which was hell like I had a couple small things but got on a service T started hearing the right things look you start you start learning from the right people there there's you know somebody wrote me today I posted this as well you know they they realize they're in an industry that they can't become the the person

they want to become which is a multi multi-millionaire they're in the wrong industry though the same effort in another industry would be 100 times the fruit so I try to find remember the riches are in the niches and I'm not saying drywall's right or wrong I would just look at that like Landscaping I look at the labor force and what they're paying per hour uh skill labor how do how do I scale the business and you know I don't know I don't know as far as every other Home Service Company I know a lot about garages Plumbing H electrical I'm starting to learn more about Roofing gutters and flooring and other things Windows Home Improvement I just I I I kind of see like everybody I know could do drywall like I mean I hate to say it but I know how to hang drywall I've I've mudded I've puted it up drywall screws with the gun um it's not you know I try to go replace your garage dra Springs try to take your garage dra apart

anybody could put up an opener that's why we don't get as much gross profit on an opener but just think about these things Tyler Ronnie said what did you do when you got your first onear review [ __ ] I showed up there in flowers and fixed it myself and told them how sorry I am I made it right I used to call people there was one lady that said I ain't changed my review if you gave me $1,000 and man I kept working on this lady I said look I am so embarrassed she says no no no you can't pay me off and I said I'm not trying to pay you off I'm trying to make it right she just hated it like I mean I spent years on this lady like every review that came in I drive to their house and I'd make it right that's that that's that simple like and then it like do we get one STS yes this is kind of David and Goliath David the smaller version you know you're a smaller company you get to drive to the house and fix things you

know you get to learn about your business you need to you get to understand your employees of what's causing this Goliath doesn't have time to get a bad reputation very quickly if they're not paying attention when a tech is leaving A1 do you make a counter offer to have them stay what's your philosophy on it no I've never made a counter offer you know the the idea is like why are you leaving um what you know if you start negotiating trust me the word gets out there what am I supposed to do pay him a higher commission or something no I don't like look end of the day like what what do you want I mean we'll talk about what they want my goal is not to just make offers last minute I think we're very fair you get an opportunity to earn equity in the business you start out as a junior Tech then you go to Tech then Senior Tech you you recruit somebody you get five grand you recruit one guy a month you get 60 Grand my job is to work

with you to teach you how to make three to 400 Grand if that's what you want to make I got act I got ways for you to make more if that's your problem but maybe I failed you and didn't educate you and then when the company sells making a m you know half a million whatever the number might be depending on what what level you hit uh but my pay structure is set up that people are not going to really be able to pay more if you're leaving it's probably not because of money people quit their managers usually they don't quit their jobs it's very rarely that of course you know the other small grage company ABC Joe scho is going to offer them equity and we'll do this we'll do that they never do it you know they find out working there is it's great for the first three weeks and they figure out man this is a pain of the butt there's no C coort here the owner's a liar that they just offered me more but then they screwed me over they

were supposed to give me all these things now we're not busy today now we're not busy this week now they're promised me they're going to spend more in marketing I never got my new truck I never got the equity check I never got anything I they still don't got insurance I don't have any friends here they don't have any reporting you know they want me to sweep the warehouse because there's nothing to do around here so I find those guys come back and everybody's like how was it they're like dude it's a bunch of Lies empty promises Mark said what's the one thing you recommend small businesses looking to grow one thing be around the right people get a mentor that's freaking better than you the one thing by far is being in the right room with the right people and implement it quickly I can't tell you enough the right Consultants the right events the right podcasts the right books and the right people to be

around like that's going to change you you want to quit drinking hang out with somebody that works out all the time and eats right and that holds you accountable like like it's like anything else you want to get rich hang out with a rich person I've seen people go from nothing to hundreds of millions of dollars by getting one great mentor let's see so that's all of this let's go to the uh the computer

so Amanda said what does your follow-up sequence look like for lead gen like Angie leads like how often what's your Cadence what's too much messaging um you know we work through a company called viral I think they handle most of this stuff they've got a lot of automations I've got a lot of automations too through chirp I mean ultimately um different lead Jed businesses look if you're going to do lead generation lead aggregation it's not easy I mean there's there's companies like service TS contact Pro is going to be kind of like Podium it's going to pull everything into one spot because you don't want to have to log into 18 different user interfaces but overall I mean look I try to find Partners to handle most of this stuff um I don't want to be the Jack of everything like look we focused on a few great things if I could recruit A+ players teach them how to get great reviews how to drive St dafe how to fix

