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

Growing up, I'm purposefully different in how I disciplined my children because of that. But I still believe that, you know, like in the Bible, right? I've spread the rod.
I don't beat my kids, but I'm still firm with them. Yeah.
But not as firm as maybe how children were raised, especially like back in the day. Oh, back in the day, you're getting fistfights with your parents.
All right, guys. From Minneapolis today, Tony Wells.
Thanks for flying in, man. Dude, it's an honor to be here.
Yeah, it's going to be a fun one. 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 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. But ultimately, we came back to Minnesota about 2017.
Nice. You've seen a lot of growth in that city, right? You know, I was saying the rural towns.
So there used to be a lot of, um,

I call it like the, the farm, the farm towns. And now it's all suburbia.

Nice. That's cool.
Yeah. Cause you grew up in trailer park, right? You had some humble beginnings.

Yes, sir. How long were you there your whole life?

No. So I was in a, uh, living trailer park till about fourth grade.
Yeah. So my mom, you know, my mom and dad, they were divorced when I was three years old.
Um, mom was on welfare. my dad lived in a trailer park um and then in fourth grade i moved up

you Yeah. So my mom, you know, my mom and dad, they were divorced when I was three years old.
Mom was on welfare. My dad lived in a trailer park.
And then in fourth grade, I moved up to a city called Champlin with my, with my mom, my stepdad and, you know, got two sisters, you know, from, from them. But yeah, it's the life that I live today is a lot different.
Yeah. 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? I think so. I grew up with no money.
So for me, it was I always wanted to fit in, right? So if the kids were wearing polo designer clothes, like you know i wanted to wear that too. 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, 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, no, selling dope.
Damn. And that's how I was able to be able to get those kind of clothes.
Yeah. My family could.
I used to shoplift a little bit. 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, 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 and they took me in the security room. My mom had to pick me up.
Super embarrassing. I haven't stole since.
So what were you stealing? 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. So I haven't stolen since.
Yeah. So if I was to go there now, would you still be up on that wall of fame? Hopefully not.
You could check. Bridgewater, New Jersey.
But yeah, that was one of my worst habits when I was a kid. Yeah.
The shoplifting, you know, and then I was a drug addict by the time I was 14 years old. Wow.
That's young. Drug addict at 14.
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.
You know, for me it was, 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. So we'd meet up at a friend's house about 630 in the morning.
We start to get drunk. That's so early.
And then, well, what happened was we get is we get into school and, you know, kids would start to pass out.

Yeah.

Right?

And then the teachers would catch on.

So then we had to figure out, well, how can we get high and still function or at least not get kicked out of class?

And that's how weed came into play.

And then back then, I'm 45 years old.

How old are you?

28.

Okay. So I'm 45.

So back then, we had these little wooden dugouts.

And so basically, we would pack weed on one side,

and then you put a little one-y on the other,

and then you'll just take little one-hitters.

Like a one-hitter?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I caught the tail end of that.

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.

So explain to me.

Thank you. I think I caught the tail end of that.
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.

So explain to me.

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.

Okay.

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.

Oh, 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.

So picture a whole water bottle

full of weed vapor.

You would inhale the whole thing.

What about out of apples?

We've done apples, yeah.

Apple bowls.

Okay.

Yeah.

I've done that before.

Yeah.

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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.

I'm not.

You're an introvert?

Yeah.

Okay, so I'm an extrovert. So what it would do for me is it actually like,

I call it stuck.

Like you would shut down.

I'd shut down.

Like I couldn't even like communicate with people.

So I didn't like it.

Thank you. extrovert so what it would do for me is that actually like i call it stuck like 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 um i got into like mushrooms and acid and stuff and and what that did is you know i'd see like all the you know i'll be looking at like wood and it looks like it it's melting and see faces and things like that.
But for me, all drugs, so I'm 18 years sober. I want to say that.
So all drugs for me, they always start out good and then they all go bad. So for the smoke in the pot, it was good because it got me through school, through the the school day but then it started like messing 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 then i got into um you know drinking 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.

