Entrepreneurial Lessons and Failures Building a $220M Empire With Tommy Mello

Tommy Mello is the Owner of A1 Garage Door Service, the largest independently-owned garage door company in North America. Tommy is the author of the Amazon best-seller Home Service Millionaire, which details his story of turning a local garage door service business from $50,000 in debt to a $30 million company in seven years. He also created The Home Service Expert, a leading resource for ambitious home service entrepreneurs. Through The Home Service Expert, Tommy provides services as a Keynote Speaker, Consultant, and Trainer, and he hosts The Home Service Expert Podcast. 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [01:37] Tommy Mello shares books and influences that have shaped his entrepreneurial journey
• [05:12] The pivotal decisions and sacrifices Tommy made to turn around his struggling business ventures
• [11:23] Strategies for hiring A-players and building an unstoppable team
• [18:52] The importance of continuous employee training 
• [25:47] A1 Garage Door Service’s key hires that catalyzed its growth 
• [28:24] Tommy talks about the value of having mentors
• [35:15] The essential tools and software that propelled A1 Garage Door Service’s expansion 
• [37:46] The strategy behind private equity and its effects on Tommy’s business
• [41:49] A1 Garage Door Service’s growth plans through acquisition 
• [46:10] Stories of personal and exceptional customer service recovery

In this episode…

What drives an entrepreneur to push through adversity and transform a humble business into a multimillion-dollar empire? How do they navigate the challenges, make pivotal decisions, and maintain their passion when faced with what seems like insurmountable obstacles?

Tommy Mello shares his fascinating story of building A-1 Garage Door Service from indebted into a leading $220 million business. He reveals the critical moments when he almost quit and the life-changing decisions he made to turn around struggling markets. Tommy discusses the importance of mentorship and the invaluable insights he gained from industry experts like Al Levi, who taught him the significance of systems and standard operating procedures. His tales of navigating financial challenges, such as handling a bridge loan and making tough calls to close non-performing markets, give listeners a real glimpse into the gritty realities of entrepreneurship.

In this episode of Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Tommy Mello, Owner of A1 Garage Door Service, about growing a multimillion-dollar service business. Tommy shares the pivotal decisions and sacrifices he made to turn around his struggling business ventures, strategies for hiring A-players and building an unstoppable team, continuous employee training, the value of having mentors, and the essential tools and software that propelled their growth.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Tommy Mello on LinkedIn
• A1 Garage Door Service
• The Home Service Expert
• Home Service Freedom
• The Home Service Expert Podcast
• Home Service Millionaire: How I Went from $50,000 in Debt to a $30 Million+ Business in Seven Years by Tommy Mello
• Elevate: Build a Business Where Everybody Wins by Tommy Mello

Special Mention(s):

• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz
• 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall
• Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz
• Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz
• The 7-Power Contractor: Run Your Contracting Business With Less Stress and More Success by Al Levi
• Al Levi on LinkedIn
• How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
• Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century by Napoleon Hill
• $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi
• How to Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins

Related episode(s):

• “[Sweet Process Series] How to Make Your Business the Next McDonalds of Your Industry with Michael E. Gerber” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Leading with Passion with Gino Wickman Founder of EOS Worldwide” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[One Question] Hostage Negotiator Loses The Hostage with Chris Voss of Black Swan Ltd” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Does God Exist? with Perry Marshall, author of Evolution 2.0” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “How to Have Your Business Run Without You with Mike Michalowicz, Author Fix This Next” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments: 

• “I learned to fall forward and get back up.”
• “You put me between a rock and a hard place, I’m going to fight.”
• “If you’re not giving options, you’re giving ultimatums.”
• “People want to feel heard, and I think I do a pretty good job of that.”
• “Get out of your comfort zone and go visit a company you want to become.”

