Master Door-to-Door Sales: Lessons from $35M Success | Tony Wells DSH #1278

Speaker 2 Growing up, I'm purposefully different in how I discipline my children because of that. But I still believe that, you know, like in the Bible, right,

Speaker 2 I spare the rod.

Speaker 1 I don't beat my kids, but I'm still firm with them.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 But not as firm as maybe how children were raised, especially like back in the day.

Speaker 2 Oh, back in the day, you're getting fist fights with your parents.

Speaker 2 All right, guys, from Minneapolis today. Tony Wells, thanks for flying flying in, man.
Dude, it's an honor to be here. Yeah, it's going to be a fun one.

Speaker 2 I haven't had many guests from Minneapolis on, so I'm excited to learn more about the city. And you're at the Timberwolves games all the time, right? You're right.
Yeah. So I'm glad to be here and

Speaker 2 represent the Midwest. Let's go.
How long have you been out there? My whole life. Yeah, born and raised, Minnesota boy.
We lived in California, Newport Beach for around five years.

Speaker 2 But ultimately, we

Speaker 2 came back to Minnesota about 2017. Nice.
You've seen a lot of growth in that city, right?

Speaker 2 You know, it's, I would say, in the rural towns. So there used to be a lot of,

Speaker 2 I call it like the farm, the farm towns, and now it's all suburbia. Nice.
Yeah. That's cool.
Yeah. Cause you grew up in Trailer Park, right? You had some humble beginnings.
Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 How long were you there, your whole life? No. So I was in, living in Trailer Park until about fourth grade.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So my mom, you know, my mom and dad were, they were divorced when I was three years old.

Speaker 2 Mom was on welfare. My dad lived in a trailer park.

Speaker 2 And then in fourth grade, I moved up to a city called Champlain with my, with my mom, my stepdad. And,

Speaker 2 you know, I got two sisters, you know, from

Speaker 3 them.

Speaker 2 But yeah, it's

Speaker 2 the life that I live today is a lot different than I was used to growing up as a kid, for sure. Do you think you got that hustle mentality from back in the early days, wanting to work really hard?

Speaker 2 I think so. You know, I grew up with no money.
So, you know, for me, it was,

Speaker 2 you know, I always wanted to, you know, fit in, right? So if the kids were wearing, you know,

Speaker 2 polo designer clothes, like, you know, I wanted to wear that too.

Speaker 2 You know, back then it was wearing, wearing Jordans or it was wearing, you know, the Reebok pump shoes. But, you know, my family couldn't afford it.

Speaker 2 You know, so I'm not proud of this, but, you know, for me, in order to get that, you know, I was either stealing or at the age of 15, I was selling dope. And that's how I was able to

Speaker 2 be able to get those kind of clothes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I used used to shoplift a little bit. Oh, you did? I got caught and I haven't done it since.
Yeah. Yeah.
I got caught as well. I got humbled.
It took me in the...

Speaker 2 Do you know what Wegmans is? No. It's a grocery store on the East Coast.
I grew up in Jersey. Okay.
But I got caught stealing. They took me in the security room.
My mom had to pick me up.

Speaker 2 Super embarrassing. I haven't stole since.
So what were you stealing?

Speaker 2 Dumb shit, dude. I was a kid, like candy and like, I don't know, gift cards, whatever.
Okay. It wasn't worth it.
Okay. They put me on the wall of shame.
They did. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So I haven't stolen stolen since yeah so if i if i was to go there now would you still be up on that wall probably not well

Speaker 2 you could check

Speaker 2 bridgewater new jersey

Speaker 2 okay

Speaker 2 but yeah that was one of my worst habits when i was a kid yeah the shoplifting um

Speaker 2 you know and then you know i was i was a drug addict by the time i was 14 years old wow that's young drug addict at 14.

Speaker 2 Damn. So just start with weed and kind of work its way up.
Yep, start with weed. That's what they say.
It's not a gateway drug, but I think that's BS.

Speaker 2 You know, for me, it

Speaker 2 you know, or I'm sorry. No, it didn't start with weed.
It actually started with drinking. So we used to get drunk, you know, before school.

Speaker 2 So we'd meet up at a friend's house about 6:30 in the morning.

Speaker 2 We'd start to get drunk. That's so early.
And then

Speaker 2 what would happen though is we get, we get into school and, you know, kids would start to

Speaker 2 pass out. Yeah.
Right. And then the teachers would catch on.
So then we had to figure out, well, how can we, how can we get high?

Speaker 2 and still function or at least not get kicked out of class. And that's that's how weed, weed came into play.
And then back then, I'm 45 years old. How old are you? 28.
Okay, so I'm 45.

Speaker 2 So back then, we had these little

Speaker 2 wooden dugouts.

Speaker 2 And so basically we would pack weed in one side and then you put a little oneie on the other. And then be able to just take little one hitters.
Like a one-hitter. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think I caught the tail end of that. Okay.
I saw some of those. Okay.
We did gravity bongs where I grew up. What's a gravity bong? You never heard of that? Oh, man.
Maybe we didn't call it that.