the door right the first time and treat him like Mom and how to get a great average ticket and get a service agreement along to boot and do that 20 to 30,000 times a month and sell doors in the process I don't I don't like there's certain things that so many people take in house that I don't you go on upwork you go on Fiverr you learn how to hire the best Consultants find out how they do it uh the best people I've ever seen at lead egg are home improvement companies jao spoke at the last last event he's not speaking of this one um I it's in Vegas this one the last one was in San Diego I wish I could have you consult my tree service to find out what am I doing wrong Google organic seems to work but only sporadically uh Josh I wish it was that easy man refer when your business is small going out and meeting the people finding referring partners like I it wouldn't take me long to build any

business I just what I've learned about garage doors is man if I was doing HVAC or Roofing or bigger tickets I'd already have four or five billion dollars in the bank I just happen to do garage and people like oh I want to do garage like no one who's coming close there's a couple companies aggregating a lot of businesses that are going to be worth unfortunately half as much as us because you know it's hard enough for me to work with my new team of new people and it's a fairly aged team I mean Luke's been here seven years Adrian's been here four our team is pretty we still have a hard time with a lot of things um buying iida keeping iida um and and actually making the company worth a lot of money it's not easy to do yes there's rollup strategies we just you know we're very focused we don't do new construction we don't do commercial at all we don't do box stores we don't do Costco and if I'm a buyer just think if you're

going to get the ultimate multiple like what do you guys do well oh we do a little bit of everything I think that's the problem with buying businesses is you got to create the right buy box and then who's in control and that's the hardest thing like if you talk to Darius livers which is a great friend of mine he says anybody that you buy that's under $5 million of eida does not know how to manage they will slow down your growth it becomes more of a Thor in your side because everybody thinks they know what to do but if they knew what to do they would already be over five milli of iida and so you keep the $5 million plus iida people they're going to be great they're going to be able to scale you're going to be able to throw Acquisitions under them otherwise they become like like four three two one million not good so think about that so yeah read alen Roar L El said U you know read alen roar's books um look

up alen Roar on Amazon where did the money go you know very good books so someone asked any Google algorithm updates and insights for 2025 yeah so here's something that's interesting um if you rank in the your Google my business page you guys know I think is the most important thing to rank on it's the where your reviews and your hours of operation show up uh Kellen has helped me out a lot uh with pin parrot now only rank better but how to pick the next locations for showrooms picking the right location is half the battle I mean you might say hey I want to be at a location that works well for a showroom because of traffic but that's not right at all or because of the way the building looks or because it's an industrial area all wrong you pick the location based on where the influent clients are where there's not competitors where you could get a lot of leads um you can make any location work

I think it's more about the marketing side of it and if you're rank in the gmbs what we've seen is organic rankings are going down like Google's starting to not give you both they're trying to be more fair they don't want one person one company getting all the leads Google's a real hoot I mean that's why I say although I hate paperclick you got to learn to do p PPC because if you're paying people I like the idea of paid as much as possible because if you can make paid work and stay super profitable with the right gross profit guess what no one's going to turn that off if you're paying and you're paying good money for leads you could go anywhere like if you're used to getting free leads though and used to lead aggregators and used to Home Depot and you're used to just getting LSA and gmbb leads unfortunately algorithms change over time um not all the time but but things happen and I I feel like I've seen too many businesses

fall apart because they weren't well-rounded they they had too much of one lead source so i' like to get leads from everywhere like as many variety it's just kind of like investing you don't want all your eggs in one basket I'm feeling stuck in growing my restaurant business and can't do everything on my own should I bring in a partner and if so what type of partner would be the best how do I find the right person so it's interesting I didn't think I'd be Consulting about restaurants but yes um you know I watched John Taffer with Bar Rescue I think I'd hire somebody that knows what they're doing that that you know how does the business look that they got a proven track record but first i' write down I'd make a list if I were you I'd write down a list I'd say give write down 10 reasons why I would partner with you like write down what what's in it for me because if I want to attract the right