Action Steps: 

1. Embrace continuous learning: By avoiding complacency, professionals remain competitive and effective.
2. Develop a resilient mindset: By cultivating a mindset that embraces adversity as an opportunity for growth, it becomes easier to navigate the ups and downs of professional journeys.
3. Focus on building strong relationships: Maintaining strong relationships can lead to fruitful partnerships and opportunities, addressing the challenge of isolation and limited networking.
4. Invest in a strong team culture: This step effectively addresses the challenge of employee disengagement and turnover, driving business success through a motivated and cohesive team.
5. Leverage technology for efficiency: By investing in the right tools, businesses can tackle inefficiencies and capitalize on opportunities for growth and scalability.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01 

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22 

Dr Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Tommy Mello. Tommy Mello, you can check them out at a1garage.com you can also check them out at homeserviceexpert.com they also have a podcast, also freedomevent.com. It’s amazing to look at some of those people on there. Tommy built $200 million business, $100 million business, $180 million business. So obviously, even if any home services, but even if you’re any entrepreneur, I think it’s a valuable place to be.

And Tommy, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast, people should check out. And Tommy has two books, which I’ve listened to both of them. At the end of one of them, he talks about some of his favorite books, so we’ll hear maybe some new ones there. But on that theme, past guests include Michael Gerber, who wrote the E Myth. Gino Wickman was a great episode wrote Traction. Chris Voss, one of my favorite books, Never Split The Difference. Perry Marshall, 80/20 Sales and Marketing. And Mike Michalowicz, he wrote Profit First, Clockwork and many more. Tommy, what are some of your favorites?

Tommy Mello 1:37 

Oh, man, where do I start? Influence, Robert shadini, Napoleon Hill, How to Win Friends and Influence People? Dale Carnegie or No, Dale Carnegie is How to Win Friends and Influence, well, Napoleon Hill is Think and Grow Rich. Obviously, I could go all day with books, depending on I like the compound effect by Darren Hardy, I like Alex Hormozi, 100 Million Offers, actually More Than 100 Million Leads, but we could talk books.

Jeremy Weisz 2:07

Were you always like that, like growing up? Were you consuming entrepreneur stories and founder stories later on?

Tommy Mello 2:15 

I went through a little bit of a, probably a seven-year hiatus. But, I mean, I think when I was mowing lawns, back when I was a teenager, I had the cassette tapes. Men are from Mars, and women are from Venus, just trying to learn. Yeah, and Tom Hopkins The Art of Sales and all that. My parents listened to a lot of stuff like that, Zig Ziglar. But then I went through this little hiatus, and then I just jumped back in, and I never let go of that.

Jeremy Weisz 2:46 

I had all those cassette tapes to the Zig Ziglar in the car, the Brian Tracy in the car, Tom Hopkins in the car. Love it. So anyways, check those episodes out and more. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships, partnerships. We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast, and we do the accountability, the strategy and the full execution. So Tommy, we call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background and make it look easy for the host so they can create amazing content, amazing relationships, and, most importantly, run their company.

For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships, and I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And if you know anything about Tommy, he is all about giving, and we’ll talk about even the shop tours that he does. And I love profiling the people and companies I admire and share with the world what they’re working on. And so if you’ve thought about podcasting you should if you have questions, go to rise25.com to learn more.

And I’m super excited to introduce Tommy Mello. He’s the owner and operator of A1 Garage Door Service, and it’s a leading $220 million home service-based business in Phoenix, Arizona. And they have over 700 employees in 19 states. He’s also the host of the Home Service Expert and the author of two books Elevate, which is a book where he shares his secret to attracting and retaining and developing a players, and the second one is Home Service Millionaire book. And he didn’t grow up, by the way, with the silver spoon in his mouth, he’s going to talk about some of the humble beginnings, but he was constantly hustling, working to flip cars, starting landscaping business, and he grew up hearing his parents talk about Bill issues that really motivated him to remove money from the equation. So Tommy, I appreciate you joining me.

Tommy Mello 4:50 

Hey, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Jeremy Weisz 4:52 

I want to start with humble beginnings, because when people hear $220 million business, it almost feels not real. And so I love for you to talk about a time when you wanted to quit, because, as you know, it’s an overnight success over 20 years.

