Becoming a Goat with Tony Taveras

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like online marketing made easy. Today, we'll be breaking down the process of becoming a goat. To drop these value bombs, I am brought to Tony Tavares and EO Fire Studios. Tony is an Olympian bodybuilder, Arnold athlete, IFBB pro champion, HGTV personality, and world-class business entrepreneur who is looking to show others what is possible in this world and how they too can create the world of their dreams. And today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about how your mind is your most powerful weapon.

0:45We'll talk about the five superpowers to create the world of your dreams, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Tony and our sponsors. Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, is brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals. Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business. Join my friend, Donna Miller, each week as he shares value bombs on topics like the secret to making better marketing decisions. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Belay has spent over a decade helping thousands of leaders increase efficiency and productivity by leveraging flexible staffing solutions, download Belay's delegation guide, and learn six specific things that busy leaders must start delegating today.

1:34Text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123 to download the guide and get started. Tony, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. How we doing, Fire Nation? Great to be on here with you today, John. Thank you for having me. Yeah. So, you know, something that sticks, that opens me up when you say that, when you ask that question, it leads me to something my mentor, you know, Kurt Lennington, who I've been with for over 15 years in business, always talks about. And that's there's no, there's not just business problems, you know, personal problems always lead to affect your business.

2:23And I think some people think that they could just be great and studious and go all in on their business and really that their personal lives don't really affect it sometimes. And I believe that how you are at home, how you are with your parents, how you are with your kids, how you are with your loved ones, I believe that that bleeds into your business. I don't think that you can separate the two. I believe that all is one. So I believe that that personal, you have to have your personal life in order for you to be the most successful entrepreneur in anything. Fire Nation, you can tell the energy is there.

2:59You can tell the vibe is real. And you know we're talking about becoming a GOAT, greatest of all time. Now, you have quite the origin story, Tony, and I want to get into that now. Tell us your story. My story actually began in a small town, country town called Groesbeck, Texas. And really, that's how I got the name, the goat, you know, our mascot was a goat. So, you know, some people see my, my handle on IG and Facebook and they're like, man, is this dude cocky? And I'm, and I'm like, no, I've been a goat since I was 10 years old. Right. It's like, it had nothing to do with that. And actually I didn't even know what a goat meant until my dad told me, you know, when I was getting ready to play high school football and I was like, man, dad, why do we have to move from, You know, a bulldog.

3:50Why do I got to be a goat now? This is so lame. And he's like, son, do you not know what goat means? That means greatest of all time. And man, when he hit me with that at 12 years old or so, it just stuck with me. And I wanted to embody that. I wanted to embody being the best at whatever I did. So it all started in a small town, Grosbeck, Texas. I became the star athlete, football, basketball, and ended up going to college, played ball at North Texas. I was recruited by Princeton and Harvard. You know, my dad wanted me to go Ivy League. I was like, nah, I just want to play D1 ball. Right? So I went D1.

4:30I went to North Texas. And, you know, my initial dream of my reality that I was looking to create was actually to go to the NFL. That was everything that burned in my heart from when I was young. And that dream was shattered at 21 years old when I got cut on a kickoff running down in the Navy game and my hip and pelvis came out of alignment. I was seeing a specialist, you know, for three months straight. I had to walk away from the game that I loved and the dream that was in my mind, so to speak. And I didn't know what I was going to do. I was lost there for a little bit. And what do you know, I ended up walking into an LA fitness club at the time in Denton, Texas, and I actually ended up getting an interview.

5:12And my final interview was none other than with who I'm partnered with today. 15 years later, Kurt Lennington was an executive vice president for LA fitness. He interviewed me, gave me my first location in LA Fitness. I was 21 years old, running a$10 million facility. I quickly became the top training director in the country for LA Fitness, became a VP at 24, became a regional at 26, was on their acquisition team. So for eight years, I helped LA Fitness scale and grow to multi-billion with one of my mentors, Kurt Lennington. And then about the eight-year mark, I was like, man, you know, is this what I want to do forever?

5:52Do I want to be capped? Do I want to be in corporate to where, you know, I have a limit? I have no ability to create exponential wealth. And, you know, I visited Kurt for his birthday and he ended up showing me this model of, you know, the roofing industry, the insurance restoration game. Long story short, I ended up leaving that path of working with LA fitness for eight years, jumping all in to linear roofing when they had three people at the time, left my regional vice president role behind against a lot of people's advice. They thought I was crazy. I was making 250 grand a year at 26, 27 years old.