partner you know how do I how do I Market myself I did this a long time ago when I said why would somebody want to work at A1 why would somebody want to not necessarily partner with me but work under me and potentially become a partner with Equity so that's where I would start and then I'd say what are the things I'm great at what are the things I'm not so great at that I need help and I be very clear about this like this is what I'm not good at I'm really not great at payroll or financial uh balance sheet income statement I'm great at doing inventory I know how much stake to buy I'm good at the uh this side I'm good at this side I know how to run operations when the restaurant huddle the team have contest so find out what you're good and bad about like this a very vague question I'd have to really ask a lot deeper but I think that's a good start we got an amen El said if you know your price is

typically higher because you're providing Superior Service and install I learned to raise the objection I may be a little higher than some may I show you why then give a great presentation with 10 reasons to use us I love that L Luke said differentiation is key options help a ton with pricing issues it's hard to say it's too expensive with three to six choices typically If It Moves them to a different jection for us how do you gauge your markets availability for work versus your market share how to know when you tap out in an area well this this whole thing Tom Howard does is you look at the population you divide it by these numbers but um you know they told Tom Howard and Fresno he'll never do more than 15 million he's going to do 60 million this year so I don't think there's any secret science I mean just look at the population you know a1's going to do North of 60 million in Phoenix we think we could do

120 million pretty easily um but then again you know you look at market caps market caps are based on prices from 2017 I I I feel like we're changing the market cap charge charge cl's what it's worth but back up your warranty send background check people like find people that create relationships like I can't I just I'm getting raving reviews charging you know 5 10 grand no one cares like treat them right give them options explain why uh I feel like the market cap is more than most people think you got more work where you're at than you even know if you're not doing more than a 100 marketing sources in a market then there's still a ton of room to grow I'll tell you that

I don't understand the the junk removal how would you apply that to a junk removal I'm not sure what the question is I see books in the background and I have four of them Elevate seven power never spell the difference and what should we do what other books you have I'm trying to read as many books as I can this year oh boy buy back your time the five dks of a team anything Patrick leion um well you know this new book is um influence any Alex rosi's two books um there's a book that I bought the whole team recently called uh the fear fear to be the courage to be disliked let me go to end my file here just some recent ones I ordered on Amazon oh nobs about marketing is amazing um by Dan Kennedy I actually got a uh a religious one called daily hope devotional 365 days um oh I heard this is really good I haven't read it yet the almanac of Naval rant I I spelled that wrong by Eric Jorgenson unreasonable Hospitality the

let them's Theory by Mel Robbins uh Ken good told me to buy the missing billionaires uh it's pretty complicated but it's a good book exceeding customers expectations I've got so many freaking book man it's ridiculous um the art of clear thinking oh to sell as human is a good one there's a few of them Al said I like businesses that have an obstacle to entry and that you can Master it and make yourself the best choice for your target audience or Target audiences you I'll give you good example I had a plumbing company here that that red do the liners in in um plumbing and they got a real Niche if they get with a lot of plumbers uh you know Jim kenidi Al's old partner does you know Zoom drains they work on drains and there's so much money to find a specialty something that you you know everybody's going to refer you other trades are going to refer you you know I we we've done pretty well with meeting the people you know we took

an industry that was very very just you know if you go on Facebook into the the garage door forums every guy hates one another they're jealous of one another they it's a race to the bottom they're super cheap they hate it when they see somebody coming up with WRA trucks that like they hire and they pay more they think they're ripoffs because you know their one man shots barely making a living you know still fixing the doors themselves still built in the technician way I think it's funny like everybody in the industry like the people that follow me like me a lot because they broke out of the ghetto you know they got to they got to live and actually like enjoy their lives and actually be a business owner and actually got to give back to the community you know I'm I'm donating a million dollars to my church I'm in the process of that um you know they're they're just scraping by eating leftovers you know their kids don't want

any part of their business their backs are broken you know they've never got a real vacation and they brag about it too they're willing to defend it with all honor like how shitty their lives are and all they do is complain about how you fixed it wrong and you're taking advantage of people uh and I don't only sell things that people need I sell things that people want you guys have heard me say that I'm about to buy a brand new phone there's nothing wrong with this phone a new one just came out February 7th I'm getting the latest edition I buy what I want I sell people what they want I don't necessarily need itself people want to replace their whole system and never have to worry about it again have it all warranteed I'll sell it to them they want to replace their door because they want to none of my business I'm giving them the option idiots out there freaking idiots I can't help you like why do you race to