Tommy Mello 5:12 

Yeah, well, it’s so funny how the people that are your biggest fans become your haters, the higher you get, and there’s a little bit of animosity, because you stuck to it and you grind it, and it’s not always roses and tulips or whatever the saying is. It’s like, I think about a day that I had a bridge loan that this bank gave me, that was bridge loading in the SBA to get into this building. We bought the next-door building as well, and I’m proud to say they’re both paid off, but they weren’t, and I didn’t have enough money to buy them, and my first big purchase of real estate other than a house, and I had four markets that were struggling, and I had a buddy come in from Florida, And he spread out every market we were in, and there was not a lot of money in the bank.

We were doing a ton of revenue. I wasn’t keeping any of it. And he looks at the balance sheets, and he goes through and he starts highlighting and circling stuff, and he goes, you got to close these four markets today. Offer a relocation package. You close these four markets, you need to get a really nice coffee machine in this place. Get it more well lit up. He told me a bunch of stuff, but he goes, close these four markets. And I’m like, Dude, it’s just the wrong leadership Michael works through. But he goes, You’re bleeding so bad, and you don’t even understand. And if he didn’t come in and tell me that, and this is one of many stories, by the way, because there’s a lot of other horrifying stories. When one of my top technicians, a good buddy of mine, died on the Fourth of July with three daughters. But I had to make that decision that day. The next day, they were closed, and I didn’t sell any other business. I didn’t. I just closed, and all of a sudden we shot up to 18% to the bottom line, and I relocated half the guys that were able to and I helped the other people get jobs.

It was a tough decision, but if that guy didn’t be so adamant and pig-headed and tell me the facts, the stuff that I didn’t understand because I believed that I could turn those around, just like every entrepreneur does, then I don’t know where I’d be. And there’s, so many things through adversity, a lot of things have gone wrong, but I fell down, I fell forward and I got back up, and, man, I there’s a lot of times I felt like I got to slow down the growth or, there’s days where I couldn’t sleep. And I bought, I had a 2012 Nissan Titan with 270,000 miles crazy salvage title. And I wouldn’t buy a new truck till every technician and installer had a new truck, and I moved into the apartments where my technicians were training for four years, and so far, we’ve had six people that were close in the company died, nobody on the job, but having to write checks from my home equity line to make payroll, those were some of the toughest days, and those were earlier.

They weren’t in the beginning, but they happened when we started to grow too fast, and I didn’t hire the right people, and I didn’t have a good financial quick check, and I didn’t understand the financials. But you asked for one story. I’ve got so many, but there’s days that you’re just like, you don’t even want to go in because there’s a nightmare, you know a nightmare is waiting for you, and it’s so hard to keep going. But you sometimes you’re Three Feet From Gold. Sometimes you’re right at the end zone. You don’t even realize that you’re one higher away from breaking through it all. And what I would tell you, not everybody’s cut out to do business. Some people should be an entrepreneur.

They can go put their work jacket up. They don’t have the stress, the anxiety, but I’ll tell you this, you put me between a rock and a hard spot. I’m going to fight and you’re going to never watch anybody work as hard. I’d be more dedicated to get through that. And that’s all I know how to do. You put me in a hard spot. I love it because I know exactly what to do.

Jeremy Weisz 9:21 

You use that Tommy in part of the interview process too, where you’ll basically give them a scenario and say there’s a mad customer on the, talk about that mad customer on the phone. This person’s walking in. This is going on. And that’s probably real world situations that you had to deal with that you’re like, okay, what would you do?

Tommy Mello 9:46 

Yeah, I like to do. I learned this by interviewing at the Cheesecake Factory as a busboy is they said there’s an angry customer that walked in that didn’t get their takeout order. There’s two people waiting to be set there’s three orders ready to be delivered. Right? And you got someone asking where the bathroom is, and all they’re looking for is critical thinking. There’s no right answer. They just want to build a little bit of a puzzle and make sure you’re sharp on your feet.

