Tragic Career Ending Injury to 7 Figure Entrepreneur ft. Trey Toner

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What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex.
And today we're going to be talking to one of the youngest sales entrepreneurs in the online space. He goes by the name of Trey Toner.
Trey, if you guys didn't know, was a Division I football player out of Texas. Yes, for all my football fans, you guys are going to love this story.
But also, it's so inspirational, guys, because he took a critical incident of breaking his back to going ahead and going full-time as an entrepreneur that he's been able to help companies grow to multiple figures, generating a total of $70 million in revenue. Trey, how you doing, my man? I'm doing great, man.
It's hard to have a bad day in Miami. Yeah, dude, dude.
So how long have you been in Miami now? Just over a week now. Over a week? Just over a week, yeah.
How are you liking it, bro? Look, I came from San Diego, so I was thinking it was going to be like a little similar vibe. Everyone's like, hey, you got to learn Spanish when you come to Miami.
I'm like, dude, I'm coming from San Diego. I'm going to be good.
It's a completely different world out here. Everything's bigger.
Everything's better. Everything's moving faster, too.
Dude, I always tell people like Miami is like the United States, but it's also little South America. With the amount of mopeds and stuff going around, I'm just like, I feel like I'm in like Cuba or something.
No, absolutely, dude. So, brother, you know, the Love All podcast, we always like to inspire entrepreneurs.
We don't fluff it here. Every guest I know personally, I've known you for the past almost four years now, since I went down in San Diego back in 2021.
So with that being said, dude, you're 22. You're in Miami.
You're now working with a brand new eight-figure company. And you're looking to, you know, basically rock it, dude.
So tell us a little bit about yourself for the person that does not know you listening to this podcast for the first time. Tell us a little bit about your background.
Yeah, so originally I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota. so if you don't know, winter happens up there.
It's a really cold, cold city. A beautiful city, but there's not a lot of foot traffic, especially for athletes, because that's what I was aspiring to be.
I was kind of groomed for the first 16 to 17 years of my life to be an athlete. Luckily enough, I was blessed to be able to be born 6'5 and decently athletic, so I got the opportunity to go play Division I football down in Texas.
So if you're not a football fan, Texas is like the hub. That's like where you want to go.
That's where if you're playing football, it's like you're on a different echelon of like humans almost. It's like gladiators is the best way to put it.
So I went ahead, graduated high school early. I'm young.
I'm an 0-2 baby. So my senior year of high school is when the pandemic broke out.
Oh, snap. Yep.
That's crazy, bro. Yeah.
So when the pandemic broke out, so everything got canceled. School went remote.
So I was able to do all my high school work online. So I was able to go down to Texas early because graduation was canceled.
Couldn't walk, all that stuff because the world got put on pause. Yeah.
So I went down there, was living the ideal dream, right? It's something where now I was able to get a full scholarship. I was able to actually get paid through stipend checks for being an athlete, which is, I mean, every boy's dream.
If you're playing a sport, you want to get paid for it, right? So that's what I was living. That was my life.
And get down there, and nothing too alarming. I had a shoulder surgery right away.
So I went ahead, and they said I actually had a fractured humerus, and my labrum was torn for over two years. So I thought I just had a weird shoulder.
I'm like, hey, bruise maybe. Turns out it was broken.
So I was just like, cool, let's fix that. So I went ahead, had that surgery, and for the first time in my life, it put me in a position where I had a little bit of money set aside because I never grew up with a bunch of money, always had a job.
I had my first job when I was 13 years old. I know that sounds crazy, but my first real job was when I was 13 years old.
I went ahead and I was playing for Little League, and I was able to work the concession stand on days I didn't have a game. Oh, that's badass, dude.
Yeah. So I had a little bit of cash flow.
But I got put in a position where I had like my first little identity crisis because I've always had an able body, always had an identity and aligned as being an athlete. And then when you're injured and it's something past like a bruise, you know, you're in a sling, you had a real surgery, you're sitting there for a second.
It's like, am i ever going to be able to do this again so i started kind of planning for for what life could look like and i did what most people do i i looked to the online space this is this is when you know the gold rush started for a lot of internet entrepreneurs i looked into some drop shipping courses i looked into a walmart store automation every everything e-commerce you can think of i've looked looked into. And nothing worked for me at that time, but that's kind of when I started looking around, healed from my shoulder, went ahead, played my freshman season.
And right before playoffs, my freshman season, we were a nationally ranked team. We were doing pretty well.
I actually broke my back in two places in college. I broke my back in two places during practice.
So tell us about it, man. day that you broke your back tell us like just paint the picture here like how did it happen yeah it was it was it was a normal Tuesday right when I had started my day was it was at practice and for those of you don't know when you're in the middle of the season practice is scaling back there's less contact it's more about staying healthy keeping your body fresh legs fresh.
So we're just doing drills. This isn't even a contact injury.
It's not even live, not even during a play. I was the defensive end, so there's a pad called the dick pad.
And it's a big cylindrical pad. And you're going ahead, you hit it, and you do your hand moves on it.
I hit it, went to lift it, and just freak. As I moved my L3 and my L4 hit each other.
And I literally felt like a little shotgun blast went off in my back. And then next thing I know, I'm just laying on the ground.
Wow. And I'm sitting there, I feel something pinched.
I'm just like, that's not good. Like there's a problem.
I'm just lucky to be in the position where I met where I was was still young and able-bodied, right? If that was to happen to me later down in life, it would be a lot worse than it was. Uh, but through, through an operation and then through a lot of physical therapy, I'm able to get up and be moving around again.
And that was your first year in division one football. Yep.
My freshman season. Yeah.
My true freshman season. So dude, at that time, did you have aspirations to go to like the to like the NFL absolutely that was the whole point that's what I was bred to be that was my identity not only as a as a student or as you know 18 year old but also as a grown man that's everything I ever aspired to be because not only was I in love with the game but I viewed it as an entrepreneur and I understand that more now yeah that I've been able to grow up a little bit and kind of expand my business.
But I had an entrepreneurial mindset about football and why I want to do the best. I was never the most gifted physically.
I was never the biggest, the strongest or the fastest, but I took a technician's approach. So I would sit and I would do more film review than anybody else.
I would have better technique than anybody else. And those skill sets are something that can really transfer into being an entrepreneur because you don't have to be born great.