the bottom why do you brag on being cheap why do you pay your employees so shitty why do you still go run calls why can't you afford somebody to handle payroll why do you still drive used trucks like it's because you're raced to the bottom it's because you believe that you're doing a great thing Thing by still charging the lease because you have no idea how to create relationships or ask great questions or smile the right time or become a great friend this is so bad this is why I'm in the home service this is why I started this podcast is to educate you guys don't do that stop thinking that way start thinking go go talk to Joe chrisara study these things study them learn how to communicate if you don't learn how to sell if you don't learn how to make s interesting and op do options you're never going to succeed so don't brag about you're the best guy at concrete or Roofing or gutters and you're you like

oh people charge more than me and they rip people off sure there's always that guy I hate those guys they're [ __ ] they steal G but guess what you know it's not always the best person that gets all the leads it's not always the best person that understands how to close better they studied you do it ethically you do it with options I cannot stand oh I'm in a garager industry with guys that are literally like like once I explain to them and educate them and tell them it's your job to get your guys out of the ghetto it's your job to hire the right person people have a why does the average plumber get to make so much more money than us than you why does the average hpack guy get to make so much freaking money and then you still got the guys [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] why do you care so much about other people why don't you focus on your own backyard and realize why you're losing your family's losing everybody

around you is losing you're a loser you can't win nobody wants to be around you because you complain so much focus on your own house before you look at anybody else's house it's so annoying anyways tell you how I feel later um let's see oh if the average americ let's see it's about people average paid people are overpaid but think they are underpaid Superstar high paid people are underpaid relative to the value they bring overpaid Superstars you will find out they are never overpay 99% will never get it I rarely lost so Al said I rarely lost stff because I wanted because I wanted I wanted wait I rarely lost staff I wanted because the new we made good on promise of career be proactive about taking the temperature of your staff members before they show up telling you they're leaving what distance between gmbs is optimal for Google ranking yet maximizing territory opportunity you know they say 30 miles um but here's the

deal if you don't do this right and you don't have real showrooms uh look at real locations not at the house you the whole thing the whole thing will come down so make sure you're doing it right I don't recommend doing a lot of them I know I know a company in Utah that has 40 of them and then a lot of them are not real uh they're great people I love them but uh you know and I'm never going to be involved in this but you know they got to be real locations with real leases with real signage with real showrooms or at least somebody meeting up there to work what would your Market strategy be for a business Home Inspection that gets 71% of his business from real estate agent referrals our clients home buyers buy a house every seven to 10 years so direct to consumer marketing typically has really high so I would I would go out to more Brokers I mean look at the end of the day um I'd probably get with

Zillow and see if I could do an ad and you know I'd go to buy data I'd say look I'd get with quick and loans and I say when somebody buys or sells a house I say look here's the cool thing about inspectors is you could be a pest control company I would find a second Niche and be able to Market more what if you paid I know there's ethical and and things you got to do you're not allowed to pay for certain things but you could bring people out to eat you could bring them to steak dinners you could give them ball game uh you know baseball tickets so I I'd really be the person that just makes people find the tops top realtors the top Brokers and they'd be getting club seats at baseball and basketball and like look like like I would partner up with the garage for company and say look will you give me 150 like I'd pay I partnered up with Builders like I'll come reprogram your keypad and your remotes

and program your car like there's a lot of opportunities to get paid a lot more money so you could gift a lot more to the Realtors I mean if you got a great lead Source 20 exit and go after the mammoth the big jobs like the affluent ones what's your favorite grassroot marketing tactic go meet 10 people a week and follow up with them every day and meet the big badass ones there's a book called um oh man sitting it's basically the dream 100 figure out a 100 people you need to meet that change your life forever and go meet all hundred of them watch where your business lands watch where your life ends like starts I should say starts like build your hundred like if you knew these hundred people everything would change and it can't be like you know can't be Donald Trump it's GNA take some research see if I got with that realtor or or that business owner or that investor uh and if you think about it you make this list

even if you got to 40 and met everybody and followed up and did the right thing and treated them like gold and showed them what was in it for them your life would exponentially grow I will see you at Freedom 2025 would be awesome if we could get a book signing out of it that day absolutely Arizona is my biggest Market by far what are the weight of ranking factors like reviews proximity hours for a G gmbb so look obviously your hours need to be 247 lots of reviews with pictures in them and then citation sites and then you call talk to Kellen about building into your CRM where it's Auto posting on your website new content load speed matters there's some local stuff that matters but Kell knows more than I do pin parot p i n p a RR o t.com like he'll talk to you for free he doesn't the crazy thing about Kellen is like they'll get on the phone with you for free and not even charge you for it and he doesn't even