Speaker 2 So explain it to me.

Speaker 2 you so you put a i don't even know what to call it but you put a hole at the bottom of a water bottle okay yeah and then you put on the cap you put a hole in it and you light the weed in like a socket on the cap and then you lift up with water so it just fills with smoke it was so high back then but i don't remember doing that yeah those were deadly dude i mean with the bongs it was pretty much a bong okay yeah is it okay for a whole water bottle full of weed vapor you wouldn't handle the whole thing What about out of apples?

Speaker 2 We've done apples. Yeah.
Apple bowls. Okay.
Yeah. I've done that before.
Yeah.

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Speaker 2 I used to be a huge donor, but then I got terrible anxiety when I got high. That's what happened to me.
Yeah, terrible anxiety. And I'm an extrovert.

Speaker 2 So you're an introvert? Yeah. Okay.
So I'm an extrovert. So what it would do for me is I'd actually like, I call it stuck.

Speaker 2 You would shut down. I'd shut down.
Like I couldn't even like communicate with people. So I didn't like it.
So then what I do is I get into,

Speaker 2 I got into like mushrooms and acid and stuff.

Speaker 2 And what that did is,

Speaker 2 you know, I'd see like all the, you know, I'd be looking at like wood and it looks like it's like melting and see faces and things like that.

Speaker 2 But for me, like all drugs, so I'm 18 years sober. I want to say that.

Speaker 2 All drugs for me, they always start out good and they all start, and then they all go bad. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So for the smoke in the pot, right, like it was good because it got me through through school, like through the school day.

Speaker 2 But then it started to like mess with my mental where I wasn't able to communicate with people. And being an extrovert, that was out of my like normal chemistry.
Right.

Speaker 2 Then I got into,

Speaker 2 you know, drinking,

Speaker 2 but I'm an alcoholic. So when I drink, like, I'm not just having, you know, like one drink.
Like for me, it's give me the beer and then give me the shot though.

Speaker 2 I want the shot, tequila or the whiskey so I can hurry up and get to that level.

Speaker 2 And then I'm going to have that beer and then we can just hang out. Maintain.

Speaker 2 But when you're ready to go home, I'm not.

Speaker 2 And that's, that's the difference.

Speaker 2 And so then with like mushroom and acid, like the first couple of trips were cool,

Speaker 2 but then I'd always, I always have bad trips. And like the worst trip I ever had is, and this was like the last one.
I was, I locked myself in.

Speaker 2 We were we were taking acid in my buddy's basement at his parents' house. And I locked myself in in his bathroom.
And I just remember like laying on the floor, hugging the toilet

Speaker 2 and just praying like, God, just like make this trip like end.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 you know, so that was it. But, but I was an addict, so I still then wanted to find a different high.
And then I got into ecstasy. You ever done ecstasy? No, I haven't done that one.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So ecstasy, I loved ecstasy because that would

Speaker 2 make me super loving.

Speaker 2 That's Molly, right? Yeah. Okay.
Yep. So like, you know, I just want to be like hugging on you or hugging on whoever's around me.
And I'd be telling you that I love you. And,

Speaker 2 but what I didn't realize is that when you take ecstasy, it actually drains all the serotonin in your brain. Yep.
I heard that. And so then I get into depression and then I got suicidal thoughts.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So I stopped doing the, doing the ecstasy or as the kids say no, Molly.

Speaker 2 And then I got into cocaine.

Speaker 2 And when I got into cocaine, like that gave me the confidence. You know, I'm in high school still.
So that gave me the confidence to talk to girls.

Speaker 2 And it also allowed me to drink the way that I wanted to drink because I could, I could like maintain like this level where if I got without the cocaine, I would just go like this.

Speaker 2 You would black out. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 but when you do the cocaine, like you can continue and drink all night.

Speaker 2 But eventually I became like a violent cocaine user. Were you an angry drunk? Like you got in fights a lot? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I had a friend like that.
Yeah. I hated going out with him.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 And I was a, I was a little punk. You know, I mean, I was little, but I always had like the older friends or the bigger friends.
And so

Speaker 2 I would start the fights, but they would finish them for me. Got it.
But, but I can only imagine being that friend, right? Like, that would suck to have a friend like that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Especially these days with social media. Cause back then you got in fights.
No one knew about it. Yeah.
It was low-key. But now it's all over the internet as soon as you do it now.

Speaker 2 That's what I tell my kids. Like

Speaker 2 I got two teenage daughters and two younger boys and i tell them girls like whatever you do now if it's on if it's on on video like it's there forever yep it's gonna haunt you yeah getting in fights isn't worth it anymore now you'll just get sued yeah right yeah yeah especially someone like you you know we'll dive into the business side of things soon but crazy story sounds like yeah wow yeah i got to like acid and shrooms and then i stopped there okay i didn't do anything crazier than that okay but those two uh specifically shrooms changed my life for the better i'd say okay you still take shrooms?