I want the shot of tequila

or the whiskey

so I can hurry up

and get to that level.

And then I'm going to have that beer

and then we can just hang out.

Maintain.

But when you're ready to go home,

I'm not.

And that's,

that's the difference.

And so then with like mushroom and acid, like the first couple of trips were, were cool, but then I'd always, I always had bad trips. And like the worst trip I ever had is, and this was like the last one I was, I locked myself in, we were, we were, uh, taking acid in my buddy's basement at his parents' house.
And I locked myself in his bathroom.

And I just remember like laying on the floor,

hugging the toilet and just praying like,

God, just like make this trip like end.

And, you know, so that was it.

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.

So ecstasy, I loved ecstasy because that would make me super loving. 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.
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. Yeah.
So I stopped doing the ecstasy, or as the kids say, no, Molly. And then I got into cocaine.
And when I got into cocaine, that gave me the confidence. I'm in high school still.
So that gave me the confidence to talk to girls. 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 cocaine, I would just go like this.
You would black out. Right.
Yeah. And, but when you do the cocaine, like you can continue to drink all night.
But eventually I became like a violent cocaine user. Were you an angry drunk? Are you going to fight lot? Yeah.
Yeah. I had a friend like that.
I hated going out with him. Oh my God.
And I was a little punk. Yeah.
I mean, I was little, but I always had like the older friends or the bigger friends. And so I would start the fights, but they would finish them for me.
Got it. But I can only imagine being that friend, right? Like, that would suck to have a friend like that.
Yeah. Especially these days with social media, because 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.
That's what I tell my kids. Like, I got two teenage daughters and two younger boys, and I tell them girls, like, whatever you do now, if it's on video like it's there forever 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 crazy or not okay but those two uh specifically shrooms changed my life for the better i'd say okay you still take shrooms i microdose you microdose i don't do full trips anymore yep i think i'd have a terrible trip if i did to be honest yeah but uh microdosing is a game changer okay so tell me 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 so i was making decent money like six figures as a high schooler yeah you know or college first year of college heck yeah um 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 because 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 like you know even for my wife like she could have a glass of wine a night half a glass of wine like she's good i need the whole bottle and you, like, and I have friends that can still smoke pot today

and they're functioning and they're successful,

but it just affects my brain different.

There's just this chemical imbalance.

Would you say it's like an addictive personality maybe?

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

I think I have that too,

but I can channel it if that makes sense.

Okay.

All right.

Tell me more about the microdosing.

Well, it's like,

I don't like pharmaceutical drugs. Okay.
So like, instead of taking an Adderall or a Vivans, I'd rather just microdose a mushroom. Mm-hmm.
Get the same effect, if not better. No after effects, no burnout.
So you're just locked in. So the microdosing, is it like drinking a tea? Yeah.
Just like a stimulant. Gets your brain flowing.
Like, I don't know anything about that world anymore. Yeah.
So you take one-tenth of your dose. So say you eat an eighth of shrooms.
Yeah. 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.

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 shroom?

Is it 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 shit, dude.

I've thrown up from eating shrooms before.

Because they grow on cow shit.

Yeah.

So 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 microdosing.

Yeah.

Psychedelics.

Some people are all natural.

Mine's definitely coffee.

And then 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? Yeah.
Yeah. Those do help with focus though.
They do. Just for me, I've never done nicotine before, so I didn't have a tolerance.
Yeah. Stay away from it.
Yeah. Oh yeah.
It's addictive. Anything to give me an edge, man.
All right. So for you, like you're in Amsterdam, what age are you in Amsterdam? I was was 19, I believe.
Yeah, freshman year of college. Okay.
Yeah. You're 28 now? 28, almost 10 years.
High school reunion is this year, which is crazy. You going to go? I might.
You might? I might go. Okay.
Going back and forth. Might be a coin flip.
Okay. Did you go to yours? I think I went to the 10 year and that was it.
That must've 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, so 10, I would've been what, around 27?