care you join up for his his his stuff my city is saturated with a lot of single owner operators and makes it more difficult to charge enough money to afford more than just the U-Haul or B or for bulk supplies and storage because the customers are price checking I feel like there's a barrier there we keep raising our price about 5% a month and then try to let the other operators know that we're raising our prices so that way they'll think about raising their prices instead of undercutting well 2015 one of my competitors met me at Top Golf and told me let's raise our price together we did I called him up three weeks later and said so let's go back to top go we raise their prices again I mean it's not collusion if there's a 500 competitors we were just in the same magazine and the same mailers uh like vpac and Clipper and there was other competitors but they were just instead of putting priceing they had like $50

off or $75 off I mean educating the competition is an important thing I went out to Chicago and I went to a supply house there was 500 one man trucks I'm like we're not going to this Market because it's literally these people are just trying to make a living they're trying to make 70 grand a year they're charging prices to make a living but yet they got to answer the phones and pay their own taxes and buy their own trucks it's so much better when there's not this and by the way most these people English is their second language you know they're from everywhere great people by the way but just really uneducated they don't know how business works so they're just like oh I want to work for myself oh you want to work for yourself and barely make a living like if you work for me you'd make triple and you wouldn't have to like work 247 but they don't know any better I mean they think oh you work hard everything's work

hard I do the work myself that's not a business do you think most dentist like the the people that don't the dentist office know how to be a dentist all my dentists that I've been to for the last 20 years literally they work for the owner that not a dentist you think most hospitals are people are doctors you think do you think hospitals are run by doctors no hell no like do you think most nail salons are are you think the people that own the nail salons and all those you know for the manicures and the pedicures you think that on the weekends you know I know the small Asian shops but like most of them are entrepreneurs they run a business they don't have to work in the business they comeing up with ideas you think most restaurant owners are chefs and sitting in the back slicing and dicing no why they the hell do you think you should be doing the work what the hell it's like I had to do the work

I had no money I had to start out working like I decided to go in I had nothing so I was a bus boy a server I was painting garage tours I was bartending and I started the garage tour company I had no other choice but that's no way to live you do it for five years and you do it every day and you work harder than anybody and you sacrifice every relationship it's called Sweat Equity but that's not a way to run a business it's not a necess and it's not meant to stay that way you got to live way below your means move into move in with your parents live in a thousand foot apartment drive an old truck don't go on vacations work on Saturdays and Sundays work on Christmas day that's what you got to do do not spend a dime reinvesting in the company and but that's no way to run a business that's the five years you go to because you didn't have any money so you got to get that lump sump that's the only way

to get it and keep your credit dialed in that process yeah Tommy you said you'd listen to anyone who could help you increase your call booking rates what about your dead leads we come in and work on the people you guys haven't gotten well we've got a whole I mean look I'm always willing for you to contact me LinkedIn user but I've got a whole team they're called rehash I've got a whole team of rehash people and all they do is we message them on 20 different sources we call the clients up we send them emails we send them text messages and we make a deal with them um we're closing about a million dollars a month of dead leads so a company like mine has to have a rehash team and you know lace AI is awesome if it's like they're building chirp and Lai are working out something that but but sherp every non booked call and every abandoned call we did 800 Grand last month just messaging them via

text with a schedule engine link I mean software's kind of figured this out but I my dead leads I need somebody that knows what they're talking about we've got a whole calculator of what we're willing to go to one thing you can't do with leads is say hey I know we're going to charge you five grand we'll do it for four now you got to have a reason for lowering your price and we're really good at it and we don't do it for everybody we do it if it's in stock and it's a door we make our manufacturer cut the price but I hate to say this but a guy like me that's been around for 20 years understands rehash and how much lead we need to close of of ones we didn't close in the beginning we pay attention to these stats I asked your company a few years ago would you let me pay my way there and pay for training to attend what you put your new text through I'm in Canada and I want to my own garage your