Speaker 2 I microdose. You micro-dose? I don't do full trips anymore.
Yep. I think I'd have a terrible trip if I did, to be honest.
Yeah. But micro-dosing is a game changer.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So tell me about how you said that shrooms like change your life actually for the good. Like why? Perspective.
So like I went to Amsterdam in high school when I was my first business was e-commerce.

Speaker 2 So I was making decent money, like six figures as a high schooler. Yeah.
You know, or college, first year of college. Heck yeah.

Speaker 2 But yeah, I did shrooms and just walked eight miles straight, smiled the whole time around Amsterdam. Okay.
Just opened my eyes to just all these new perspectives in life.

Speaker 2 Cause I was so boxed in living in the town I grew up in. In Jersey.
Yeah. Okay.
And just motivated me to get out there and hustle. And that's, that's the difference between like you and me.

Speaker 2 Like, you know, even for my wife, like she could have a glass of wine a night, half a glass of wine, like, and she's good. I need the whole bottle.

Speaker 2 And so for you, like, and I have friends that could still smoke pot today and they're functioning and they're successful, but it just affects my brain differently.

Speaker 2 There's just this chemistry. It's like an addictive personality, maybe.
Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I think I have that too, but I can channel it if that makes sense.
Okay. All right.
Tell me more about the micro-dosing. Well, it's like I don't like pharmaceutical drugs.
Okay.

Speaker 2 So like instead of taking an Adderall or a Vivand, I'd rather just micro-dose a mushroom.

Speaker 2 Get the same effect, if not better, no after effects, no burnout. So you're just locked in.
So the micro-dosing, is it like drinking a tea?

Speaker 2 yeah just like a stimulant gets your brain flowing like i don't know anything about i don't know anything about that world anymore so yeah so you take one tenth of your dose so say you eat an eighth of shrooms yeah a microdose would be one tenth of that and is it still shrew is it still still the same thing yeah and they taste like garbage i do it in the pill form so i just swallow it i don't taste it yeah but no shrooms taste like dude i've thrown up from eating shrooms before because they grow on cow shit yeah so yeah i've had some bad trips with that okay all right but yeah dude it's interesting everyone's got their own thing some people it's coffee Some people, it's micro-dosing.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Psychedelic.
Some people are all natural.

Speaker 2 Mine's definitely coffee. And then

Speaker 2 I got these damn nicotine pouches. Dave Asprey takes those.
He brought one on the podcast. And I got dizzy taking that shit.
That shit was strong. Yeah.
Five MGs. Yeah.
Yeah. Put it right here, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
Those do help with focus, though. They do.
They do. Just for me, I've never done nicotine before, so I didn't have a tolerance.
Yeah, stay away from it. Yeah.
But yeah. It's addictive.

Speaker 2 Anything to give me an edge, man. All right.
So

Speaker 2 for you, like you're in Amsterdam.

Speaker 2 What age are you in Amsterdam? I was 19, I believe. Yeah, freshman year of college.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And you're 28 now? 28.
Almost 10 years. High school reunion is this year, which is crazy.
You're going to go? I might. You might.
I might go. Okay.
Going back and forth. Might be a coin flip.

Speaker 2 Okay. Did you go to yours? I think I went to the 10-year, and that was it.

Speaker 2 That must have been interesting for you because people thought you were probably like a, like you were a drug addict back then, right? Well, let's see so 10

Speaker 2 so 10 i would have been what around 27

Speaker 2 yeah i mean i was 27 that's like the year i got sober okay

Speaker 2 so you didn't start business yet really

Speaker 2 no no no no i wasn't uh at 27 no i'm newly married um

Speaker 2 newly sober

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 and actually

Speaker 2 I can't quite remember like exact timing of the the high school reunion of where I was at in life, but I know in that first year of sobriety, like I lost everything. Damn.
All your friends, family?

Speaker 2 More on the material side.

Speaker 2 So my first year of sobriety,

Speaker 2 we had our house that we were living in. Then we also had two investment properties.
And

Speaker 2 we lost all three to foreclosure. Oh, because this was the 08 crash, right? This would have been, yeah, I guess right around there.
Yeah, the real estate market tanked.

Speaker 3 um

Speaker 2 yeah right around there yep

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 so we we lost we lost everything to the point where like you know i had uh i i've told the story a lot not to you but to to many where you know i've got a land rover in the driveway i've got a rolex on my wrist and i've got you know money in the bank account but

Speaker 2 my character was shit

Speaker 2 And so God was like, listen, son, like,

Speaker 2 and I was ungrateful. You know what I mean? Like, I had, I had our house that we're living in.
I had the two investment properties, newly married to my beautiful wife, who's still my wife today.

Speaker 2 But I'm just like, God, like, when I was homeless, I wanted to kill myself.

Speaker 2 And now that I have everything that I ever wanted,

Speaker 2 I still want to kill myself. So we're like, what's the whole point of like this thing that's called life? Wow.

Speaker 2 And I believe that it was then where God was like, son, like I've given you everything you ever wanted and you're still ungrateful. So now it's time for me to work on your character.