Yeah.

I mean, 27, that's like the year I got sober.

Okay.

Yeah.

But you didn't start a business yet, really?

No, no, no, no.

I wasn't at 27. No, I'm newly married um newly sober and and actually 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.

More on the material side. So my first year sobriety, we had,

we had our house that we were living in.

Then we also had two investment properties and we lost all three to

foreclosure.

Oh, cause this was the OA crash, right?

This would have been, yeah, I guess right, right around there. Yeah.
The real estate market tanked. Um, yeah, right around there.
Yeah. And so we, we lost, we lost everything to the point where like, you know, I had, uh, 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 my character was shit and so god was like listen son like and i was ungrateful you know 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 but I'm just like God like when I was homeless I wanted to kill myself and and now that I have everything that I ever wanted I'm I still want to kill myself so like what's the whole point of like this thing that that's called life wow 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. 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.
I had to go to the pawn shop and sell the Rolex just so I make one mortgage payment. Then I had to drive that fancy Land Rover that I was so proud of to the food shelf.
And, and they had to load the groceries in 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.
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.
And look at all the stuff that I've accumulated because of how great I am. But God wanted to be like, son, everything that you have, including your abilities, is the gifts that I've blessed you with.
And so when he took that stuff away, I had to quickly learn how to depend on him versus on my own abilities. And then he started to bless me, right? And it started with people.
So he put first a sponsor in my life. And then also, you know, I obviously have my wife, you know, so I put a sponsor in my life and and then also you know obviously have my wife um you know so i put a sponsor in my life and so i i went into aa and and my sponsor was like listen like if you want to work with me like you've got to do exactly what i tell you and so he said we're gonna meet once a week and we're gonna go through the big book i'm gonna take you through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
You're also going to go to a minimum of three meetings a week. And you're also going to do service work.
And so in that service work, I'd go to a local, not a food shelf, but 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. 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. Like, I actually still have a wife that loves me.

I still have people in my life that want to be around me and I might be on the verge of losing my, my houses, but I still have a way to have shelter. Right.
And so I started to get this attitude of gratitude. And, 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 before, I grew up in a religious household, but I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. 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, religion and God to me were the same thing. 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 and the pastor's like hey like i don't care if you've ever been in prison you're a prostitute you're a drug addict like you're welcome here and that was the first time i ever heard that from the pulpit so i was like you know what like i'll continue to come back because i felt like he was talking right to me, 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. When did the business start from there? Was it shortly after that you started going to church? Yeah.
the the 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 so i made my first like 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,

the gentleman that was my sponsor now, 18 years ago, he started a roofing company and he said, he, he called me one day and he's like, Hey, uh, you know, I was, I was, uh, meditating and, and, and God told me to call you and ask be a partner in my company and at that same time my wife and i and our four kids were living out in newport beach california and i was on my knees and and i was praying and i said you know because my wife and my oldest daughter wanted to move back to minnesota i wanted to stay in cali because i came from a trailer park. So I was living my dream.
We were, we were, we were broke, but I was still living my dream. And that was to be out on the beach.
And 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. 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, and all is going to be well.
But if, if it, that is your will, just let me know. And that same day I got that call and the call was, I was meditating and God told me to ask you to be a partner of my company.
So I told Courtney that. And then Courtney was like, all right, when do we move? Wow.
I love that. So we moved back to Minnesota.
And at the time, the company is doing like 1.5 million in revenue. Had about eight sales reps, including my partner.
This is a roofing company? Yep. And the deal was that I had a double day in revenue of the company that very first year.
And so I had to go out and sell myself. 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 the door in my life.
But we moved back and we moved back with a 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.
So, and then we had other sales reps. And so we did $3 million.
We did it. So then I made partner.
And then, and then like the next year we did like 6 million. Then I think like 9 million and like 14 million and like 20 million.
And then eventually we hit 35 million. And then we sold that company to, to a private equity group.
Wow. A couple years ago.
Well done, dude. 35 million going door to door.
Yeah. That's the grind right there.
Yeah. Dude, that's incredible.
So you had to get good at sales. 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.