6:33And I jumped into roofing, which at the time was very mom and pop. It was very fragmented. And fast forward eight years later, I ended up on an HGTV show. We disrupted the industry in the last eight years. We actually did it in the Mecca city for the most amount of hail claims, which was DFW. And we transacted last year with private equity for over a hundred million dollars. So it's gone well. And, you know, now we own part of the holding group, which is Stronghouse Solutions. We have six brands currently, six roofing companies across the country. And we currently are the largest residential insurance restoration group in the entire US, Big John.

7:17And Fire Nation, this is how you become the GOAT, greatest of all time, as Tony's father, Ted, shared with him. And I think it's kind of important to say as well, because there's a connection here. Ted and Arlene, who are Tony's parents, are dear, dear friends of myself and They're actually our next door neighbors here in Puerto Rico. They were the officiants at our wedding. And they obviously have produced quite the offspring when it comes to Tony. And I won't lie. I've taken a few dollars from Tony from the poker table. But, you know, I'll give him a chance to get it back in the future. I don't know.

7:56I mean, I won last time I was there. You got me a couple of times. But I went off. I won a rematch, John. That's actually right. I actually cleaned out your friends that you brought to Puerto Rico. You survived. You survived. I survived. Yep, yep. Now, you believe, Tony, that our mind is our most powerful weapon. Tell us what you mean by that and give us a few real-world examples. You cannot create a magnificent dream by wishing on it. You must be intentional every day and put that energy and frequency towards that dream that you're watching and playing in your mind every single day. And I truly believe that, you know, the universe will conspire to help you when it burns that bad.

8:40And then that comes from one of my favorite books, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. You know, it talks about that, the universe conspiring to help you. And I believe that because when I was coming up in LA Fitness example, you know, I was a young kid running a$10 million store. I didn't, I didn't know anything about sales. I was just going off energy and frequency and I was excited and I was getting in front of people looking to change their lives for the better. And I remember I was three years in a row, the top director basically in the country for LA fitness. And I was trying to get to that VP level and I was a young gun, but I remember, I remember driving to my store, you know, month in month out on closeouts.

9:22I was breaking records left and right. And I remember driving to my club and I just had tears pouring down my face. And I remember at the time I was like, man, am I crazy? Am I crazy? I'm sitting here by myself. No one can see me and I'm crying because I wanted it that bad. And so I felt like, you know, looking back, that emotion behind it leads you to the actions. And it led me to the actions to keep going forward and creating great habits, whereas those habits then created my routine. And then that consistency of putting winning days together, it ultimately attracted success. And I was able to promote so many people within the organization of LA Fitness.

10:03And eventually they had no choice but to promote me. And so, you know, that's one example there. You know, another example is, you know, I, as we were growing this, you know, this, this company linear roofing in the insurance space and, you know, being a disruptor, I ended up starting bodybuilding, you know, as I was the executive vice president growing this organization to, you know, you know, worth over a hundred million. And I remember going into nationals. I was, it was my third show and six weeks before nationals and nationals was to turn professional. I actually ended up having a hole open up in my stomach, I had an umbilical hernia walking into universe.

10:47And I remember telling myself, man, like I thought about Kobe Bryant at the time and Kobe would talk about, he would talk about when he was sick or when he was not at his best, that was his opportunity to actually test himself. Because if he was able to win and achieve great things when he was not at his best, then what the hell was he going to do when he was 100 %? And so I walked into that national show at Universe, and I won the whole damn thing, John. Won the overall at Universe and turned pro. So it's like those two examples show me that the mind is what's going to get you to the next level.

11:29And if you don't believe that you can accomplish something, it's never going to happen. Success leaves clues. Olympic bodybuilder, Arnold athlete, IFBB pro champion, HGTV personality, world-class business entrepreneur, Fire Nation. You need to learn from the champions to become a champion. And we have so much more to talk about when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, the holidays are near, and I know you're rocking your year-end goals. It's crunch time. And if you're ready to hit your revenue targets and finish the year strong, then I've got the perfect tool to help you fill your pipeline, nurture prospects, and close deals.

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13:57Two things I'm always looking to improve, efficiency and productivity. Luckily, there are many ways you can improve these things. Maybe you've automated with AI or hacked your morning routine to get more done in a day. While productivity tips and tricks can help, the best way to increase efficiency and productivity is to work on what you're best at and delegate the rest. Not sure how? Belay can help. After over a decade spent helping thousands of leaders increase efficiency and productivity by leveraging flexible staffing solutions, Belay is an expert in all things delegation. Belay's exceptional virtual assistants, accounting professionals, and social media managers can take care of the details so you can focus on the most productive ways to use your time.