Speaker 2 And so I'm going to go ahead and strip everything away from you. And that's what he did.
And he first started with the Rolex watch.

Speaker 2 I had to go to the pawn shop and sell the Rolex just so I make one mortgage payment.

Speaker 2 Then I had to drive that fancy Land Rover that I was so proud of to the food shelf.

Speaker 2 And they had to load the groceries into the back of that Land Rover. And I was humiliated.
And so what he was doing, he was stripping away my pride and my ego.

Speaker 2 And when he stripped away my pride and my ego, then I was ready to depend on him and not on my own abilities. Because before that time, I would tell you how great I am.

Speaker 2 And look at all the stuff that I've accumulated because of how great I am.

Speaker 2 But God wanted to be like, son, like

Speaker 2 everything that you have, including your abilities, is the gifts that I've blessed you with. And so when he took that stuff away,

Speaker 2 i had to quickly learn how to depend on him versus on my own abilities and then he started to then he started to bless me right and he and he you know and it started with people so he put first a sponsor in my life

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 and then also you know i obviously have my wife um you know so i put a sponsor in my life and so i i went into aa

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 my sponsor was like, listen, like, if you want to work with me, like, you've got to do exactly what I tell you.

Speaker 2 And so he said, we're going to meet once a week and we're going to go through the big book. I'm going to take you through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Speaker 2 You're also going to go to a minimum of three meetings a week.

Speaker 2 And you're also going to do service work.

Speaker 2 And so in that service work, I'd go to a local, not a food shelf, but a

Speaker 2 basically where there was hot meals and like the homeless youth would come through and we put, you know, hot, hot meals on their plates.

Speaker 2 But what that taught me was I was in this like poor me, this victim mentality. And when they'd come through, I'd be like, thinking in my own head, like, wow, like my life isn't actually that bad.

Speaker 2 Like, I actually

Speaker 2 still have a wife that loves me.

Speaker 2 I still have people in my life that want to be around me.

Speaker 2 And I might be on the verge of losing my houses,

Speaker 2 but I still have a way to have shelter. Right.
and so i i started to get this attitude of gratitude

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 and so this is you know this is 18 years ago um but then my wife also encouraged me to go to church right so god's working through people he's working through my sponsor to work my character he's working through my wife he's working through the pastor and

Speaker 2 and before

Speaker 2 I grew up in a religious household, but I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 And so around the age of like 19, 20 is when I wrote off God. I actually didn't want anything to do with it because I just, I,

Speaker 2 religion and God to me were, were the same thing.

Speaker 2 But she encouraged me to go to this church. And at this church, this pastor, and it's a big church, like probably a thousand people in this church.

Speaker 2 And the pastor's like, hey, like, I don't care if you've ever been to prison, you're a prostitute, you're a drug addict, like you're welcome here.

Speaker 2 And that was the first time I ever heard that from the pulpit.

Speaker 2 So I was like, you know what? Like, I'll I'll continue to come back

Speaker 2 because I felt like he was talking right to me,

Speaker 2 even though he's talking to a thousand people. And so that's when my life, you know, really started to change.
Wow. What a journey, man.
And you're still on it now. Now you're crushing it.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 When did the business start from there? Was it shortly after that you started going to church? Yeah. So

Speaker 2 the.

Speaker 2 You know, like becoming a, you know, even a millionaire and then a multi-millionaire, that, that didn't happen until i was 40 years old wow you know i'm 45 now

Speaker 2 so i made my first like

Speaker 2 i made my first million like million in my family's bank account when i was 40 years old and how that happened is in 2017 um

Speaker 2 my

Speaker 2 the gentleman that was my sponsor now 18 years ago

Speaker 2 He started a roofing company and he said, he called me one day and he's like, hey, you know, I was I was meditating and

Speaker 2 God told me to call you and ask you to be a partner in my company.

Speaker 2 And at that same time, my wife and I and our four kids, we're living out in Newport Beach, California. And I was on my knees and I was praying.

Speaker 2 And I said, you know, because my wife and my oldest daughter wanted to move back to Minnesota.

Speaker 2 I wanted to stay in Cali because I came from a trailer park. So I was living my dream.

Speaker 2 We were broke, but I was still living my dream. And that was to be out on the beach.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I'm praying, like, God, if you want us to move back to Minnesota, like, you're going to have to open that door wide open.

Speaker 2 And if you don't want us to, like, just go ahead and slam that door shut in Courtney's face and let her know, like, we're supposed to be here in Cali and stay here, and all is going to be well.

Speaker 2 But if

Speaker 2 that is your will, just let me know. And that same day, I got that call.

Speaker 2 And the call was,

Speaker 2 I was meditating, and God told me to ask you to be a part of my company. So I told Courtney that.
And then Courtney was like, all right, when do we move? Wow. I love that.

Speaker 2 So we moved back to Minnesota.

Speaker 2 And at the time, the company is doing like $1.5 million in revenue.

Speaker 2 Had about eight sales reps, including my partner. This is a roofing company.
Yep.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 the deal was that I had to double the annual revenue of the company that very first first year.

