The Elevate System to Attract, Retain, And Develop A-Players with Tommy Mello

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network with great shows like Content is Profit. Today, we'll be breaking down the Elevate system to attract, retain, and develop A players. To draw these value bombs, I am brought to Tommy Mello and to EO Fire Studios. Tommy is the owner of A1 Garage Doors, a$200 million home service company with over 700 employees in 19 states. He's also the host of the Home Service Expert podcast and author of the book Elevate and an Inc. columnist. And today, we'll be talking about getting your team to work for their dreams, which is also your dreams.

0:43We'll talk about ABR, always be recruiting. We'll talk about treating employees as athletes and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Tommy and our sponsors. One of my favorite conferences to attend each year is HubSpot's annual inbound conference and is coming up fast. Join us in Boston from September 5th to the 8th, 2023 for an event like no other. Inbound brings together leaders across the business space, including sales, marketing, customer success, and operations teams. The goal at Inbound to help you discover all the latest trends and tactics you can implement in your business right now.

1:24Learn, be inspired, and walk away with practical tips to help you tackle your next challenge, supercharge your sales and marketing and ignite your customer service. Inbound is featuring many must-see speakers this year, including Reese Witherspoon, Guy Raz, and Neil Patel, just to name a few. Whether you choose a general admission ticket or go the VIP route, you're sure to leave Boston feeling on fire. Visit inbound.com to get your tickets today. Is this your year? Visit thrivetimeshow.com to see testimonials of how Clay Clark's business coaching has helped over 2 ,000 entrepreneurs to dramatically increase profitability.

2:03It's month to month and less money than an average minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today at thrivetimeshow.com. Tommy, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, what's up? I'm glad to be here. Listen, we're always taught in life, you've got to work hard. You've got to bust your butt in business. And that is true. But what I can tell you is the billionaires that I know, and I'm well on my way there right now, is you got to be a great networker. You got to go out there. You got to ask questions.

2:44You got to meet the people. It's knowing people and relationships that get you further in life. So don't be shy. Talk to people. Put yourself out there more. Fire Nation, what a start to what's going to be an amazing episode because we're talking about the Elevate system that's going to allow you to attract, retain, and develop, not B players, heck no, A players. And as much as we want to believe it, Tommy, the people on your team, they really want to work not for you, but for their dreams. Now, hopefully that's one of the same. So let's talk about tying personal goals to KPIs, those key performance indicators.

3:27Yeah, well, what I did is we hired a dream manager. And our goal with every single employee is to figure out what their dreams are, what they want to do in life, the vacations. What's their why? And so we really peel back the onion and we say, do you want to be a homeowner? Do you want to go on vacations? Do you want to have Airbnbs? Where do you want to go on vacation? What neighborhood do you want to live in? And what I find is I can figure out what they need to do in their work life to figure out what they can figure out in their personal life. So we really sit down with each and every person and say, what do you need to do today, this week, this month, this quarter, and this year to have your dreams?

4:07And that way they can accomplish what they want. So it's a lot easier to have those hard conversations. Like, you know, you want to go take your father on a fishing trip in Alaska for two weeks. Let's figure out how to be financially stable. Here's how many jobs you need to run. Here's your conversion rate. Here's your average ticket. Here's your service agreements. And what I find is people that know exactly what they want, how they're going to get there, what needs to happen today can actually achieve those dreams. Fire Nation, I hope you realize that this is going to get you to the next level with your team.

4:40Because if your team is working towards their dreams, and you can align it with your company's dreams, life is good. And Tommy, most people think marketing is all about acquiring new customers. But it's also about acquiring new talents. Tell us more about this. You know, during COVID, I have A1 Garage Service. We're going to break 200 million this year, 700 employees. And what I realized is these people, they're amazing. They were all volunteering for a sick time. They were giving away their sick time. They were just doing everything they could do to help out one another. and we got really busy.

5:22We were essential. People stayed in their homes. They were upgrading things. And I just found that one A player ran circles around three B players. And I learned that if we do the system right of recruiting and people tell a great story and they smile and they want to work here, they come here for a career, that anything's possible. And so we doubled down. We changed all of our marketing for great people. And it was crazy what happened. These people have a smile on their face every day. They don't mind picking up an extra day. They're willing to give up their sick time for their coworkers. And they actually have fun.

