I Overdosed and Became a Millionaire FT. Thomas Procopovich

Speaker 1 Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex.
I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day.

Speaker 1 I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together.
Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now.

Speaker 1 Hey guys, Paul Alex here with the Level Up Podcast. I have a special guest with me today, guys.
He goes by the name of Tommy.

Speaker 1 he's gonna formally introduce himself but he is part of the largest sales team in the united states and soon to be worldwide with andy elliott guys okay and we were able to meet at andy elliott's brotherhood which is his inner circle and he's such a badass person genuine guys he's gonna add a lot of value to you guys so make sure to stay tuned in for this entire interview because he's going to talk about sales he's going to talk about belief he's going to talk about how he was able to go ahead and transform his life from absolutely going ahead and not having any direction in life to now being a multi-millionaire sales consultant for one of the biggest sales trainers in the world tommy welcome to the show brother

Speaker 1 what's going on my man thank you so for everybody watching right now

Speaker 1 hey man i got i i gotta do it dude i'm old school you know i'm an old school millennial so i like to give those formal introductions and i feel like when I listen to podcasts now,

Speaker 1 it's not like back in the day, dude, like, you know, human-to-human interaction. So this is going to be a good one.
I know it is. Because you feel it, too.
Yeah, dude.

Speaker 1 So for the people watching right now, tell them who you are, dude. Tell them where you're from and just a general overview of where you come from.
Well, my name is Tommy Progopovich.

Speaker 1 I was born in Venezuela. I was actually a legal immigrant.
I came to the States when I was two years old here to Florida.

Speaker 1 Actually, lived in Florida for like 29 years, but 20 of those years, I was an illegal immigrant for a very long time.

Speaker 1 Didn't come from money, you know, things are, you know, and you know how Hispanic upbringings and everything is very like

Speaker 1 I hate to say it, but it comes from a like very scarcity-lack mindset, at least within my family.

Speaker 1 And it's pretty common within a lot of Hispanic families because they're just brought into like work and work and work and a lot of labor jobs, too.

Speaker 1 But came down here, didn't really have the ability to

Speaker 1 like, I didn't really have a leading example for a very long time. I just knew that I didn't want to be like my parents growing up for a very long time.

Speaker 1 You know, always like, hey, be careful with your clothes,

Speaker 1 you know, make sure that you,

Speaker 1 you know, you're eating your food properly because this is all the food that we have. Don't leave any leftovers.
And it was always like a very lack scarcity mindset.

Speaker 1 And it just didn't fit well with me for a very long time. And of course going to school i was

Speaker 1 i didn't have the ability to go to college so i went to school

Speaker 1 uh got really good grades in high school had a 4.25 gpa had scholarships in high school too but i couldn't take them because i didn't have a driver's license i didn't have a social i was illegal so the whole time i'm living in a panic mode i was living from didn't want to be like my parents trying to figure out my identity, couldn't go to college, even though I was a good student, and I was really just trying to figure myself out for a very long time.

Speaker 1 Dude, so let's break down the picture here, guys. So, how old are you right now? I turned 34 in two weeks.
34, still a baby, guys. Still a baby, okay? So, at 34,

Speaker 1 now you are a U.S. citizen.
Yes, I am. Okay, when did you become a U.S.
citizen? Like two months ago. Two months ago, guys.
So, at the age of 34, American now.

Speaker 1 Talbie is a multi-millionaire American, okay? And this is from being in illegal

Speaker 1 in the United States, having good grades, trying to live the American dream, but not being able to, not being able to have a driver's license, not being able to have the same opportunities as people who are born here, like myself, dude.

Speaker 1 I was, I was born here. I was blessed to be born here.
My parents, they came from Peru, they came from Mexico, they worked hard, they told me, hey, go, go, go out there, but I was lost.

Speaker 1 But with you, you seem like you had a good head in your shoulders, you're a smart guy. So

Speaker 1 what did your parents do back then when you were a kid, dude? My mom cleaned houses. She still cleans houses to this day, which I'm working on retiring her to.
Yeah. Borrow her a dream car.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So that was awesome. My dad is still kind of doing like,

Speaker 1 he's like an independent contractor. Like he's just like fixing things

Speaker 1 for like kind of like a handyman. Like a handyman, yeah.
So he does that. Okay.
Still. So they went ahead and they came to America.
They built their family. And do you have any siblings? Two sisters.