I don't think that's a thing.

I think people are born into opportunities that can make them great.

But every single person has a decision what they want to do.

So I was taking that craft of football that seriously to where it was my life.

So when my back broke, I felt like my life was over.

Wow.

Yeah.

I love that.

Well, actually, no, to go back.

Emilio, make sure you cut that off. I love that.
Um, well, actually no, to go back, Emilio, make sure you cut that off. Yeah, I know.
So, uh, love that for you. Yeah.
I was like, damn it. Okay.
Yeah. That's, that's, that's pretty hard, man.
So let me ask you, um, I know you're pretty close with your mom. Yep.
Um, what, what was your mom thinking at that time? You know, the number one concern comes to probably is my kid okay, right? Yeah. And it was a, it was an interesting phone call for me to have to make, you know.
I've had injuries before, knee injuries, stuff like that, and I call them boo-boos. For me, if you're not loaded up in an ambulance, it's a boo-boo.
Yeah. Like, stop being a little bitch.
Like, get off the field. Because you know the guys, they're just like, I broke my finger.
Who gives a fuck? Tape it. Okay.
That's a part of the fucking game. It's football.
Spine, two places, a little different. So I didn't really tell her right away.
So I went ahead and made sure everything was okay. You wanted to make sure that you were out-out.
Like it was for sure things. You didn't have to worry her.
Exactly. Then the concern came because she's a mother at the end of the day.
She's always been concerned about concussions. She's always been concerned about lifelong injuries that can happen because she always supports anything I do.
My mom's the mom who's always been like, hey, if you want to be a football player, I'll support you. You want to be a ballerina, I'll even support you doing that.
Like, I'm going to support you with whatever you want to do. And that's the best type of mom you can ever ask for.
Absolutely. But no, it was heartbreaking when, you know, she saw me work my ass off to get to where I am because I had made a lot of sacrifices.
I wasn't out partying. I wasn't doing a bunch of crazy stuff.
I was literally my routine in high school was I would get to high school before anyone else. I would lift in the morning.
I would go through class throughout the day. I would leave school two hours early to drive to a different gym called Game Face Training.
Shout out to you guys, DaVentry. And I would do specialized football training for about two to three hours every single day, working with guys who are in the NFL.
And my trainers at the time were people who were prepping people for the combine. And if you're in Minneapolis and you want to get better, dude, go check out Game Face.
But she saw me do all those things. And then I would work a night shift at a fast food restaurant, just like most high schoolers do.
But I was always closing because that was my only availability. So I'm talking, I'd be out of my job at around midnight, have a 30 minute drive home, get home 1230, one o'clock, rinse, repeat, get up, leave the house at roughly five to go lift again.
And that was my entire high school career. You got to think most high schoolers are smoking weed, taking weekends off, just chilling.
I'm like on a grind trying to go get somewhere. And then my first year where it's finally paying off, something out of my control happens.
So her main thing was making sure, one, are you physically okay? But two, what's your plan next? Because she comes from a very traditional aspect of like viewing the American dream where it's just like, cool, you go to high school, you get good grades, you go to college, you get good grades, you get your degree, then you maybe get another degree, maybe you get your master's degree, and then you start your career. And you start your career six figures plus in debt debt But that's just how it works.
That's what she did. She was a teacher, right and The kicker was when I told her in the same conversation.
Hey, I broke my back and I'm dropping out of college Yeah, that was not only one shot of oh my god. That's two shots of She went from feeling bad to me or bad for me to now be mad at me.
Right. All in one conversation.
I mean, I don't know one parent that wouldn't be mad. You got a college ride, dude, and I'm pretty sure they still will cover the scholarship.