Speaker 2 And so I had to go out and sell myself.

Speaker 2 And in this business and in that market, we get a lot of hailstorms. And the sales is driven by door knocking.
Old school. Yeah.
And so I'd never knocked a door in my life,

Speaker 2 but we moved back and we moved back with the purpose. And so I went out and started knocking on doors and I generated 1.2 million in revenue by myself that first year.
Wow.

Speaker 2 So, and then we had other sales reps. And so we did $3 million.

Speaker 2 We did it.

Speaker 2 And so then I made partner. And then, and then like the next year, we did like $6 million.
Then I think like $9 million, then like $14 million, then like 20 million.

Speaker 2 And then eventually we hit 35 million. And then we sold that company to a private equity group a couple of years ago.
Well done, dude. 35 million going door to door.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 That's the grind right there. yeah dude that's incredible so you had to get good at sales

Speaker 2 i had to get good at door knocking sales and that's a really cold lead dude that is a cold lead coldest probably you could get i think so i think so like you know i i was telemarketing um did that kind of sales for years

Speaker 3 um

Speaker 2 you know you've got you've got three different phases or uh stages of sales right or levels you got where they let's say you work at best buy right or a rising you know wireless cell phone store, you got customers coming into you.

Speaker 2 They're there for your product. Right.

Speaker 2 That's one sale. Then the next sale is telemarketing.
So you got a cold call.

Speaker 2 With a cold call, though, if they tell you to F off, like you can hang up and just dial the next number.

Speaker 2 But when you door knock,

Speaker 2 the homeowner.

Speaker 2 could tell you to F off,

Speaker 2 slam the door in your face, and now you got to do the walk of shame.

Speaker 2 and and to me that's the biggest mental gymnastics because then you have to physically walk to the next door knowing that that person the neighbor just told you f off they slammed the door in your face and you don't know if they just called their neighbor right to give them a heads up that right this knucklehead is coming to knock on your door and you just gotta you just gotta stay positive and you just gotta for me i just look at it as a numbers game where i'd actually thank them So I'd be like, you know what?

Speaker 2 In my head, I'd be like, hey, thank you. I'm just one more no closer to a yes.

Speaker 2 And that's what worked for me. What was the ratio out of like 100 houses? What percent did you close? I would just said, I would just say like 10%.
Okay. Right.
So you knock on 100%.

Speaker 2 That's actually higher than I thought. You knock on 100 door.
Well, I'll break it down like this. So if you knock on 100 doors, not everybody's going to be home.
Not everybody's going to answer.

Speaker 2 So you knock on 100 doors. You're going to get 10 people to answer.
And then out of those 10, for me, I'd get one.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 So one out of 100. One out of 100.
Okay. So one percent.
Doors that you knock.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 but it was strictly just a numbers game. So I didn't even care about like how good my pitch was.
I just looked at it as a numbers game. I'm going to get, I'm going to get that one person who

Speaker 2 probably just says yes to everybody when it comes to being sold.

Speaker 2 And if you, and if you just grind and get a strong work ethic, like you're going to be successful. And then successful in that business is, you know, making.
you know, anywhere from a hundred.

Speaker 2 I mean, there's one guy that makes over a million dollars knocking doors. Just commission-based.
Just commission-based. But I would say the majority is, you know, from anywhere from, you know, 100,

Speaker 2 probably 250 grand. That's probably the normal.

Speaker 2 And then you got your rock stars, right? You got your guys that'll make 500,000,

Speaker 2 600,000. But, you know,

Speaker 2 you got your outlier that, you know. 100 to 250 solid for no college degree.
And

Speaker 2 you could start at a pretty young age. Dude,

Speaker 2 what was cool about our company is that

Speaker 2 70% of our staff were in recovery. Wow.
So that was a passion point. It was a passion point.
You saw yourself in them, right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 And 30% of them were felons. Wow.
So you didn't care about criminal record? I didn't.

Speaker 2 I should say

Speaker 2 as long as there wasn't any kind of like, you know,

Speaker 2 predatory right type stuff you know yeah um where where our employees the the most of their criminal background you know maybe some of it was you know assault charges but the majority of it was drug related yeah yeah because back then you could get arrested for weed yeah yeah which is now legal almost everywhere correct yeah so we had guys that went to prison for you know selling a lot of dope and yeah um where now now it's illegal a lot of entrepreneurs started selling weed man yeah a lot i did that was mine i was 15.

Speaker 2 yeah i was 15 when i started

Speaker 2 high school or Carla. No, I did in college.
Pay for my food. Okay.
You're selling dope or weed. Yeah.
Is that what weed is? I don't know the terms these days.

Speaker 2 And I don't, I'm 45.

Speaker 2 It might be called something different. But all right.
So you're, you're, you're selling, you're selling weed in college. I was selling weed when I was 15.

Speaker 2 So would you, would you buy it in the pounds or like, how did you start out? No, I never got to the pound level. Okay.
Yeah. I got to like a QP or HP is the most.
Okay.