Speaker 1 Two sisters. And a half brother.
And are you the youngest oldest middle

Speaker 1 i am the oldest out of my two sisters okay and then my half brother's a little bit older than me from my death okay all right so you could you could easily say probably you're your mom's favorite right i am her favorite that's the way it goes that's the way it goes my youngest sister actually has two nieces yeah and then my mom still goes to my wife and is like hey when are you gonna get me when are you gonna make me a grandma it's like you're already a grandma yeah i'm just her favorite no no no absolutely so in summary, this is your background.

Speaker 1 Now, let's fast forward and then we're going to get into basically your story and how you were able to build up yourself to the point where you're at now. Okay, so in the past year,

Speaker 1 what is it that you do right now?

Speaker 1 Who are you associated with?

Speaker 1 And what are you going to accomplish in 2025? Just for the people that are listening, watching this right now, and they're like, okay, cool.

Speaker 1 He has a very similar background as me, but what is he doing right now? Why is he on Paul's podcast?

Speaker 1 What are you you gonna tell him so i joined andy elliott about um 15 months ago or 14 months ago and who's andy elliott andy elliott is

Speaker 1 the example that i needed in my life he's also the world's number one sales trainer big brand and he knows how to reach into people and help them change he's someone that builds people up from nothing and you'll find out a little bit more how he built me yeah so you work directly with andy elliott as his a sales team or what is it exactly that you do with Andy Elliott?

Speaker 1 I am his top sales coach in his company. So, what I do is I help with consulting, helping build sales teams,

Speaker 1 closing packages to help people recreate to get better at sales, leadership, life coaching.

Speaker 1 If they're looking to better themselves on their mindset, on their identity, I mean, we do several things helping people build their brand as well.

Speaker 1 So, but in reality, we just help build people or build teams, build companies. I love that.
So, you guys assist building all types of companies. I know from like HVAC HVAC to auto sales.

Speaker 1 And initially, Andy and you guys, you guys started with auto sales, correct?

Speaker 1 We started. So the way that we built the company, Andy now has a nine-figure business.
He built a nine-figure business within four years. The way we did it is we niched down first.

Speaker 1 We started in car sales. He was a car sales trainer.
He was a car salesman, created a car sales training company. But then as we did that for the first year and a half, two years, then we went wide.

Speaker 1 Now we go from dog training, insurance to real estate to wholesale to hotels food and beverage to coaching companies i mean everything we cover everything yeah services roofing it's pretty impressive man because you know the events that i've been to at andy elliott's uh facility in scasa arizona and you guys man you you guys are squared away you guys remind me of uh good old days when i was in law enforcement uh all my buddies that were like in the military very very paramilitary like hey no joke you guys are gonna get it done and i like that style not everybody does but i like that style, right?

Speaker 1 And with your guys' organization, I mean, what are you guys doing as far as numbers right now? As of right now, we're doing about 300 to 500,000 a day. Okay, 300 to 5,000

Speaker 1 to 500.

Speaker 1 $500,000 a day. Yes.
Okay, and that's gross revenue because you're going to get people on here, dude. You know how the internet is.
You got the haters, and then you got the people that love you.

Speaker 1 So just for clarity purposes, that's gross profit, guys.

Speaker 1 It's very doable to do this, especially when you have a phenomenal team this is me coming from being in law enforcement to actually going ahead and building two eight-figure companies and a six-figure company and I've also helped dozens of entrepreneurs do that so when Tommy's saying $300 to $500,000 in sales and in gross revenue it's very possible there are people here in Miami that make $20 million a month and this is just depends on what you do if you're selling extremely high ticket you know like uh well there's a couple guys what online right now they're selling like private jets and they only have clienteles that are billionaires i mean ultimately they're bringing in what 50 million uh a month right and they're making crazy money but for the average person uh before i got on to entrepreneurship and i'm sure before you got into entrepreneurship this was unheard of bro yeah it's unheard of yeah it's unheard of so like especially for a company like i feel like we're we

Speaker 1 it's crazy because since we were growing so fast like we didn't have our systems dialed in that that we have now.

Speaker 1 And I feel like everything just started growing within the last two years is when we really started like

Speaker 1 creating the company. I mean, before we didn't even have a CRM for two years.
You know what I'm saying? It was like, you know, Excel and everything until we started dialing everything down.