The first thing I would do is communicate with my team and let them know we divide and conquer. I obviously want to deal with that upset customer. Probably go grab a manager, in this case, make sure they’re not waiting long because we screwed that up. Make sure to tell the two customers they’re going to be sat and they’re a priority. I go help deliver some of the food right after I talk to the hostess, and make sure that you know, all it is working through the problem is saying, I could deal with adversity. It’s okay. I’m okay under that stress. And the people that could do that, I think they have a little bit of ADHD, because they can multitask, and as long as you give them the tools and help them focus, it’s a superpower. And most business owners, I’m in rooms all the time. I’ve keynoted a call with smile. I say, how many people think they have a touch of ADHD, and every hand goes up. So I think it’s important to be able to multitask.

Jeremy Weisz 11:08 

In Elevate, you do a great job kind of really going through, attracting and retaining and developing A-players. Talk a little bit about the hiring process.

Tommy Mello 11:23 

Yeah. So first of all, I used to think marketing was a function only to get great clients, understand the avatar, get more of them. And right now we get, on average, 26,000 calls a month and book 20,000 new clients per month, everybody says they want to get in the garage door business. And I’m like, there’s no number two. There’s a reason, but systems are running the business today. But I figured out that Indeed, Glass Door, ZipRecruiter, Monster, LinkedIn, Craigslist, are a place where people go when they’re unemployed. Some people are looking for something better. But where does my avatar hang out? Future technician or CSR.

Usually they’re on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. They might be on Snapchat or X, Twitter. So I started to change my way of marketing and start looking for great people who like to win, that want more for their lives, that dream bigger, that just they’re great people. They’ve already got a job, but I think they do better with us. And there’s also this other part of it, that when I see somebody great, I recruit them, and I’m pretty good at it, because I’m very adamant. I mean literally, I’m tenacious, I’m relentless.

Jeremy Weisz 12:50 

Give me an example, because I know you do a lot of follow up, and people are surprised by it.

Tommy Mello 12:55 

Yeah. So one day I was driving by Discount Tire, I saw a dude just, handling three cars at once. And I know Discount Tire. They know how to fix stuff, they know how to sell. They got good training. And I just drove up to the guy, and I said, dude, you’re one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen. Are you happy here? And he goes, yeah, I’m pretty happy. I go, I see you as a future leader in the garage door industry. And by the way, I see a clear opportunity for you to make six figures. I started asking him a few questions. I took a selfie with him, and I said, just do me this favor. I said, I’ll pay you for the day. I’ll take you to lunch. Just live the life of a technician for one day. And he didn’t get back to me, so I sent him a question mark the next day, the next day, I sent him a video of one of our top technicians about how his life changed by switching to this career.

It’s more flexible. He’s got a better relationship with his kids and his wife. He’s taking care of himself more. He takes PTO. Finally, he bought a house. And if you keep going, it’s only a matter of time before they have a bad day and they’ll come check it out, but you got to follow through. You got to roll out the red carpet when they come and do a champagne toast and not just give them a manual and say, follow my top guy for two weeks. Then you’re on your own forever. You got to have culture, and you got to have and it’s a lot easier said than done. And by the way, I’m a work in progress. I’d love to tell you everything’s perfect here, but it’s not, and it never is. It’s not perfect at Amazon or any of the other massive, massive companies, even the ones that are super giving back to the communities. I mean, there’s always something that feels left out in that there’s imposters in the leadership program, but an A player will run circles around 5b players. It used to be three.

I used to think 1A equals 3b now I think 1A equals 5 B players, and they’re I’m not saying a B player can’t be developed, but man, when you recognize an A-player, and I love people that are competitive, that love to win, but they hate to lose more, and they want more for their family. They dream bigger. They’re willing to make a little bit of sacrifice. They got the discipline. And when I recognize that trait, and it’s few and far between, because some people go on this honeymoon, well, we know, all know what that means, but we’ve got a trial period for 30 days. Your 30 days in your market, you got to show up sober. You got to ask great questions.

You got to get along with people. You got to smile, you got to make eye contact. You got to tell a good story. You got to not be on your social media and smoking, cigarettes, chain-smoking, if you do all those things, usually you’re pretty good. You can fake it for a week. It’s hard to fake it for a month. Then you got another trial period where we send you to Phoenix into the training program for a month. And these guys know how to recognize winners, because we track them for the first 90 days. We track them forever, but they start to recognize we see these high correlations with certain attributes. So you’ve heard the phrase hire slow, fire fast. Well, you got to open up that funnel, and if that funnel is big enough, and you never know. We’ve been wrong before, we’ve seen guys take apart guns, come from the military, move up fast in the military.