Speaker 2 And then I would split that with someone just so I'd be able to smoke for free and then cover my liquor and eating expenses for the week or whatever. Okay.
You know? Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I was in room 420 in my hall. So I don't

Speaker 2 shut up. It was destiny.
What? It was destiny. So I had to.
Come on. If you get room 420 and you're not doing weed.
Yeah, that's a crazy story. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. My mom was a little old school, you know, a little slap in the face sometimes.
Yeah. I think tough love is good, though.
Yeah. It worked on me.

Speaker 2 Because you still need a little bit of respect and fear, you know, if you're going to listen. Well, it's,

Speaker 2 you know, I think that's one thing that's different about today, right? Where society says

Speaker 2 how you can

Speaker 2 correct your children. You know, for me growing up,

Speaker 2 you know, I want to honor, I want to honor my step. My dad, he wasn't in the picture from the age of 14 to 24.
And then he ultimately died when he's 56.

Speaker 2 He's also an an addict and alcoholic um so my my stepdad he really raised me um

Speaker 2 but but we didn't see eye to eye you know uh growing up and he definitely parented me differently than how i parent my children today and and there the reason is because of how was i i was parented um growing up i i'm purposefully

Speaker 2 different in how I discipline my children because of that.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I still believe that, you know, like in the Bible, right,

Speaker 2 not to spare the rod.

Speaker 2 I don't beat my kids,

Speaker 3 but

Speaker 2 I'm still firm with them. Yeah.
You know,

Speaker 2 but not as firm as maybe how children were raised, especially like back in the 1990s. Oh, back in the day, you're getting fist fights with your parents.
Oh,

Speaker 2 well, I don't even know if you're getting fist fight.

Speaker 2 Your dad's power in the 1950s, right? Like,

Speaker 2 you're not talking back. Oh, my dad grew up.
Unless you're grown. No, my dad grew up on a farm and they got worked to death, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but that's how it was.

Speaker 2 These days, you can't. Yeah, you lay a hand, you're getting canceled.
Yeah. You lay a hand on your kids.
Yeah. Yeah.
Times have changed. But like you said, you need the respect needs to be there.

Speaker 2 Correct. Now I see a lot of kids walking over their parents.

Speaker 2 You know, they're just glued to their phones or whatever. They don't even listen to their parents at the dinner table.
Dude, the phones, the iPads, like it's a problem. It is.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I even see it with my kids. You know, today with like my boys, they love Fortnite.

Speaker 2 I'm playing after this, man. Are you really? Yeah.
Are you? But I got a good relationship with it. You know, I'm not addicted.
Yeah, you're also grown. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But I use it more to de-stress, you know, after working a long week. We'll play a little bit on the weekends, me and my fiancé.
So for us, it's a bonding activity. Your fiancé will.
Yeah. Really?

Speaker 2 She's gotten good. Shout out to Arielle, man.
Yeah. She used to be.
And I'll say this to her face, but she used to be trash at the game. Okay.
But she's good now. Yeah, because she school you?

Speaker 2 no no i used to be a big gamer nerd you were a huge gamer nerd okay were you like streaming and all that no this was before streaming this was when parents said to never play video games you'll never make a living out of it and now they're streamers you know yeah but uh i was like top thousand in the world in any game i played oh yeah i was super nerdy with it i would skip school to play video games You know, tell, I want to know more about you.

Speaker 2 So when you went to school, like, what did you go to school for? I tried going for business at Rutgers in Jersey, Jersey, but I couldn't get in because of my GPA. Okay.
So I

Speaker 2 dropped out. Okay.
Yeah. I dropped out after freshman year.
After freshman year. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then and then you went abroad?

Speaker 2 I just, at the time, I was running a business. So I went all in on the business.
What was your business? It was e-commerce. I was selling sports jerseys.
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I would message NBA players off my Instagram page. Yeah.
Send them free jerseys. Some of them would post it and tag me.
And that's how I grew that business. We did a $1.2 million in our peak year.

Speaker 2 Shut up. Yeah.
And I was like 20, 21. Congratulations.
Yeah. So that was my start into entrepreneurship.
That's huge, man. Influencer marketing.
And you still have that today, don't you?

Speaker 2 No, I don't run it anymore. It kind of fizzled out.
It did. Plus, the margins are thin in e-commerce.
Okay.

Speaker 2 But I learned a lot about marketing, influencers, how to build a social media profile, how to grow followers. Okay.
That was a great first business for me.

Speaker 2 Take me from selling the jerseys to

Speaker 2 then starting starting the podcast.

Speaker 2 Yeah. A lot of fails.
Made and lost my money twice, which is crazy. Yeah.
At my age, I've already made and lost it twice. Made a lot in crypto, lost a lot in crypto.

Speaker 2 During the pandemic, I was selling masks, PPE equipment to governments and hospitals. Yeah.
Did $15 million in sales. Shut up.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So that business I learned how to cold email, how to talk to older people because all those people in procurement are like 50s, 60s, 70s,

Speaker 2 how to partner with the right people.