5:55They enjoy Mondays again. And I think that that's very few and far between companies think that way. We have the lighting right. We have the coffee machines. We have big buck hunter, golden tea. We have fun here. We have a ping pong table. We try to make it fun for them to come to work. And when you're doing it right, great people find you. And the best place to find a great person is not in the unemployment line. It's having them want to come to a better place. And 83 % of people say where they'll leave today for a better opportunity. So I figured out in the last few years, just this amazing culture and it's fun.

6:31And I want to come in on Monday and I really do. A lot of people, they probably think I'm full of it, but it's true. And if you figure out a way to motivate other people, the mindset, the elevate mindset, the manifest, which you want in life, and you put the right bait out there, it's important that you'll go further. And the first thing I would advise for anybody to do is go look at your Indeed score, see what people are saying about you on Glassdoor. Because if your company isn't great on these certain online sources, then you got issues because that's where your internal customers are looking if they want to come work for you.

7:08Fire Nation, powerful things. I mean, acquiring new talent, if that's one of your focuses, good things can happen because you have an acronym, Tommy, ABR, always be recruiting. What does that look like in the real world? Give us a couple examples of you doing this. Well, what I figured out how to do is I go get haircuts. I'm always at restaurants. I'm talking to the Amazon guy when they come deliver a package. And this is what we do. with a lot of the people I get to work with, my coworkers, as we teach them this is, well, find a busboy that's just kicking butt and he's smiling or she's smiling and she's coming and she's just going to help you with anything.

7:50The first thing I do is I say, are you happy here? And usually they say, yeah, it's a good job. And I say, well, I used to be a server. Do you mind if I take a picture with you? I take a selfie with them. And then I text them. I get their cell phone, text them the picture. And I say, look, give me an opportunity, Come to a ride along. See if this is something that would be for you. Because I promise you, when you find out the money you could make, we've got all the benefits. You get to spend Sundays at home. You go get home for dinner. You could be the soccer coach, the baseball coach. You want to be for your kids.

8:19This is an opportunity. And they usually don't respond. So I hit a question mark every three days. And that one bad day at work, two weeks, three weeks later, they're like, all right, I'm ready. Today was a hard day. I want a career. Let me come check this place out. And if you spend as much time going after great people to work with you as you did as clients, man, it gets a lot easier and a lot more fun. Fire Nation, I love this. ABR, always be recruiting. You don't know where you're going to get the next great talent. Have your eyes open. Have your ears open. Have conversations. Talk to people.

8:57You can see it in their eyes. I mean, man, this actually honestly brings me back. I had to go get my global entry renewed just two days ago. And the whole experience with a person who renewed it, he engaged me in conversation. He was asking interesting things. He was so personable. I was like, man, if I was hiring somebody right now for a certain position, I would figure out what it would take to hire this global entry guy to come join me on my team because he was just pleasant. And you just never know where you're going to find these individuals. that could end up being an amazing part of your team.

9:33And we have so much more to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. The Product Boss, hosted by Jacqueline Snyder and Mina Kunlo-Sitep, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Take your physical product sales and strategy to the next level to create your dream life with hosts Jacqueline and Mina as they deliver a workshop-style, hour-long episode filled with social media and marketing strategies so you can up-level as the boss of your business. A recent episode covered the ins and outs of whether you can have a successful product business as a side hustle.

10:07Listen to The Product Boss wherever you get your podcasts. Are you ready to grow your business now? What if you could learn the proven systems and processes that have been used to grow thousands of multi-million dollar success stories? At thrivetimeshow.com, see testimonials of how Clay Clark's proven business coaching has helped over 2 ,000 clients to increase profitability dramatically. Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Sound too good to be true? Go to ThriveTimeShow.com to see over 2 ,000 documented success stories.

10:40Because Clay only takes on 160 clients, he personally designs your business plan for you. Then Clay's team of talented designers, videographers, web developers, workflow mappers, and accounting coaches will help you implement that proven plan. See over 2 ,000 verified success stories and schedule your free 101 13-point assessment with Mr. Clay Clark himself today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized and directed through practical plans of action. Become the next success story. Schedule your free 13-point assessment today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Tommy, we're back and there are so many different types of people out there.

11:21There are so many different types of personalities out there. How can we learn to motivate and communicate with all types of people, with all types of personalities? So we do a lot of personality profiling. We want to understand who our clients are, but more importantly, we want to understand who the people we are that we work with. So we all read the book as a company, the five languages of success in the workplace. It's just like the five love languages. and some people just like words of affirmation. Some people like gifts. So we work really hard to identify who our internal clients are, and then we work hard to understand.