It was covered, yeah. Yeah, even though you got injured to at least get your degree, right? It was free, completely free from a great school.
So let me ask you, dude, what was your plan? You're 18 years old. You broke your back.
Now your dreams of being in the NFL are gone for that moment. And you told your mom, what's next? What happens next? Yeah.
So I had a little bit of an internet side hustle going on, right? So after my shoulder surgery, I had time, right? So I started doing this little organic outreach, sending leads to sales teams. And I was cash flowing a little bit doing that, but I had proof of concept.
And when I say like a little bit of cash flow, I'm talking for two months of work. My first two months in sales, I only made 200 bucks.
But for me, I was ecstatic. Most people, if they work two months and only make $200, they're pissed off.
But for me, I'm just like, holy shit, it works. I have an opportunity to do something that's not physical.
I don't physically have to show up anywhere. I don't have to physically put myself in harm's way.
I can actually use my brain and my words and articulate myself to receive income. Well, cool.
Let me just go all in on that. Because I know I didn't go down to college to listen to a professor who's making $40,000 to $60,000 a year teach me how to become successful in life when they're driving a Camry.
It just doesn't make much sense. So I went ahead and I dove all the way in that.
And I went balls to the wall my first month after dropping out of college, I made $3,500. For me at 18 with a broken back in bed, not being able to get up and live life, $3,500.
I was like, holy the code I'm rich I was convinced no for sure 18 year old make 3,500 bucks off internet money that's like unbelievable that's almost like hitting the lottery let me ask you so you were doing cold outreach and it's because we get a lot of people that view and listen to this podcast on Spotify, Apple, and then YouTube that, you know, they're coming into entrepreneurship like newbies. Yeah.
So it's just like when you do cold outreach, what does that mean? Yeah. So basically what I was doing, the term is I was an affiliate.
Okay. So I wasn't employed with a business.
But I would find businesses who have online offers, whether they're personal training, coaching, consulting, whatever the case may be, and I would be the guinea pig. So what I would do is I would spend what little money I had to join these paid Facebook groups, people who are looking for side hustles, people who are looking to get in shape, gym owners who want to scale their gym offers, and I would go ahead and DM them, hop on a phone call with them, and refer them to businesses that I was associated with, just passing leads to their sales team.
Because I couldn't get a sales job, because who's going to hire an 18-year-old with a broken back with no experience? So that was my way to get my foot in the door. And for what most people don't understand, is for me to make $3,500 a month doing that, I had three Facebook accounts.
I would send over 150 DMs a day per account until my account got flagged. I would do that seven days a week.
Out of that, I would get maybe a 10% response rate, and I was still able to convert enough leads to put food on my table. So when you're looking to start your journey as an entrepreneur, it's not going to be glamorous right away for the majority of people.
Because at the time, this is still when the internet gold rush just just started there weren't people necessarily crushing it how they are today it was everyone's trying to figure it out as they go the pandemic changed everyone's life changed every business owner's life and people were trying to fit in the gaps and find the riches in the niches and I was able to kind of weasel my way in there that's awesome dude and then like where did you initially learn this skill set or at least this method? Like, did you buy programs, books, courses, a mentor? Like, what was the humble beginnings for you? Yeah. So the humble beginning for me was me being 18 years old.
And I was like, okay, I need to make money somehow. Well, I've always heard scared money doesn't make money.
I'm like, cool. got it.
I had roughly five grand in my bank account, which was from playing football.