Um,

you know,

you've got,

you've got three different phases or stages of sales,

right?

Or levels you got where they,

let's say you work at Best Buy,

right?

Or a Verizon,

you know,

wireless cell phone store.

You got customers coming into you.

They're there for your product.

Right.

That's one sale. Then the next sale is telemarketing.
So you got a cold call. With a cold call though, if they tell you to F off, like you can hang up and just dial the next number.
But when you door knock, the homeowner could tell you to F off, slam the door in your face. And now you got to do the walk of shame.
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 slam the door in your face and you don't know if they just called their neighbor, right? To give them a heads up that 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 looked at it as a numbers game where I'd actually thank them.
So I'd be like, you know what? In my head, I'd be like, hey, thank you. I'm just one more no closer to a yes.
And that's what worked for me. What was the ratio out of like 100 houses? What percent did you close?

I would just say like 10%. Okay.

Right?

So you're not going to...

That's actually higher than I thought.

You're not going to 100 doors.

Well, I'll break it down like this.

If you knock on 100 doors, not everybody's going to be home.

Not everybody's going to answer.

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.

Okay.

So one out of 100. One out of 100.
Okay, so one person. Doors that you knock.
But it was strictly just a numbers game. So I didn't even care about how good my pitch was.
I just looked at it as a numbers game. I'm going to get that one person who probably just says yes to everybody when it comes to being sold and if you and if you just grind and 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 uh i mean there's one guy that makes over a million dollars knocking doors this commission based this commission base but i would say the majority is you know from anywhere from you know 100 uh probably 250 grand that's probably the normal um and then then you got your rock stars right you got your guys that'll make 500 000 um 600 000 but you know yeah you got your outlier that you know 100 to 250 solid for no for no college degree.
And, you know. Yeah.
You could start at a pretty young age. Dude, what was cool about our company is that 70% of our staff were in recovery.
Wow. So that was a passion point for you.
It was a passion point. You saw yourself in them, right? Yeah.
And 30% of them were felons.

Wow.

But you didn't care about criminal record?

I didn't. The, I should say, as long as there wasn't any kind of like, you know, predatory.
Right, right. That stuff, you know? Yeah.
where our employees,