12:03We do disc profile. We do a lot of fun things to learn who our clients are. And when you get a high C personality, they want to understand why something works. They want to know exactly. They're very structured in the way they do things. They've done their research. and knowing who you're selling to, whether it's an internal client or a client, is very, very important. And I'll tell you what, always trying to figure out what's in it for them. And just sincerity. All I asked my guys, I had 30 guys just graduated today, one gal, 29 guys. And I said, tell your story. One guy walked up at the front of class and he goes, you know, I was$8 ,000 in debt three months ago.

12:46I've got three kids relying on me. I'm two mortgage payments behind right now. And this job is a career. And I realize now that I'm going to be able to provide for my family. And to me, that's the greatest gift of everything to know I have somebody watching my back. And if you could be sincere, look customers in the eyes, ask them and you understand who they are and what kind of buyers they are. And you could just ask for the sale and say, Hey, listen, John, I'm here to earn your business. I'll do whatever it takes. I'm here and I want to be your garage door guy. I want to be your plumbing guy.

13:21I want to be your whatever business you're in. Some of us don't ask for the sale. And I ask for the sale every time if I'm recruiting or if I'm out there in front of a client. Man, I love this. Fire Nation, if you're approaching every person, every personality, every situation like this, you're going to have some really awesome conversations. And one thing that I found very interesting, Tommy, that I want to dive into now is that you believe that we should treat employees as athletes. What does that look like? I've always hated every manager I've ever worked for. I've loved every coach. The coach, man, my mom worked three jobs.

14:02She was a single mom raising two kids, and she worked her butt off, right? And the coaches always looked after me. They made sure I was fed. They make sure I was good out of the game and in the game. They looked out for me outside of the game, the family, the homework. So when I played football, I played two a days. And we'd practice two times a day, five days a week to play one three-hour game. But in business, for some reason, we don't practice at all. We don't go over the fundamentals. We don't go over the manuals. We don't go over the KPIs. We don't have a leaderboard. We don't inspire people.

14:37at A1 Garage Gears, we have a morning mojo call every day. We figure out what's going great. And in public, we say the great things. We talk about the outcomes and what went well, the mindset shifts and the way we elevated each other. And then on the one-on-ones, we talk about what's in it for them. And we could talk about tough things. We could talk about family issues. We could talk about getting back on pace for your dreams. And I think coaches do such an amazing job of motivating their players. And if we treated business a little bit more like sports, we'd go a lot further in business. Fire Nation, I look back at some of the coaches that I've had and they were so inspiring.

15:20They were so motivating. Some were father figures. I mean, it was crazy. And can you honestly say the same for any of your bosses, for any of your managers? I mean, think about that. And Tommy, you believe that onboarding is critical to the success of new hires. Talk to us about onboarding. Talk to us about your onboarding process. Well, I think it's funny, John. When we leave a job, we've worked there for 20 years. We go out, we have cake, there's a celebration. But when we get hired for a job, I just decided to uproot my family and start this job. There's no preparation. Are we doing a tour?

16:00What does the schedule look like? Are you happy that we're here? Are people excited? So first of all, their first day they're going to choose if this is a career or not. So make sure they have an amazing time. Make sure you're prepared. Make sure they feel special. Make sure people fly out to Phoenix for a month. So they're away from their friends, their family, their kids. So we send flowers home. I sent a really nice video just to express my abundance of joy that this person joined our team and their family joined our team. Because it's not just the one person. It's the whole family. And then we go through a lot of things.

16:33I do an orientation for three hours. I dress up like a doctor. I dress up a lot. We've got a lot of fun things we do. And I try to feed into them everything that I've learned over the last 15 years in business. And just tell them I'm really happy. You know, there's a story I always tell, and I'll tell you it really quickly. I say there's a daughter, and on her 18th birthday, he gives her this older vehicle, and he says, listen, I want you to take this vehicle, and I want you to take it to the local car dealer, and I want you to see what they'll give you for it. And the daughter comes back, and she says, dad, it's got a broken windshield.

17:14It's really dusty. The interior's in bad condition. It's old. It doesn't run well. They're looking at$1 ,500. And he goes, okay, well, listen, I want you to take it to the pawn shop. I want you to see what they'll give you. And she brings it back. And she says, Dad, they only wanted to give me$500 because it's old. It's used. It's rugged. And it's just not worth much. And he goes, well, listen, I signed you up for the classic car club. Go down the street. And I want you to see what they'll give you for it. And she comes back to her dad. She goes, dad, they want to give me$100 ,000 because it's rare.