So I'm like, dude, I'm loaded right now.

Cool, I'm good.

And luckily enough, I was able to leverage credit.

Back in the pandemic days, if you could speak English and you had a social security number,

you're getting something funded for you.

It's just that simple.

It's like, here's 10 grand, son.

So I went over $65,000 in credit card and loan debt. So I purchased every program I could buy.
Looking back at it, you know, it was a learning experience for me because I didn't have success with the actual programs. What I had success with was right before I was about to renew on another Amazon FBA offer, I was about to drop another $10,000 on credit, which is money I didn't have because at this point, I was probably down to $1,000

in my actual bank account.

I asked the guy who was about to close me,

the closer on that side, I'm like, so cool, how much money

do you make if I do this?

And you know when you kind of catch somebody, when

they're trying to be a little slick, and they're just like, um,

and do a little look around?

I was like, aha, I found

something. So how much do you make? And he's like, well, you around, I was like, aha, I found something.

So how much do you make?

And he's like, well, you know, it fluctuates.

Make anywhere between like 10% to 15%. And for me, I was just like, well, how do I do that?

Like, I don't want me to do that.

Like, I can talk to people.

I can do this.

I've always been kind of good with my words.

Let me do that.

And that's what propelled me to being like, cool, I can just distribute leads to these businesses. And then a door opened up where I actually started being a closer.
Well, I actually started as an appointment center and I worked my way up to a closer selling online fit pros, right? So before we move on on that, Trey, what is an appointment center? Yeah. So an appointment center is someone who's going to continuously make phone calls.
So as someone opts in, so what opt-in means is they're going to go ahead and see the funnel. Another word for funnel is like the website or the piece of content that catches their eye.
When you click it and you put your name, your phone number and email in to submit your information to get the free thing that you're looking at. What happens is that triggers an appointment setter.
They see Jimmy Jr. just opted in for the free webinar, or it could be a free course, or to join a Facebook group.
That triggers an automation to where an appointment setter is going to get a text message of, hey, call this guy. So I would literally just be calling people who were inquiring or showing any sort of interest in the program I was representing at that time.
And I was making anywhere between 250 to 300 phone calls a day. Wow.
Wow. That's, that's, that's insane, man.
So, so let me ask you this out of all those programs that you invest into, I mean, you invested, you said around $65,000, uh, which, you know, I'm not going to say that's common.

People go ahead and they invest $5,000 and then they give up. They invest $5,000 to like a niche or a program to learn either real estate or, you know, Amazon or, you know, Forex or ATMs or, you know, credit card processing.
And then if they get one roadblock, that's it. They give up.
So let me ask you, out of all those programs, mentorships, and everything that you've invested in, would you recommend any of those to our listeners or viewers right now? Put it this way, the thing that I would recommend everyone to do, no matter what journey you want to take as an entrepreneur, no matter what niche you want to get into, no matter literally anything it is, the number one skill set that you're going to need is sales. You're going to need to sell.
It doesn't matter if you have the best product in the world. It doesn't matter if you can literally, if you have the cure to cancer in your hand, it doesn't matter if you can't sell it, if you can't market it, if you can't push it.
So if you want to get into something, stop looking for a shortcut. Stop looking for the easy way out.
Learn to communicate at a high level and learn a sales process. So if you're going to start somewhere, that would be the first thing I would do.
And then from there, you can start building skills. People get so caught up with their business too, especially if you start a new business.
They're just like, my marketing needs to be perfect. I need my backend support.
No, you don't fucking need any of that shit. What you need is a phone and your words and go call somebody.
Everyone just, the majority of people fail and the majority of businesses fail just due to lack of action. They're going to sit there on their ass and they're just going to hope something happens and they're going to do all these cool things, automation this, trigger that, and you're broke.
And you're still broke and you're spending money on shit you shouldn't be. Your phone bill, you're already paying that.
Just use it. Yeah.
No, absolutely. I mean, sales solves everything, man.
You need that client acquisition tough, right? Start making the cash flow and then the cash flow, you could feed a sales team. You start building your sales team and then that goes into fulfillment.
And those are the three big needle movers I always say you need, man, is client acquisition, sales, and then fulfillment. That's it.
Simple, right? Yeah. So around this time, okay, you made 3,500 bucks.
What year is it? Is this still, you're still 18 or? This, yep, I'm 18. So this is 21.
Okay, so 2021 towards the end of the pandemic. Okay, so you make the $3,500.
Now what happens next? Yep. So the $3,500 for me was, again, just the proof of concept.
Now it's like, cool, I can actually do this. And I just go balls to the wall.
I take that same technique that took me from being a decent athlete to being a Division I athlete, which is just outworking everybody, having no sympathy for anybody, working more hours than everybody, taking a technician's approach. So I did that, and then my $3,500 check rapidly turned into an $8,000 check.
And then my $8,000 check turned into an $8,000 biweekly check. So now I'm making $16,000 a month.
And it snowballed to the point where I was consistently making anywhere between $45,000 to $65,000 a month in just commissions. That wasn't me being a business owner.
That wasn't me being a manager. That was me closing fucking deals, making $45,000 to $60,000 a month.
Then I went ahead and actually made a transition a lot of people want to be successful, right? Have you ever heard the term where everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die? Yes They don't want to give shit up. Mm-hmm I made the transition by myself as an 18 year old man Packed up my car and moved to San Diego for an opportunity Within six months of me landing in that opportunity, I was still 18 years old.