14:35To see where you could benefit from delegating, Belay is offering a free download of their delegation guide. they outline six specific things that busy leaders must start delegating to take their leadership and results to the next level. Text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E-2-5-5-1-2-3 to download the guide and get started. Delegate to Belay so you can focus on what matters most. Tony, we're back and you rely on five superpowers to create the world of your dreams. Let's go through those now. When I was coming up in LA Fitness, I remember when I started listening to motivational speakers, Eric Thomas, Tony Robbins, Les Brown.

15:15I remember that Les Brown video when he talked about, you know, you are the one. And I would play that over and over and over again. And he talked about, you have to believe that you are the one to change your entire family's trajectory. You got to believe you're the one. And for me, I believe, like, I'm the goat. I'm going to be best at whatever I touch. You got to believe that you are a superhero, so to speak. And so when I think about, you know, moving forward, I think about what I've been able to accomplish. It comes down to five superpowers I always think about. And I share these with my team leaders.

15:51You know, for one, and I talked about this a little bit ago, you have to be the energy frequency of love and light. You know, my people know when I enter a room, I'm going to be exuding the most amount of positive energy that I can. If they're talking any negativity, I'm cutting it out. I don't even want to hear it. I don't want that in my space because I do believe human beings, we absorb that energy. So I always think about it. And that means with how do you start your day? I'm always trying to start my day with some kind of positive messaging or video or music to set myself up to be the best on that day.

16:30Secondly, I believe the perception of the work matters, whatever work that you're doing. And for me, I walked into the roofing space and I rolled up my sleeves from being a vice president in LA fitness to knocking doors. I mean, people won't believe this. I didn't know. I didn't know squat about roofing, but I'm coming in to lead an organization and become the sales VP. So I had to roll my sleeves up and get out and get dirty. I had to start knocking doors at 26 years old after I had already been successful in an industry. And so for me, when you're knocking doors, I had to make it a game. I had to have people that came in and said, man, we're not just doing something mundane, routine, knocking doors every day.

17:16No, it's like we're playing a game. I remember, you know, for example, when we first started this thing, I would give our team leader's spirit animals, like the hyena, Superman, Batman, the lion, I'm the goat, right? It's like everyone would have these spirit animals and they would have to earn these spirit animals. So then when people would have wins in the field and we were sharing it on a group me, we would just send out gifts of their spirit animal. And that right there made it a game. And they loved that. And it made it positive to go out there and do the dirty work. Number three, I believe you should reward yourself by performance and not time.

17:58A lot of people look at the clock. They're like, oh, I put in the hours. I put in 10 hours today. It doesn't mean if you didn't turn a result. And I remember an example that my dad did when I was growing up in football. And he actually created an entire chart when I was on varsity. For every tackle, every sack, every interception, every forced fumble, everything that I could possibly do during the game, I had an allowance system. So my parents never gave me an allowance. They knew that that would make me weak. They knew I had to understand that the work that I put in, the training, the development, I had to be able to turn a result and perform.

18:40So it was beautiful. And I'm going to use that same thing with my children because it sets your mind up that you have to perform, not just go out there and just be a part of it. Number four, I say, you got to be a master of expelling funks. And what I mean by that is we got to stay in the zone more often than not. I remember the old zone diet that came out years ago. It talked about your one decision from getting back into the zone. And I believe that if you can minimize the amount of time that you're in maybe a funk, that's more of an opportunity that you have to go gather your wins. And I live by a rule now.

19:17It's a five by five rule. If something is not going to affect you in five years, don't give it more than five minutes. So anytime I have something occur, whether it be a tire blows, hey, I might be upset at the time. I might be stranded on the road, but that's not going to affect me in five years. I'm going to let it pass. I'm going to let it go from my energy space. Number five, and most importantly, I believe it's walking in your truth impeccably to the world. I believe if you're walking and being what other people want you to be just to do that, just to please other people, you're not going to be able to create the world of your dreams because it's fraudulent.

19:56To me, to align yourself with your higher purpose that's being impeccable with yourself and what you truly want in this life. And that goes back to The Four Agreements, which is one of my all-time favorite books by Don Miguel Ruiz, which number one of The Four Agreements is being impeccable with your word. Fire Nation, your head is blown. I can say that as a statement because these are five value bombs that will impact your life unbelievably in every way, shape, and form. I want to go back over two that I just loved a little bit more than the rest. I loved them all, but these two just jumped off the page at me.

20:33Number one, the energy frequency of love and light. Be that energy frequency of love and light because Fire Nation, think about it. All we are is energy. That's what we are. We are energy. So what kind of energy are you exuding? Believe me, it matters so much. And then holy crap, number three, reward yourself by performance, not time. I mean, I already knew your father was a genius on a lot of levels. And Ted, if you're listening to this, you are a genius on a lot of levels because that's what he did with you in the football sphere is so awesome and something that's like you with your kids. I'm so looking forward to implementing with my son who's coming in October and then, of course, potentially more down the road.