most of their criminal background,

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 where now it's illegal. A lot of entrepreneurs started selling weed, man.
Yeah. A lot.
I did. That was mine.
I was 15. Yeah.
I was 15 when I started selling dope. Yeah.
High school or car. 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. And I don't, I'm 45.
It might be called something different, but all right you're selling you're selling weed in college I was selling weed when I was 15 so would you would you buy it in the pounds or like how'd you start out no I never got to the pounds level okay yeah I got to like a QP or HP's the most okay 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. And I was in room 420 in my hall.
Shut up. Yeah.
Shut up. Yeah.
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.
That's a crazy story. Yeah.
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.
Because you still need a little bit of respect and fear, you know, you're going to listen. Well, it's, you know, I think that's one thing that's different about today, right? Where society says how you your, your children.
You know, for me growing up, um, you know, I want to honor, um, I want to honor my step, my, my dad, he wasn't in the picture from the age of 14 to 24. And then he ultimately died when he's 56.
He was, he's also an addict and alcoholic. Um, so my, my stepdad, he really raised me.
Um, 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 the reason is because of how I was, I was parented, um, growing up, I, I'm purposefully different in how I disciplined my children because of that.
Um, but I still believe that, you know, like in the Bible, right? I, I had to spare the rod. Um, I don't, I don't beat my kids.
Um, but I'm still firm with them. Yeah.
You know? Um, but, but not as firm as maybe how children were raised, especially like back in the 1950s. Oh, back in the day, you're getting fistfights with your parents.
Oh. Well, I don't even know if you're getting fistfights.
Like, your dad's pounding out in the 1950s, right? Like, you ain't talking. 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 works to death, man. Yeah.
Yeah, but that's how it was. Yep.
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.
Correct. Now I see a lot of kids walking over their parents.
Yep. 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.
I even see it with my kids, you know, today with like my boys, they love Fortnite. 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.
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 fiance. So for us, it's a bonding activity.
Your fiance will. Yeah.
But I use it more to de-stress. After working a long week, we'll play a little bit on the weekends.
Me and my fiance. So for us, it's a bonding activity.
Your fiance will? Yeah. Really? She's gotten good.
Shout out to Ariel, man. 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's school you? No. I used to be a big gamer nerd.
You were? 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 I was like top thousand in the world in any game I played. Yeah, I was super nerdy with it.
I would skip school to play video games. You know, tell me more about you.
So when you went to school, like, what did you go to school for? I tried going for business at Rutgers in Jersey, but I couldn't get in because of my GPA. Okay.
So, I dropped out. Okay.
Yeah. I dropped out after freshman year.
After freshman year. Yeah.
And then, and then you went abroad? I just, at the time, 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.

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.

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 had that today, don't you? No, I don't run it anymore.
Kind of fizzled out. It did.
Plus the margins are thin in e-commerce. Okay.
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. Take, take me from, take me from selling the jerseys to, to then starting the digital social.
Yeah. A lot of fails.
Made and lost my money twice. Okay.
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.
During the pandemic, I was selling masks, PPE equipment to governments and hospitals. Yeah.
Did $15 million in sales. Shut up.
Yeah. 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.
How to partner with the right people. Yeah.
Each business, I learned a lot with different things. But now with the podcast, I just took everything I learned

from every single business I've done.

Yeah.

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.

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.
We have the biggest F1 networking events in the country. Wow.
Yeah. No paid ads, all organic word of mouth.
So the $15 million company, um, did you just fizzle that out and just sell it? It was a seasonal, there's seasonal companies I've done. That was one of them because it was just in the pandemic.
Okay. Where people were just buying out PPE.
Then did you take the proceeds from that? You dumped it into podcast? Dumped it into crypto. Into crypto.
Into crypto. Made a lot, lost a lot, and then started the pod shortly after that.
And how long ago did you start the pod? Two years. Two years ago? Yeah.
Holy smokes. First episode was in March, two years ago.
How many followers did you have before you started the pod? Good question. I'm not sure.
It was a lot though. I was already spending a lot on ads.
Okay. Yeah.
What's a lot? Like a million, five million? I probably spent on my Instagram page alone, probably over a million dollars. In one year? Overall.
Okay. Yeah.
Okay. And I so that was that's the the amount of money that you're spending on advertising but how many 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 but now with the pod we're just growing like crazy yeah i mean you're close to 12 million followers, but more impressively is the views.
150 million views a month. A month? Yeah.
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.
Yep. So.
I, you know, I'm brand new to this world. 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. 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.
Dude, I'm honored to be here, man. 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.

I'm an open book.

You know, so whatever questions you got for me,

I'm happy to answer them.

Yeah.

My heart, though,

is really for, you know,

the still suffering addict and alcoholic

who's out there.

And that's my passion. 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. But I know that my story is unique in that most people 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 proven.

Yeah.

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. And as I tell guys that I sponsor, and then as I used to tell my employees, 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.
And yet here I sit. So if I did it, so can you.
And that's the whole thing. Like, if I did it, so can you.
But you have to be clear on what do you want. Yeah.
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.
want if it's not the million dollars then what do you want what is your pursuit of happiness and and go after that 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 when your will is aligned with God's will,

like you can have whatever you want.