As I turned 19, I took control of an eight-figure Inc. 5000 company

as an executive.

Only reason I was able to do that is sales.

If I was not able to sell them to give me the keys to the business,

it would have never happened.

If I wasn't able to sell them on me adding value or being able to move up or tweaking things here and there, it never would have happened. But nothing was ever handed out to me.
Nothing was ever given to me. My salary has always been zero.
I'm a performance-based individual. So what that means is how do I want to add more value? How can I get a bigger chunk of the pie? Solve problems.
Everyone looks for a fucking handout. Well, if you want me to do this work, what's my salary? How many times have you heard that in your career? Oh, absolutely.
So many times. It's the dumbest shit ever in my mind.
Cool. You want to make more money? Get more responsibility.
You want to know how you get more responsibility? Solve more problems. And the problems that you solve, point them out.
Let your good work be known. Don't be too much about it.
Just be like, hey, guys, I saw this and I started implementing this, kind of slide it across the desk in a sense, have other people do that as well, guess what's going to happen? Sooner or later, the guy running the company is going to figure out, hey, what's all this going on right now? They're going to look down and you're going to be looking up smiling just like, yeah, that was me. That's how you move up.
You solve fucking problems. You don't become a problem.
So let me ask you real quick, man. What does it take? Because I'm pretty sure people are listening to this.
You're probably going to have quite a few people that are in sales right now. And they're probably like scratching their head.
They're like, dude, how is it possible that you went from $35,000 to then $8,000 to then $16,000 and then ultimately $45,000, $65,000 before you transition to an executive? So what is the biggest needle mover that a person has to do in order to transition like that? Yeah. You have to take your craft seriously.
And what I mean by that is you have to judge what you're doing through statistics. It doesn't matter how you feel.
Feelings don't fucking matter in this world. What matters is numbers and facts.
So what I would do is I would review my calls and see which technique worked the best to get the higher percentage of clothes. And I would break it down.
I look like I had schizophrenia if you walked into my office. I literally had things pinned all over my wall, all over my desk.
It looked like a madman. But just through all of that, I would find out, cool, if I set it this way, if I pre-framed my deals this way, I had five different options, I'm going to get the highest conversion.
And I stuck to a process. When people just want to get lucky and they just want to like, cool, let me just try this.
Let me go out on a whim. It never fucking works.
So I just boiled everything down to an exact process of what I'm going to be doing. And then I gamed the system.
So what I mean by that is I would look at someone who maybe was doing better at me at the time. And I understand principles.
If I ask for help, why the fuck should he help me? He's busy. We're commission-based.
There's 24 hours in a day. Who's going to give the fucking 18-year-old kid an hour? I wouldn't.
Now it's a little bit different when the 18-year-old kid shows up with a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. She says, hey, can I talk to you for 30 minutes? I would start instantly adding value to people who are doing better than me.
I would add value to their life. I would make their life easier.
Hey, let me know what I can help you with. And just through like servant leadership like that, they started to kind of give me some tricks of the trade, some sauce that I could pick up, and I would fully go ahead and embody it.
Because what you guys need to understand, there's four pillars, there's four Ms. The first thing you want to do if you want to become successful is you have to identify the model.
So you have to identify who's doing what you want to do. Who is that person? The next thing you have to do is mimic it.
You don't need to create shit. You have to mimic it.
Because guess what? If he says that and it works, I'm going to say that and it works. So once you find the model and you mimic it, then you're going to master it.
That means you're going to make the information yours. You're going to consume it, regurgitate it with your own flair so it sounds more natural.
So after you find the model, you mimic it and you master it, the last M is you're going to multiply it. So here's how I moved up.
I started a new sales process. I started doing stuff that wasn't in place before.
Numbers started to go up and I started training everyone around me on how I was pitching it. Now they started to look up to me.
45-year-old men who have been in sales for years, they're like this 18-year-old kid doing something I don't know how to do. And that one thing they don't know how to do is make a shit ton of fucking money.
So I figured it out. So now they started listening and now I'm multiplying more of me.
And then why would you not give that person a leadership position? Why would you not have that person be your sales director? I gave them no opportunity but to give me the fucking keys. That makes sense, man.
So you going into an executive role, was it like did the glove fit right away, man? Or did you have any issues with being an executive and managing people? Because I've built multiple eight-figure companies. I've helped other entrepreneurs build their seven, eight, and even nine-figure companies.