17:49It's in great condition. It's got great capabilities. And this car is super hard to find. And the father says to his daughter, I want to let you know that you're not worth anything if you're not in the right space. If you're not appreciated, don't be angry. That just means that you're in the wrong space. Don't stay in a place where no one sees your value. And I tell everybody, you're in the right place. You're here. We want you. We want to see you win. We want to see you succeed. We want to see you grow. There's a ladder to success here. We want you to make a lot of money. We want you to be happy.

18:22And I think that that's so important when they first start that they get to hear that, that they're in the right place, that we care about them because a lot of business owners don't do these. Fire Nation, if that story didn't move you, didn't make you think of something else in your life, or maybe you let something go for so much less than it was worth just because it wasn't in the right place, or you let yourself be potentially taken advantage of because you're in the right place? I mean, think about that. Powerful words. Tommy, you've dropped some value bombs, brother. ABR, always be recruiting.

18:54Treat your employees as athletes. Look at onboarding as a time to celebrate individuals coming onto your team. Don't wait till they're retiring to give them that party. Like, think about that. What is the one key thing you really want Fire Nation to get from our entire conversation today? You know, I came out recently with the book, Elevate, build a business where everybody wins. And what I figured out is your customers for sure get to win. The employees get to win. Your vendors get to win. This doesn't need to be a win-lose situation. So when I go into my vendors or go up to one of my coworkers, I truly ask them, what's your one-year goal?

19:34What's your three-year goal? What's your five-year goal? What can I do for you? What's in it for them to want to do business with me and I say, listen, I'm going to help you win. I'm going to help you succeed. I don't go to my vendors and say, give me a cheaper price. I need you to, they're my partners. And if I look at everything in the game of life, there doesn't need to be a loser. There's a lot of money out there. There's enough for everybody to win and buy homes and go on those dream vacations. So when you're dealing with anybody, even a competitor, I mean, I'm trying to elevate the garage door industry and the whole home service industry.

20:05I invite them to my shop. I invite 40, 50 of them at a time. And trust me, the shop is full of tours all the time. So I think when you go into a negotiation or you're just trying to spend time with somebody and figure out how to win, say, what's in it for them? Why would they even want to choose me? Why would a client want to do business with me? And have the mindset of what's in it for them. Fire Nation, you're going to recognize that everybody's favorite radio station is WIIFM. What's in it for me? The sooner you recognize that, the sooner you're going to be able to do these things that Tommy's talking about.

20:38Because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with TM and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And one more time, Tommy, tell us about your book and where we can go to pick up a copy. Yeah, so the book is Elevate, Build a Business Where Everybody Wins. If you just go to elevateandwin.com, man, it took me a couple years to write. And I've had a bunch of co-authors in it. And I think if anything you'll take from it is just you could win. You could have everybody around you win. It's mindset. It's abundance. It's manifesting. And, you know, I got the official Tommy Mello on TikTok and on Instagram.

21:17But I think you'll enjoy the book. I hope that you read it, John. And I hope your listeners, your amazing Fire Nation, I appreciate being on here. Elevateandwin.com, Fire Nation. Tommy thank you for sharing your truth your knowledge your value with fire nation today for that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side Thanks brother Hey fire nation a huge thank you to our sponsors and tommy for sponsoring today's episode Fire nation successful entrepreneurs are great at three things productivity discipline and focus That's why I created the mastery journal so that you can master productivity discipline and focus in a hundred days and we're talking step-by-step.

21:59Visit themasteryjournal.com. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. One of my favorite conferences to attend each year is HubSpot's annual Inbound Conference and is coming up fast. Join us in Boston from September 5th to the 8th, 2023 for an event like no other. Inbound brings together leaders across the business space, including sales, marketing, customer success and operations teams. The goal at Inbound to help you discover all the latest trends and tactics you can implement in your business right now. Learn, be inspired, and walk away with practical tips to help you tackle your next challenge, supercharge your sales and marketing, and ignite your customer service.

22:43Inbound is featuring many must-see speakers this year, including Reese Witherspoon, Guy Raz, and Neil Patel, just to name a few. Whether you choose a general admission ticket or go the VIP route, you're sure to leave Boston feeling on fire. Visit inbound.com to get your tickets today. Is this your year? Visit thrivetimeshow.com to see testimonials of how Clay Clark's business coaching has helped over 2 ,000 entrepreneurs to dramatically increase profitability. It's month to month and less money than an average minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today at Thrivetimeshow.com.