You can do whatever you want when there's that alignment

because God's favor will be all over you.

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

to the church, also giving to other organizations.

Then God was like, listen, son, now I can trust you.

So I'm gonna continue to fund you

because I know that I can get that money through you.

And all the silly stuff that you like, like Tony, 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. Like that's nothing to me.
It's, it's important to you. And so you can have it because you're being good and faithful

and that's

the same message that I give to my kids

like

as long as they're grateful

and as long as they

keep a kind

heart and that they love on others

like

some would say

that they're spoiled but it's like i have the means to do it 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 a you know a mansion on the on the ocean in miami or something like that we as humans are the only ones to. God's like, whether it's a hundred million dollar house or a $200,000 house, it's all same to me.
Yeah. So for my child, if I can give him a thousand dollar bike, bicycle, or a hundred dollar bicycle, 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. Add to gratitude, baby.
Yeah. So I still personally text every single person that comes to my events and I thank them for coming.
Really? Takes me like so long now because now we're getting thousands of people. Yeah.
But my first ever event I had 20 people. 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. And that community's grown into now 2,000 plus people come to my events.
2,000 people. And I personally text every single one and I thank them.
I'm just grateful for them. That's not normal.
You know that, right? No, I have to, I used to be able to do it in a day, but now I have to break it up into a week, two hours a day. Yeah.
And everyone's't you outsource that to AI but I'm like dude some things need to be personal you know when I'm thanking someone I don't want it to be a copy paste thank message like it's a real thank you yeah and they feel it 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 what what drives you 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. How do you think and operate now? More about like getting messages across and impacting people, inspiring people, helping people.
This podcast, just the messages I get from the show. You wouldn't wouldn't believe some of these messages.
Like, I'm really helping people. It's cool.
Give me, give me, give me one that really touched your heart. Where you're like, man, I really am doing a good thing here.
Dude, I've stopped a couple suicides. Really? Yeah, there's been a couple of those.
There's been a couple, just like, I like the veteran veteran stuff a lot I have on a lot of veterans

and just helping those guys get their message

because those guys have been through a lot

and just seeing the comments

it's like really inspiring

the suicide one that one touches me

is you know when I was 17

is the first time I wanted to kill myself

then when I was 23 I wanted to kill myself

and then when I was 27

and

you know

Thank you. three I wanted to kill myself and then when I was 27 and um you know people ask me like why did you start a podcast right like basically you're you're you're retired now Tony so why why this or you know what do you what do you do next you could have.
Yeah. And I 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.
Because I would have been able to watch Sean Kelly, whether it's your story or one of your guests. Yeah.
And I would have have access to that. And I could have, I believe that God would have put a guest on your show, right? I'm just going to use you as an example.
Would have put a guest on your show and it would have magically 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. And I'd be like, man, like I relate with that guy.
Like, that's my story. I, I, I came from the tree of the park.
Like I was selling dope and while he got through it. Right.
Yeah. Or with your story or one of your other guests.
And, and I mean, you just said it, you stopped a couple of suicides. Those were just, because they watched it.
Yeah, I've messaged that a message, so it could be even more, but it's deep with me too, man. Lost my grandfather to it and my father, so yeah, it's deep.
Yeah. I want to end that cycle for sure.
Man. Yeah.
Man. Well, Tony, it's been an honor, man.
Can't wait to see you in Minnesota. Maybe Corsight at one of the games.

Dude, you got to come.

I know.

I've never been Corsight before.

What?

Yeah.

So that's a hard offer to turn down.

I'll be there.

Oh, dude.

Come on.

Yeah.

Let's do it.

Yes.

See some Ann Edwards in action.

Oh, dude.

I love it.

Yep.

All right, man.

We'll link your stuff below.

Thanks for hopping on.

Hey, thank you, bro.

Yep.

Check them out, guys.

Peace.