Speaker 1 And we started dialing everything down, it changes. One thing we did have though, the reason why we grew is we had a standard.
We had values inside of the company.

Speaker 1 There's no complaining in our office. There's no gossiping.
We're coming there to work and it's to work. We're there to change people's lives.
And we didn't get started in business to make money.

Speaker 1 We got started in business to help people change.

Speaker 1 We were so addicted to helping people recreate because we created, recreated in the program that we felt like it was up to us to start taking it to a whole different level because there were so many people reaching out to us because we built a brand almost by accident.

Speaker 1 Right. Andy was just posting online and then all of a sudden he just started growing the brand.
Now our brand generates us about 100 million plus views a month with over a thousand leads a day.

Speaker 1 Organically, I would say,

Speaker 1 you know, majority, well, it's practically all organic and we have a small percentage on paid ads I remember when I first heard of you guys and Andy

Speaker 1 it was

Speaker 1 when I saw one of his ads not not one of his ads it was his organic reels on Instagram and this is

Speaker 1 I mean obviously I'm gonna tell you guys the story on how we met and how me and Tommy's relationship formed and it's dude you're like you're like a good homie of mine now but um

Speaker 1 so I was sitting one day at the office I'm looking on Instagram and all of a sudden, I hear Andy say, Take off your shirt

Speaker 1 to some random kid at one of his events. And I'm like, What the hell did this guy just say? And that's what caught my attention, guys.
I mean, at the end of the day,

Speaker 1 you know, everybody that's interested in marketing, anybody who's looking to be a marketing expert, you know, bad publicity, good publicity, it's all great publicity, especially if you want to get to be known.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 me, coming from being an owner that is heavy behind digital marketing. I'm such a big believer, dude, especially being a full-time entrepreneur for the past four years now.

Speaker 1 I focus on just basically social media marketing because, number one, it's the path of least resistance.

Speaker 1 You could take an average person like myself,

Speaker 1 like Tommy, and you could go viral with just one reel. And then all of a sudden, that jumpstarts you and jumpstarts your business.

Speaker 1 And that could be for any entrepreneur out there, but you have to be willing to go ahead and put yourself out there, right? And that's what Andy did. andy put the content out there he um

Speaker 1 focused on sales focus niche down which is super smart dude like that's very smart like right now guys if you guys are trying to figure it out where you're trying to break into the online space or you want to be like an influencer or consultant or a business coach you know there's a lot of people that make fun of people out there because they think they don't know what they're talking about but when you niche down to a specific industry like auto sales like with me i started with atms i was known as the atm guy right hey that's the ATM guy, right?

Speaker 1 Andy, he was known as a car sales guy. But then, once you guys reach a certain plateau within the niche, right? Like you killed it, then you could go ahead and go with, right?

Speaker 1 And grow the company into multiple different divisions, which is what you guys have been able to execute in perfect action, man. I love it.

Speaker 1 You know, I can relate so much to going ahead and starting with an Excel file. I can relate so much to starting with a notepad because that's how I started.
I built

Speaker 1 it. One of my businesses started at or reached 2 million the first year back in 2021.

Speaker 1 And I still remember it was three of us in a penthouse in San Diego. We had a small office and

Speaker 1 hey, we were just gung-ho about growing a business, right? The startup mode, right? You were hungry. We were hungry.
We were hungry, right?

Speaker 1 Because when it's everything new, it's everything that's exciting and you want to go build this, this new venture. And then now you get a little bit more money that you're not used to.

Speaker 1 And you're just like, wow, like this is amazing. And then you're connecting with so many people and you're changing their lives and you're getting that fulfillment, which is cool, right?

Speaker 1 Compared to making a lot of money on the 9 to 5. So with your story, dude, let me ask you, did you have any sales experience before you got hired on with Andy?

Speaker 1 So I did have sales experience to an extent. So I did sales for the travel industry, like Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean, just like phone sales, maybe a little bit venturing sales too.
Okay.

Speaker 1 And how did you get into that?

Speaker 1 I just submitted, it's funny enough to get the job for Royal Caribbean, I actually just arrived there. They're like, hey, you need an appointment.
I said,

Speaker 1 okay, well, I'm not leaving until I talk to the owner. My man.
I know I can bring him a lot of value. Yeah.
And I can make the owner a lot of money. Just tell him to give me a chance.

Speaker 1 And then the security guy's like, we're going to have to kick you out. I'm like, I'm just going to sit right here.