And to me, it ultimately comes down to a couple things. Culture, who you're working with, and then the leadership.
And that's mainly the key elements to building a great company. So to you, was it like the right fit right away or did you have to learn to lead by example? This might be an answer you're not ready for, but it was the right fit right away.
Like it really was. No, that's good.
So leading from example happened from sales, right? So everyone already knew what I was capable of. I've been a shit talker my entire fucking life.
And until someone can shut me up or outproduce me, I'm gonna talk my shit. Yeah.
Right. At the end of the day, my numbers back themselves up.
I have bank statements. I have everything that you guys would ever want to see.
I'll show you. I will happily show you what's in my bank account.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. If someone's not comfortable doing that, that should be a red flag.
That's true. So for me, when I got that position, I was very respected amongst my peers.
Now, respect versus liking are two different things. I was not the most liked.
I was not feared at all, but I was not the most liked because I'm going to say stuff you don't like. I'm going to give you un-fucking-bearable accountability.
Hey, that was fucked up. This was fucked up.
This was this. But at the same point, if you listen to what I was saying, and it was a sales pitch, if you guys listen to what I was saying, if you follow my process, if you follow this, I promise you will get X, Y, and Z result.
Because it's just how it works. Magically, guess what happened? I took a guy who was working construction.
Within two years, he was making more than I ever did in commissions. He had a $75,000 month in commissions.
I never made that. So that's following those four pillars of M's.
But when it comes to the other executive side about learning how to manage an eight-figure bank account, things like that, obviously I needed guidance and mentorship when I first started. But now I'm balancing my own seven-figure bank account.
I'm doing it just fine. Yeah.
No, absolutely, man. I mean, you're crushing it.
Obviously, like I said, I usually just invite people that I actually know personally and I know they're the real deal. So with that being said, all right, so you're managing this team.
It's an eight-figure team. How long do you do that for? Yep.
the sales director mm-hmm about three months three months yep okay so three months sales director what happens next I get the keys around the entire company okay about three months so after that what happens is I actually get the keys to run the entire organization so now I'm the number two guy in the company the only guy above me is the founder right so I'm being groomed to take on and take over the entire company. And the way we had the organization set up was in seven different divisions.
We had the executive division, we had HR, we had sales, treasury, delivery, qualifications, and public outreach. Now I'm managing over 100 employees at 19 years old.
I'm the youngest person in the organization. The average age at that time was north of 30.
So we got this 19-year-old kid, because guess what? I might have been a legal adult, but when you're 19, you're still a kid. You still have a lot to learn.
Yeah, absolutely. Managing all these 30s, 40s, and late 20s.
And it was a lot of responsibility. But there's two things that happen.
When you get thrown into the fire, either you're going to get fucking cooked or you're going to harden. And for me, I hardened.
My feelings, what people thought, this, that. You didn't care.
I don't give a fuck. Because my whole thing, if I'm going to listen to you, you better be better than me.
And money's not everything. And I know we're talking about money a lot on here because we're entrepreneurs.
And I get it. There's more to life than money.
But life with money versus life without money are two different things. And it's, you know, really the only scoreboard in life is the only numbers that you can show up to actually show what you've done.
You can do a bunch of great work. You can be a great fucking person.
But if you really want to help somebody, it's impossible without money. God forbid illness happens.
This happens. That happens.
Money can solve 99% of the problems that you have. And just based off that, just something theoretical to think about, if you have a problem that money can solve, do you actually have a problem? Not really if you have money.
Yeah. No, you're right.
There's always solutions to everything, but money gives you options. And for a lot of people, either relationship, personal, or business, it's usually a money problem.
That's what it comes down to. It's the most common conflict.
It's one of the most leading, it's the leading cause of divorce. Yeah.
No, a hundred percent. I agree with that.
I agree with that. Okay.
So let me ask you, man, did people hold your age against you? I mean, you're managing a bunch of 30 year olds. Well, people about to be 30 year olds.
I'm pretty sure some of them were over 30. Did you ever have like people just look at you and be like dude this gets 19 what does he know those people became unemployed and not because of me I never fired anybody yeah those people became unemployed because they weren't willing to change so what do I mean by that the things that I'm looking for are people who can judge things based off statistics yeah age is a stat you can't change.
What you can change is how many hours you work,