Speaker 2 Each business I learned a lot with different things. So now with the podcast, I just took everything I learned from every single business I've done.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I think that's why it was pretty successful. This is like one of my later businesses.
Is this your main hustle? Yeah, I have events too. Okay.
But this is the main one right now.

Speaker 2 What kind of events do you throw? Networking events. Yeah, I think you got, did you just do one in Austin? Yeah, a few days ago.
You got another one in Miami? Miami during F1, yeah.

Speaker 2 We have the biggest F1 networking events in the country. Wow.
Yeah, no paid ads, all organic, word of mouth.

Speaker 2 So the $15 million company,

Speaker 2 did you just fizzle that out? Did you sell it? It was a seasonal. There's seasonal companies I've done.

Speaker 2 That was one of them because it was just during the pandemic where people were just buying up PPE.

Speaker 2 Then did you take the proceeds from that? You dumped it into

Speaker 2 crypto. Into crypto.
Crypto. Made a lot, lost a lot, and then started the pod shortly after that.

Speaker 2 And how long ago did you start the pod two years two years ago yeah holy first episode was in march two years ago how many followers did you have before you started the pod ah good question i'm not sure it was a lot though because i was already spending a lot on ads okay yeah what's a lot like a million five million probably spent on my instagram page alone probably over a million dollars in in one year overall okay yeah okay

Speaker 3 um

Speaker 2 and i'm sorry so that was that's the the amount of money that you're spending on advertising. But

Speaker 2 how many followers? Like you said, you had a lot, a lot, but what is a lot? It was in the millions. I don't know the exact if it was five or eight or whatever.
Okay.

Speaker 2 But now with the pod, we're just growing like crazy. Yeah.
I mean, you're close to 12 million followers now. Dude, but more impressively is the views.
150 million views a month. A month? Yeah.

Speaker 2 On Instagram alone. Dude, that's sick.
Yeah. Like the followers don't mean as much as the views to me because you could have a ton of followers.
It doesn't really matter. I care more about engagement.

Speaker 2 Yep. So I, I, um,

Speaker 2 you know, I'm brand new to this world.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I noticed when I was doing research, yeah, when I do research on guests, the first thing I do is I go on YouTube and search what podcasts they've been on and I watch them.

Speaker 2 Okay, I can only find you interviewing someone else on your channel. Yeah, so is this your first time as a guest? First time as a guest.
Nice. I'm honored you chose this show.

Speaker 2 Dude, I'm honored to be here, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I was like, damn, I got to find some stuff on this guy. So I watched that one and I went through your Instagram and found what I could.
Okay,

Speaker 2 I'm an open book, um, you know, so whatever questions you got for me, I'm happy to answer them.

Speaker 2 Yeah, um, my heart, though, it's really for you know, the still-suffering addict and alcoholic who's out there, and that's my passion.

Speaker 2 My passion is to really inspire, yeah, truly, because I came from nothing, dude. I came from nothing, and I'm a multimillionaire in all humility, all glory to God.

Speaker 2 Um, but I know that my story is unique, and that

Speaker 2 most people

Speaker 2 don't get to say what I just said when they came from where I came from. Yeah.
American dream, baby. American dream.
You're alive and proving it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I think it's a cool story because it's kind of relatable. A lot of people suffer with addictions, whether it's drugs or whatever.
And to see you come out on top of it.

Speaker 2 And as I tell,

Speaker 2 you know, guys that I sponsor, and then as I used to tell my... my employees,

Speaker 2 there's nothing special about Tony Wells in regards to like, I don't come from a pedigree family. I don't have a college education.
I'm a recovering drug act and alcoholic.

Speaker 2 And yet here I sit. So if I did it, so can you.

Speaker 2 And that's the whole, that's the whole thing. Like, if I did it, so can you.
Yeah. But

Speaker 2 you have to be clear on what, what do you want?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 and, you know, to the haters, they might say like, oh, money isn't everything. No, I agree with you.
Money isn't everything, but it definitely opens up doors and gives you opportunities. Agreed.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 whatever you want, if it's not the million dollars, then what do you want? What is your pursuit of happiness? And go after that.

Speaker 2 You're not a victim. Don't sit in victimhood.
Don't sit in the pity pot like I used to. Kick all that mental garbage out of your head.
And realize that

Speaker 2 when your will is aligned with God's will, like you can have whatever you want.

Speaker 2 You can do whatever you want when there's that alignment because God's favor will be all over you.

Speaker 2 And what I realized is that when I got aligned with him and what that means for me is when I got my finances aligned with him, meaning that I was not just tithing to the church, but I was actually giving on top of the tithing.

Speaker 2 to the church, also giving to other organizations, then God was like, listen, son, like now I can trust you. So I'm going to continue to fund you because I know that I can get that money through you.

Speaker 2 And all the silly stuff that you like, like Tony, like you, you like the cars and you like the watches and you like to sit courtside at the NBA games. Like, you can have that, son.
Like, I don't care.

Speaker 2 Like, that's nothing to me. It's, it's important to you.