Speaker 1 And I just sat all the time until an owner came out and I just pitched myself. And they're like, whoa.
I like that you just came in here demanding a job. We'll give you a shot.
Amazing.

Speaker 1 And I did and I became one of their top reps. Well, dude,

Speaker 1 you didn't take an overcomer. I was going to say, you're an overcomer, dude.
You didn't lay down and just go ahead and

Speaker 1 have a victim mindset once you got a one single roadblock or a single note, right? And when in sales, you have to have tough skin.

Speaker 1 In sales, you have to be, I'm not going to say aggressive, but you have to be able to hang in there because a lot of this is psychology, right?

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 you did that. And then how did you actually connect with so what ended up happening was I was in Royal Caribbean for about three years.
I was doing very, very well.

Speaker 1 Around that time, I was doing like 110 to 160,000. And around what year was this? This is back in 2017 or 2020.
Okay. All right.
So this is like right before the transition, COVID happened. Yes.

Speaker 1 Woo, that changed a lot of lives, right? It did. The world was different, dude.
It freaking sucked for me. I was like in a dark hole.
I was fucking depressed.

Speaker 1 When COVID hit, the traveling industry was destroyed. If COVID didn't hit, I wouldn't have embarked on this path.
Wow. I wouldn't have decided to get clean and off drugs, which will cover that too.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Right.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 COVID hit. I lived off my savings for six months.

Speaker 1 And my rent was like $2,400 at the time, living with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time. Me and Sierra have been together for seven years.

Speaker 1 And at that point, I'm like, Sarah's like, babe, you got to get a job. Like, we were just living off my savings.
It's like, you got to figure something out.

Speaker 1 And I was trying to figure something out, but I, the thing is, I wasn't doing, I was trying, right? You know, we always tell people, try not just do, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then I'm like, all right, let me just get a job. So I got a job as a car salesman.
Right. First month, sucked, beat 600 bucks.

Speaker 1 And when I took home that money, the conversation with me and my wife is like, and this was in 2020. 2020.
Okay, so in 2020, car salesman,

Speaker 1 what type of cars were you selling? Toyota. Toyota.
Okay. All right.

Speaker 1 So, guys, this is the real come up story right now with tommy and um for for you guys know you guys just tuning in right now um you know tommy comes from uh florida um immigrant just got his citizenship like a few months ago at the age of

Speaker 1 31 i mean i'm sorry 33.

Speaker 1 33 at the age of 33 guys about to be 34 in a couple weeks yeah you know um so at the end of the day this is the land of opportunity and i always tell people we're so grateful to go ahead and have the opportunity to actually be able to do what we want here.

Speaker 1 No matter what it is, what industry you guys are in. So when you guys are thinking right now, my situation's messed up.
No, it could always be worse. Okay, it could always be worse.

Speaker 1 So in 2020, you and your now wife, Sierra,

Speaker 1 you guys

Speaker 1 are living through six months of your savings.

Speaker 1 And you are you're like, okay, I'm going to transition because they closed all the cruise lines and I can't sell anymore. So my livelihood is on stake.
You go work for Toyota.

Speaker 1 And did you know about car sales before that? No, nothing. You were just like, I'm a good salesperson.
I'm going to kick butt. You know, always that mentality.

Speaker 1 How many salespeople did they have at the dealership at that time? They only had 34 on this one. Only 34.
Yeah. I saved that because the next transition that I had was a lot tougher.
Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 1 So how long were you at that Toyota dealership? Like a year. A year.
Okay. And did you kill it? Like, Like what was what happened? First month made 600 bucks.
Okay. Went online and I got a program.

Speaker 1 Well, I went online saying how to sell better. Like how to how to get better at sales.
And video of Andy Elliott popped up on YouTube.

Speaker 1 And I guess like Andy was just really smart. He was using specific keywords or whatever.
So

Speaker 1 with the SEO and all that. Yeah.
And when that happened, I watched this video. I'm like, dang, this guy is freaking on fire, bro.
Like, he's speaking to me right now.

Speaker 1 Like, I want to be like this person.

Speaker 1 like the way he talks and influence and sells like how did he make you feel when like you first saw Andy on video dude like like I could tell you exactly there's just one word I can say it's hope hope we call ourselves hope dealers

Speaker 1 because I like that he gives people a chance to want to believe again right and at that time and I don't know if I you want me to go into the addiction park now of course dude this is your story man this is the level of podcast so like if you guys don't know and you guys are listening in now to Tommy's phenomenal story because this is, this is great.