how seriously you take your profession.

And those people who are sitting there like,

oh, this kid's 19, he got this, all that, that,

I've accomplished more in my first two years of being an adult

than they've done in the past 40.

So when anyone's pointing a finger,

it's the old classic where you've got three of them

pointing back at you, right?

So if you have a problem with me and my age,

and all I'm doing is increasing

the company's bottom line,

doubling, tripling,

and quadrupling

the revenue

that you guys did last year,

that says a lot about you,

doesn't it?

Yeah.

So that was the approach

I would take

and being a football player,

being aggressive,

I play on defense.

It's not a very passive position.

Every single play,

I'm smacking somebody

in the mouth.

I take a very aggressive approach.

I'm like,

if you have a problem,

let's talk about it.

Yeah.

And it doesn't matter who you are, how old you are. In a non-confrontational way, I'm like, hey, let's talk.
And majority of the time, there's not substance there when someone is holding you against age. Because for me, when I look to hire somebody, I don't care.
You can be 80, you can be 18. It doesn't matter.
The thing I look for, are you willing to learn? Are you willing to show up? And are you willing to commit? Notice how none of those are skills. Notice how none of those are past experiences.
None of those are on the resume. I just want to know if you're willing.
And if you're willing, guess what? You have everything it takes to become successful. So let me ask you, how many people have you hired in the past four years since you've been doing this role? I was actually thinking about that last week.
Yeah of going through. Thousands.
Thousands? For sure in the thousands. I would say north of 2,000.
Okay, so out of those thousands of applicants that you've actually hired, because we know in sales, there's a huge turnover. It's not meant for everybody.
But for the people that stay and do extremely well, what do they all have in common when it comes to being a great sales guy or gal? And I don't want to make this too casual, but they're just dogs. They have the fucking dog in them.
To be successful in sales, you have to have the ability to look at someone and guide them through the product. Yes, make sure it's an ethical product to sell.
But at the end of the day, you have to have the ability to look at them in their eyes and extract cash out of their wallet. That's not for the faint of heart.
Because here's the deal. Sometimes it's very hard to ask someone to invest $50,000 if you don't even have 50K in your own bank account.
So a lot of hypocrite syndrome happens from that where you're just like, I can't ask someone to do something I haven done So I'm a big believer in actions. Yeah, I make my sales guys go buy programs I make them go buy books I make them do personal development because I believe people will buy as you buy Yeah, so if you're not consistently investing in yourself, why the fuck would someone spend money with you? Absolutely, right? It doesn't make much sense.
Yeah, so having them do that It's perfect But there's a couple principles. Because to get a sales team where my average closer was making just south of a quarter million dollars, my average closer was making $240,000 a year.
To do that, there's principles to the game. The first thing you have to do is identify who's real.
Because guess what? There's turnover in sales. A lot of people talk a lot of shit.
A lot of people say they've done this. I've been in sales for 15 years, you're still fucking broke.
So you don't know what you're doing. Right.
You've seen those people. Yeah.
So first identify who's real. The second thing you want to do is pull them in and treat them like family.
What that means is genuinely take care of them. Once I find someone who's real, a seed worth watering per se, I'm going to drown you in the best possible way.
Dude, I'm going to need your support. If you have a flat tire and I'm not the first call you make, I'm pissed off.
Like I'm offended. I'm just saying, why did you not call? It's three in the morning.
I didn't want to bother you. I'm pissed off now.
Right. Right.
Because you genuinely have to take care of your people. But the third principle of that is you have to push their success.
You have to continuously make them uncomfortable. You can't just be a nice guy.
I've never been known for being nice. People who genuinely know me know I'll do anything for people who are in my circle.
But to get in that circle, there are high fucking standards and qualifications. Those are the three things that build a sales floor where the brokest guy walking around is clocking like 210 in his pocket a year.
Dude, I love that because your role and the way you speak and articulate it is just like you really pour into your people. You have build it into the culture, which is awesome.
I'm a big believer in that, man. Yeah.
So last question before we wrap it up, brother, what would you say for any listener or viewer right now, if they wanted to get into sales, let's say you got like some college athletes, they're like, dude, Trey's the man. How can we get started on this? Opportunities come every so often.
There are things called once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. If you're watching this podcast right now, I have an Instagram.
So why am I saying that? If you're watching this podcast and you've got some sort of value and you don't reach out, you're wasting an opportunity. A lot of people have people in their DMs who are handling them.
And I don't mean you have a very similar approach. We actually like to connect with people.
So if you shoot me a DM, you say you saw me on the podcast, dude, I will find time in my day to have a conversation with you because the best thing you can do is throw your hat in the ring. But remember what I did to get started.
Don't just ask me for shit. You should ask me what you can do for me.
And I don't mean that in an arrogant way. You have to bring value if you want me to give you value.
It's the way the world works. There's a principle to it.
But number one thing I can say is reach out. It never hurts because when I was starting in my career, I was reaching out to everyone possible.
You would have a conversation with me. I'm going to fucking talk to you.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