Speaker 2 And so you can have it because

Speaker 2 you're being good and faithful.

Speaker 2 And that's, and that's the same message that I give to my kids.

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 2 as long as they're grateful

Speaker 2 and as long as they keep a kind heart and that they love on others, like

Speaker 2 some would say then that they're spoiled, but it's like, I have the means to do it.

Speaker 2 And God has an abundance of means. We as humans are the only ones who actually put a value on the price of a Lamborghini or

Speaker 2 a mansion on the on the ocean in Miami or something like that. We as humans are the only ones that do it.
God's like,

Speaker 2 whether it's a $100 million house or a $200,000 house, it's all the same to me. So for my child, if I can give him a

Speaker 2 thousand dollar bike,

Speaker 2 bicycle, or a hundred dollar bicycle,

Speaker 2 it doesn't matter to me. I love that.
But their heart posture has to be correct. Yeah, I love that, man.
Gratitude is super important to me. Attitude, gratitude, baby.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I still personally text every single person that comes to my events and I thank them for coming. Really? It takes me like so long now because now we're getting thousands of people.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 But my first ever event, I had 20 people.

Speaker 2 20 people showed up and it was kind of embarrassing, honestly. But out of those 20 people, I still talk to like five of them every single day.
Wow. This was like six years ago.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And that community has grown into now 2,000 plus people coming to my event. 2,000 people.
And I personally text every single one and I thank them. I'm just grateful for them.
That's not normal.

Speaker 2 You know that, right? No, I have to, I used to be able to to do it in a day, but now I have to break it up into a week, two hours a day. And everyone's like, why don't you outsource that to AI?

Speaker 2 But I'm like, dude, some things need to be personal.

Speaker 2 You know, when I'm thanking someone, I don't want it to be a copy-paste thank message. It's a real thank you.
Yeah. And they feel it.

Speaker 2 They come up to me at the events and they're like, holy shit, no one's ever done that before. I get invited to so many conferences and no one's ever done that.

Speaker 2 What drives you?

Speaker 2 It's something to do with the podcast and the messaging because I've done a lot of businesses before this, like we talked about, and money was the number one goal in the past But that's no longer how I think and operate.

Speaker 2 How do you think and operate now?

Speaker 2 More about like getting messages across and impacting people inspiring people helping people this podcast just the messages I get from the show.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you wouldn't believe some of these messages like I'm really helping people. It's cool.

Speaker 2 Give me one that really touched your heart

Speaker 2 Where you're like, man, I really am doing a good thing. Dude, I've stopped a couple suicides.
Really? Yeah, there's been a couple of those. There's been a couple, just like

Speaker 2 I like the veteran stuff a lot. I have on a lot of veterans, okay, and just helping those guys get their message because those guys have been through a lot.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And just seeing the comments, it's like really inspiring. Dude, the suicide one, that one touches me.
Is you know, when I was 17, it's the first time I wanted to kill myself.

Speaker 2 Then when I was 23, I wanted to kill myself. And then when I was 27, and

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 people ask me, like, why did you start a podcast? Right. Like,

Speaker 2 basically, you're, you're, you're retired now, Tony. So why, why this? Or, you know, what are you going to do next? I could have done anything.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 believe that now with social media, that if I would have had access to social media when I was 15, I think I could have gotten here a lot sooner

Speaker 2 because I would have been able to watch Sean Kelly,

Speaker 2 whether it's your story or one of your guests.

Speaker 2 And I would have had access to that. And I could have, I believe that God would have put a guest on your show, right?

Speaker 2 I'm just going to use you as an example, would have put a guest on your show and it would have magically

Speaker 2 came into my feed and I would have watched it when I was 15 years old and I would have been inspired. Right.
I would have seen maybe, maybe the Tony Wells at 45 years old and he's sharing his story.

Speaker 2 I'd be like, man, like I relate with that guy. Like, that's my story.

Speaker 2 I came from the Trila Park. Like, I was selling dope.

Speaker 2 And wow, he got through it.

Speaker 2 Right. Yeah.
Or with your story or one of your other guests. And

Speaker 2 I mean, you just said it. You stopped a couple of suicides.
Those were just because they watched it. Yeah, I messed it that message.
So it could be even more, but it hits deep with me too, man.

Speaker 2 Lost my grandfather to it and my father. So yeah, it hits deep.

Speaker 2 I want to end that cycle for sure. Amen.
Yeah. man.
Well, Tony, it's been an honor, man. Can't wait to see you in Minnesota.
Make Corsai out one of the games.

Speaker 1 Dude, you got to come.

Speaker 2 I know. I've never been Corsai before.
What? Yeah, so that's a hard offer to turn down. I'll be there.
Oh, dude. Come on.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Let's do it.

Speaker 2 Yes. See some Ann Edwards in action.

Speaker 1 Oh, dude. I love it.
Yep.

Speaker 2 All right, man. We'll link your stuff below.
Thanks for hopping on.

Speaker 1 Hey, thank you, bro. Yep.
Check them out, guys. Peace.