Speaker 1 I only interview people that I know close. Other than that, I mean, you guys are getting five minutes of motivation every single day.

Speaker 1 So, when we have these special interviews, it's because this person is the real deal. This person gets shit done.
This person has overcome roadblocks.

Speaker 1 And if you're listening to this and you think you're in a bad situation, you think you can't go ahead and progress in your life, just stay tuned in and keep listening to Tommy's story because it's going to change your life.

Speaker 1 Go ahead, brother. So, to understand

Speaker 1 where I was at mentally, I'm gonna backtrack a little bit from the beginning when I was,

Speaker 1 I graduated 4.25 GPA. I couldn't go to college for three years because I didn't have a social.
I didn't end up getting my social, my driver's license until I was 21.

Speaker 1 I was battling a drug addiction from the age of 17 till 31 years old. So that's 16 years, right? A 16 year long drug addiction.

Speaker 1 I started with painkillers and then it led led to more difficult things like heroin, fentanyl. I was an IV user.

Speaker 1 And I'll shortcut it a little bit, but by 2020, I had just,

Speaker 1 no, I'm sorry, by 2021, I had just gone through my fourth drug overdose. So I've overdosed four times

Speaker 1 and it was just a really hard moment at that point, at that time.

Speaker 1 When I transitioned to Toyota, the reason why it took me so long to find a job is because I was abusing drugs.

Speaker 1 So no one would hire you. It wasn't that.
It was just

Speaker 1 I wasn't mentally there or capable of once COVID hit. It's like I went deeper.

Speaker 1 So I've had certain periods of my time that I was like a functioning drug addict until my life became unmanageable, which is a lot of people, you think you can manage it, but you got to understand.

Speaker 1 Addiction is a disease designed to take you out no matter what. It doesn't care how much you love someone.
It doesn't matter if you have kids. It doesn't matter if you have that amazing job.

Speaker 1 If you're a CEO, if there's people depending on you, it's going to take you out no matter what and steal everything from you. And that's what was happening to me.

Speaker 1 Sierra at that point didn't understand because I was hiding everything until when I got that job at Toyota, got that. So Andy Elliott's video popped up.

Speaker 1 I was like, this is my chance again to reprove myself that I can be a good person, that I do have what it takes in order to get out of this life.

Speaker 1 Because what this guy is talking about is really speaking to me. I bought a program for $300.

Speaker 1 The very next month, I made $17,500 from that program. And then it started putting me, and then I found personal development.

Speaker 1 This is why we talk about if you really want to change and you want to compress that time frame, you've got to develop yourself.

Speaker 1 You know, we spend money on so many different things, but when you actually start spending money on you to get better, right? Don't wish for life to be easy, wish to be better.

Speaker 1 If you were better, life is going to be easier. So then A lot of times we start asking the wrong questions.
We're like, well, how are we going to get there? It's the wrong question. It's not how.

Speaker 1 It's the right question is who? Who can teach me the how? The person that changes the fastest is always going to win. So it's not about reinventing the wheel.

Speaker 1 It's about modeling a proven practice that's going to help you bridge and close that gap and compress that timeframe. I found that the who, which was Andy Elliott.

Speaker 1 I started buying all these programs at that time. That year, I did about $168,000.
So it was the most money I ever made at that time. And I'm like, cool.
And then I went to my first event.

Speaker 1 When I went to my first event, I was like, I go up to Andy. I'm like, dude, I want to come work for you.
Like, like, this is what I want to do. He's like, keep recreating, right?

Speaker 1 And it was like that period. And then later that year.
So now it's like October 2021 was my last overdose, my fourth drug overdose. My wife found me on the bathroom floor.
Let's talk about that.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about that real quick. I want to get deep into, you know, this last overdose because

Speaker 1 From what I recall, Sierra saved your life. She did.
Your wife. Okay, so let's take a step back

Speaker 1 and talk about the day that you overdo. So you made the most money in your life, dude.
$168,000 in 2020. You went to go meet one of your inspirations, Andy Elliott, at the time.

Speaker 1 You tried getting a job with him. He was just like, bro, keep focusing on you first.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 are you still working at the Toyota dealership or did you transition to another dealership? I was still working there.