business you know and here's the deal I mean Kell what we've got like like people would pay us 100 Grand to learn that and then you need our price book and then you need to learn our like right now we've got 17 people uh that we transfer the door sell to that sit behind computers you need all that software you need our our recording software in the field you need what you need our Torch app you would need price book downloaded like like how would you be able to run a business that works off of our software and our pricebook and and we we've got trademark parts we got special trucks that we've designed it took us four years to design these trucks I mean there's no way not to give you our whole business plan and I don't think my partners would really appreciate that just learning how to be a technician I look you want to pay to do that we've got a we've got training through garage door Freedom that you could come in for

three days hell I'll let you stay for a couple extra days and learn more but and we teach you how to sell we teach you how to do the technical side but to go through for a month you're GNA learn how to do financing with what A1 financing with all of our like it wouldn't work in Canada like I I think you'd be doing yourself a disservice try to learn our way then you'd be like okay now what then you'd be calling us back going oh I need that I need to learn that I need to hire this person can you call this person and we're basically we end up working for you for it's just it wouldn't make a lot of sense but hey you I'm all about helping you let let me know if I can technician performance coach former top Tech and sales expert from the outside soly to know if I should promote a tech up or get someone with a totally different Focus you know I don't think promoting up is always the best thing but make sure you

don't settle because you like somebody make sure if you're going to open up a job they apply the same way same questions no favoritism like put this box around what you're going to hire L Tom me this and make sure they fit the Box don't build a box around the person if you do that you're doing good holy [ __ ] I want to answer a couple more here there's a lot of questions when do you find time to read I don't know how I do it dude I just do

amen coming in A1 yes come to A1 everybody's more than welcome to apply love to have you I don't think I've read the five types of wealth um my next book you know I'm reading right now the courage to be disliked there's a million questions here I'm sorry guys I don't think how did you meet your fin fiance she used to well she still works for me um HR nightmare I know but that was seven years ago um listen I really appreciate I I hope you don't like you guys don't mind the tough love I know I go off on these tangents and it's just because I just get really irritated that somebody would want to go through through their life being a worker trying to own a business go work for someone else and make 200 Grand a year I mean how many years if you got more than five years of running at 100 miles an hour and sacrificing time with your wife and kids or husband and kids and you don't find yourself getting ahead either you're

gonna need to find a coach a mentor be around the another person or go find another go work for somebody I mean man if you haven't changed in five years what makes you think five more years is the solution I don't know uh if you guys got questions go to uh Home Service expert.com questions the best thing to do is get it type in your question into uh homeservice expert.com questions um come to the freedom event it's Freedom event.com it's going to blow your mind Mandalay Bay September 3rd through the 5th it's gonna be absolutely gamechanging stuff like like the last one was excellent I'm really proud of it not even close to what this next one's going to be uh I really appreciate I'm gonna lose my voice I feel tired now it was a long podcast just one other thing is like show up as your best self man like be excited about life go to chbt go to Google see what your chances of living being born R it's one in 400

trillion the average median income in the world right now is the top 1% $32,000 every morning have something sometime some form of gratitude something to say thank you thank you Lord thank you Jesus thank you whoever you pray to say that that I live a great life things are going great every obstacle it's just something to get over man it's a speed bump it's nothing in the scheme of things it's nothing so hopefully you guys took some notes took some takeaways give me some hard questions man come up with some hard questions like really really deeper questions go to homeservice expert.com questions and uh I appreciate it I hope you guys have an amazing March and I'll see you guys on the next Q&A

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "February 2025 Live Q&A with Tommy Mello"?

Tommy Mello (Host), Cameron (Guest), Sebas (Guest), Enrique (Guest), Ari (Guest), Tyler (Guest), Al (Guest), Ronnie (Host).

What is "February 2025 Live Q&A with Tommy Mello" about?

In February 2025, Tommy Mello shares personal experiences, including his recent engagement in Bora Bora and an exhilarating outing with a former friend in the pest control industry, where he engaged in shooting activities with a SWAT team. He emphasizes the significance of body language and tone in communication, advocating for the importance of projecting confidence and putting one's best self…

What is mentioned in this Home Service Expert episode?

12 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Freedom Event, Mandalay Bay, Alan Roar, Executive Co-Pilot, Angie's List, Go for No. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "February 2025 Live Q&A with Tommy Mello"?

The episode runs 1 h 2 min; the transcript is about 11,300 words in 64 timestamped sections.

More from Home Service Expert

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.