And that's as simple as that.

No, I love that, man.

I love that.

And then any books that you would recommend for our viewers and listeners right now that

they can actually read up on sales or entrepreneurship or some of your favorites?

So here's, I'm going to recommend one book because I think this is the ultimate book.

It's old school, but if it's not broke, don't fix it.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is the number one book.

You can read all the Grant Cardone shit, seller be sold, blah, blah, blah.

That's cool.

That's all sales stuff.

That's there to make money.

What you want to do when you're trying to consume information and learn something is you want to find the source.

Where did Grant get his information?

Where did this guy get his information? Where's Tony Robbins getting his information? Where are these guys going? You want to backtrack into the source because if you find the source, that's the purest form. Go ahead, read that book.
It will teach you everything you need to know on the ability to make people do things that you want them to do, but it will make it their idea. I love that.

I love that.

Yeah, Dale Carnegie, man, he drops so many gems.

So many gems.

He's the OG OG.

Yeah, he's the GOAT, man.

Cool.

Anything motivational that you would like to leave as far as a message to the listeners and viewers right now?

Yeah, and I'm going to piggyback this with my story.

Here's the deal.

If I was a kid from Minneapolis, Minnesota, growing up downtown, who was able to make it out, go play division one football, break my freaking back, plug it out, move to San Diego, just grind, grind, grind, take opportunity, go $65,000 in debt, have to tell your mom you're dropping out of college, all of those things stack together. If I was able to go through that, stay consistent, stay persistent, keep my head down and now pop out and I'm making seven figures on the internet for the past four years, anything's possible.
And I'm not saying that to be a fugazi or be overly motivational or just make you feel good about yourself. Anything is possible.
If you actually put your mind to it, it will be done, but you have to make a committed decision. If that decision is not made, it's not going to happen.
You have to make the decision that you're wealthy before you even get rich. That's what I'm talking about.
And where can we find you, brother? Yeah. So go ahead.
My Instagram is thetraytoner3. Go ahead and shoot me a follow, shoot me a DM, and we'll be in touch, guys.
And guys, there you go. Trey Toner, one of the fastest growing sales executives in the online space, guys.
He has already generated over $70 million with eight figure companies under his belt. And he's, man, 22 years old.
Amazing, right? So can't wait to see where he goes in the near future. Now, if you want to connect with him, make sure to connect with him on Instagram, guys, and make sure to let them know that you saw and listened to this podcast.
With that being said, guys, make sure to actually subscribe, share this with a friend that you care about, and make sure to hit that like button on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and YouTube. We are currently ranked top 10 business podcasts in the United States guys.
This is Paul Alex, and we'll catch

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