Speaker 1 It's now, so I got started around Tijorda around, it was like around

Speaker 1 October 2020. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I went to my first event, May of 2021.

Speaker 1 That's when I'm like, I want to go work for you. And he's like, keep recreating, keep training, you're doing good.
And he can also see something was up with me. I'm super skinny.

Speaker 1 You know, he could see I was going through something. And I even opened up to him like, dude, I'm addicted to drugs.
Like, I need help. Got it.
And he's like, dude, you got to get off the drugs.

Speaker 1 Like, you're worth it, man. Like, there was two people in my life that believed in me the most, right? My mom, yeah, she believed in me to a certain extent.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But the thing is, like, I didn't give her many reasons to believe in me because of what I put her through. Right.
I mean, I was addicted to drugs for 16 years.

Speaker 1 And she would catch me and I would still do it, you know? So it was very hard on her for a very long time.

Speaker 1 But it's two people that believed in me, that they saw something bigger inside of me that I can become something great, which is my wife. My wife's here.

Speaker 1 And Andy.

Speaker 1 Andy

Speaker 1 believed in me in a way where he gave me a lot of hope and a lot of belief in myself that I could get out of this and that I can become something great.

Speaker 1 And it was through his trainings that allowed me to

Speaker 1 change my perspective and focus on what I wanted. And for the first time, I'm like, I can do this.
I can get off drugs.

Speaker 1 So you meet Andy, he tells you to get off the drugs and to come back when you're clean, basically. Yeah.
And then you go back to the dealership. The day that you overdosed, what did you overdose on?

Speaker 1 Fentyl. Fentyl.
Okay, let me ask you,

Speaker 1 how was it possible? And I say this respectfully, man, how is it possible for you to be a functioning drug addict at that time? Like, dude, you're making money.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of people in the United States that are going to watch this right now, and they're going to be like, bro, I make $50,000. I'm a lazy piece of shit.

Speaker 1 Like, but this guy was using drugs and still killing it in sales.

Speaker 1 Can you explain to us, like, what was your thought process? What were you feeling, dude? Like, was it because it was pure addiction for the drug?

Speaker 1 And, like, like, just walk us through that thought process. Well, it was just an obsession, right? I mean, for at that point,

Speaker 1 I mean, I think I was already at,

Speaker 1 I mean, 13 or 12 years into my addiction. Yeah.
I believe 12, 13 years into my addiction.

Speaker 1 Or 14 years. I don't even remember anymore.
But at that point, I had stopped using needles already for like about a year. Right.
So, I hadn't touched needles for a long time.

Speaker 1 So, I was an IV user for 10 years,

Speaker 1 destroyed my veins. I mean, I'm just getting my vascularity back, and the doctor is saying it's going to take a little bit more time of healing, right?

Speaker 1 I think this didn't happen in a day, I was very vascular my whole life, and then just destroyed them through, you know, IV use is just one of the side effects. And that year, after I met Andy,

Speaker 1 even though I still use it, it wasn't, I would use,

Speaker 1 deal with the withdrawal,

Speaker 1 be clean for a little bit relapse use for a period of time deal with the withdrawal get clean relapse and i was just a chronic relapse just relapse relapse relapse like consistently so i had already gone through three drug overdoses now we're in um in 2021 i go to the event in may come back everything's good then july hits start using again

Speaker 1 so and it just picked up and the thing is i wasn't really utilizing needles at that time i was doing them in other ways like smoking it or snorting it or whatever do you believe it was because of the environment that you were in during that time?

Speaker 1 Like friends, being in it was

Speaker 1 100% the current. Yeah, it was just all the people that I knew.
Yeah. Right at that time, Sierra still didn't have a clear idea.
I could tell Sierra, hey, babe, I'm just gonna go meet this friend.

Speaker 1 She's like, okay.

Speaker 1 I can't tell her that now. Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? She's caught on big time on everything, right? But she didn't know my patterns, really.

Speaker 1 And at that time, I was still leveraging, like, oh, you know, I'm still bringing in money. Everything's all good.

Speaker 1 But I, like, like I said, that the addiction is just like, first you get that craving, you get that thought, then you start obsessing.

Speaker 1 Now you're in the compulsion, you're acting it out, which is you're going to go pick up, you're going to go use.

Speaker 1 And like I said, this isn't designed to kill you. It doesn't matter who's in the way or what you have going on.
You're still going to keep doing it.