21:21So I love having that idea to be able to reward with performance, not with time. I mean, that is so awesome. Now, Tony, we've talked about a lot of awesome things. And one thing that you've been able to do is build the right team and the right team culture. So give us how you've done it. How can we build both a winning team and a winning culture within that team? What does that look like? If I was to pinpoint my biggest quality as I've moved up in the sales arena, it's just that being able to create teams around me that go all in. Like it's just that football mentality that you have a position to play and you don't want to let your man down.

22:08You don't want to let your team members down. You don't want to let your mentor, your coaches down. And we've been able to create that by doing a couple of things. And now, John, you know, with Stronghouse Solutions, the actual platform over all the brands, I've now been promoted two weeks ago to the VP of the entire platform. So I'm going to be overseeing all the other roofing companies and making sure that we can create this culture in every brand that we are to add to Stronghouse at this point. So, you know, number one, you know, and my mentor, Kurt Linnington, who's the CEO, you know, has really embedded some of these things in me.

22:46And that's continuously casting a vision. You know, I think it's so important that, you know, as you're scaling a business, whatever you're doing, that you have to make sure every player on that team knows where you're wanting to go. I mean, I remember my first assignment as a VP with LA Fitness. I was sent to Tampa. It was the worst market in the country. It was my first assignment. I was 24 years old. I remember the first meeting I had was with 30 stores. We brought them all into one store. And that was 30 directors, 30 general managers of these$10 million facilities. And I'm 24 years old. I got 60 people in this meeting.

23:23And I said to all of them, the first thing I said, as I opened that meeting, I said, here's the deal. I know we're second to last in the country right now. But I said, moving forward, if you don't believe that we will have the best area in the country, hands down, I need you to walk out this meeting right now. That was me at 24. I had to make sure I set the tone as the leader. It's like when I think about an NFL or NBA team, if a new coach comes in and that new coach doesn't believe and cast the vision that they're going to create a winning program, what are they even doing there? So I think it starts with always being able to cast that vision of what are you looking to accomplish as a unit and constantly casting that vision because it changes and you have to keep growing and keeping people in with that vision, rowing that boat.

24:14Secondly, I believe you have to understand what talent wants. You know, if you want to grow a great team in an organization, you need talent. You need, you need superstars. How do you attract superstars? You got to know what they want. One, they want recognition. They want growth. They want to belong to something greater than themselves as the book, Good to Great talks about. They want a voice and money, of course. So when you understand those five pillars, then you make sure that you set up your organization to knock out all five of those things for your talent. Third, standalone versus left alone.

24:49As you grow a sales organization or any organization for that matter, you can't just leave people alone. You have to be able to develop them to the point where they can truly stand alone on their own, but you're constantly looking to develop them. You never say, oh, this guy's an A player. This girl's an A player. She's good. He's good. So I don't need to touch them anymore. I don't believe that in sales. You constantly have to bring value to whoever is in your organization. And I believe fourth, talent acquisition. You must be able to recruit from within. How do you recruit from within? You make sure that your people are taken care of and they're extremely happy in their organization.

25:32For instance, we never paid for any marketing with linear roofing. None. No marketing. Our marketing was our people winning and showing it on Facebook and attracting other people to the organization. That's how we were able to do it. And a lot of roofing companies saw the model that we did, and a lot of them are trying to mimic it. So I believe that your talent acquisition starts from within. Take care of your people. And number five, I believe you must protect the brand and core values. You must have a mission statement. You know, our mission statement is we are not the same and we do it better.

26:06We actually trademarked we are not the same as a platform, as Stronghouse. And we take pride in that. And your people must know that. So whenever we have these, we are not the same hashtags online, like we don't just say that. We talk about it in our meetings. What makes us different from the rest? And so they believe in it. They know the mission statement. They understand the core values. And they understand if they're not in a line with those things, they cannot wear the jersey. Fire Nation, value bombs are raining down on your head for all the things we've been talking about here today. And Tony, obviously, as I shared at the top of the episode, the theme of today is becoming a goat.

26:46You have laid down the tracks that Fire Nation can follow to do amazing and great things in this world. What is the one takeaway of all the genius that you shared that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our conversation today? It starts with you. I believe that in an organization, if it's going to happen, if you are going to grow, I believe you have to look inward. With everything, you have to take extreme ownership and responsibility for your wins and your losses. A lot of times when people may lose some people to another organization or they have their retention issues, they may say, oh, well, that person, he wasn't really a fit or they weren't really a fit.