They want to come here, and they didn’t work out like some of the people you think, because we see some of the best athletes with six packs that are super responsible, that take care of themselves, sometimes aren’t the best like, you know through trial and error, and I haven’t found the magic pill yet. Like, this is where you find them.

Jeremy Weisz 13:14 

I was gonna ask, with those cases, you do kind of a post mortem, was there anything you found of, like, this person seemed perfect on paper. They seem perfect in the interview process, and you don’t have to name names. But, like, what’s one example? Like, okay, this we just didn’t see, and now we did something in the hiring process because of that. What was one of those that surprised you? And what was it in the post-mortem?

Tommy Mello 16:54 

Well, sometimes A-plus players for a smaller company, they’re unicorns, but they’re also not humble. They’re also not team players, so there’s got to be this core value, mission, vision, all these things that they could do great. They could change a company. They could be great at sales conversion rates, but they’re so cocky and they’re disrespectful and they roll their eyes. So I’d rather have a team player that’s out there getting five-star reviews, taking care of my clients that like building the lifetime value, than someone that’s like, wham bam. Thank you, ma’am. I got that person for everything they got, like somebody that’s going to help Grandma pull the Christmas tree down or fill up a tire when they don’t really need to, or talk to the kids and wonder about how their school day was when they don’t have to, when they’re having a bad day, because we all zip it up.

Sometimes we build this alter ego. Everyone has one. Kobe Bryant was a black mamba and understanding that our job is to serve when we’re working and you’re not thinking about work when you’re at home and you’re not thinking about home when you’re at work, you got to do your job, and you get paid great for it, and you should enjoy it, and if you don’t, I’ll pay you to leave and I’ll write you a testimonial and I’ll get you a good job. Because maybe you’re not a great fit for our company, if you do not want to win at life, and you don’t want more, but you might be a great person, and you might fit in perfectly somewhere. I will pay you to leave, and I’ll help you get a job. And I’ve done this with three people in the last month.

Jeremy Weisz 18:34 

So the hiring process, and then they are onboarded, and there’s a training process, and obviously there’s a few of the headquarters in Phoenix. What are some of the things that are essential and people land in the headquarters for training?

Tommy Mello 18:52 

Well, I like them to really start to identify their SMART goals, dreams and what they want out of life. And nobody really thinks about dreaming anymore. You’re 30 years old, you wanted to be a firefighter, but really, what do you want? Not only materialistic, but who do you want to grow closer to? What’s important to you? How does your credit score? Like, think about these things. Think about, are you happy when you look in the mirror? Do you have energy all day? Do you feel like you’re a good dad or a good mom, and I dare them to dream a little bit bigger. That’s important. Making sure that they are excited to be there, that they chose the right career, and they got in where most people didn’t. And we’re going to change the world, since a garage door company, but it’s so much more.

We just delivered 101 pallets of water to the Justice Center, which gives it to the homeless, and a 20 foot trailer full of food. And we’re just getting started. I had the CEO of Make A Wish Foundation, Wounded Warriors were getting involved in. But regardless of that, they’ve got to understand the true intentions of what we’re trying to do with our clients and also the coworkers, and how we win together. And just because you’re winning doesn’t mean they’re losing, and we could serve clients in a bigger way just because it’s not a big ticket, or because you didn’t like maybe they’re moving to another house in a year. Maybe they’re the HOA president and we didn’t know it.

Maybe their wife’s the number one realtor in all of Arizona. And don’t do that just because you think there’s something, but do that because imagine there’s a video camera on you all the time, and maybe it’s grandma looking down. Maybe it’s Jesus, but maybe it’s just the news and maybe it’s your wife, maybe it’s your kids, but make them proud. Go above and beyond. Do the right thing, do what you would do for your own mother, especially if you grew up and you love your mom, or, if not, do grammar or your uncle, or whoever it was your aunt, Sally.

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