Speaker 1 Now, my life did become unmanageable where I was falling asleep at work. Even though I'm like, I'm a functioning drug addict.
There's people that would see me like, dude, you're on drugs right now.

Speaker 1 Started becoming a problem. Work started finding out.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then one day this is in october that was the same month andy offered me the job wow and i was just i was pretending like everything was all good now remember i was on 441 here in florida i'm getting a tire put on and he gives me a call and he's like hey i want you here in january pack your stuff and everything you're gonna have to work for me i see that you're kicking at us you're doing so good i want you to come with me like cool so super excited But then it's like, I was a master self-sabotager.

Speaker 1 It's like I self-sabotage everything my way for so long that same month i think it could have been a weekend or a few days i don't remember the exact time in october of 2021 i was at toyota i went to go i was living in hollywood florida we had a house there and then when i was there

Speaker 1 i had a lunch break with sierra sierra's making food i had picked up drugs had a needle decided After not using it for a year, hey, I'm going to go shoot up. Just like that, dude.

Speaker 1 During lunch, you were just like, just like that. And that's the thing with addiction.
It's just like the moment it gets inside your head, you're like already acting on it.

Speaker 1 Like, wow, I was still really heavily addicted. I mean, it was

Speaker 1 14 years of using, yeah.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 I remember perfectly when I was there.

Speaker 1 I didn't even finish it all the way. And then all of a sudden, I wake up on the floor, Sierra on top of me, giving me CBR.
Wow.

Speaker 1 So, what she told me, because clearly I was out, when I went to the bathroom to go use,

Speaker 1 she says she was calling my name for 15 minutes and I wasn't answering. So I was just using the bathroom.
The door is locked. She breaks down the door.

Speaker 1 I don't know how she did that, but you know, Sierra is a little girl. She's a tiny dude.
She's a tiny girl.

Speaker 1 But she was filled with adrenaline because I'm not answering. So she was getting spooked out.
She breaks down the door.

Speaker 1 and finds me like a pretzel in between the you know there's a toilet and then there's a tub and sometimes in a it's like a half bathroom that little space is very tiny i was in between that.

Speaker 1 And I had like a bump here because my head hit the faucet thing of the tub, right? Where the water comes out. And she said that she saw me there and she sees the needle.

Speaker 1 She's never even known that was an IV user because I was hiding everything. Dude, Sierra, she was probably like, holy shit.
She was just like, she sees me gray. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Purple lit, like no oxygen, not breathing. Great.
So she pulls me up with adrenaline, takes the needle on my arm, starts giving me CPR, trying to bring me back.

Speaker 1 And at the same time, calling the paramedics on speaker while she's doing this. Wow.
Gives them the address and everything.

Speaker 1 She should have became a cop. Yeah.
I mean, she reacted fast. If she didn't react fast, I would have been dead.
Yeah. And then all the other times I didn't have that.

Speaker 1 I would just lose two hours of time and wake up in a puddle of jewel with a bruise on my face. Wow.
On the other overdoses. But that time, I think I would have died for sure.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Especially since she had to bring me back to like give me oxygen again. And like, cause I was like not breathing.
My heart rate, she said she couldn't feel it.

Speaker 1 When the paramedic says, does he have a a pulse like i can't feel his pulse and like she told me the whole story so she was really freaked out by that she brings me back after doing this for 10 minutes

Speaker 1 like so i was unresponsive for 15 and then giving me cpr for 10 minutes by the time i got up i'm hearing a banging on my door and it was the paramedics and the first thing i told her was who did you call

Speaker 1 It wasn't like, hey, babe, I'm sorry. It was all about me protecting me.
Who did you call?

Speaker 1 Who did you you tell about this that's all I cared about was a drug addict yeah we're very self-centered very selfish yeah you know and I remember she's like hysterically crying

Speaker 1 and the paramedics come in they're like wait

Speaker 1 did he just have a drug overdose it's like yeah how is he awake right now yeah they couldn't

Speaker 1 They couldn't understand in the in the health space medical no you got you got you got blessed dude because I'm gonna tell you this man like one of the critical incidents that i had and and it's not to go into your story but you know i had a fellow uh police officer during a raid that we did with this cocaine dealer um get hit with a ton of fentanyl that the guy was using and it took three narcants okay narcan's if you guys don't know what narcan is it's basically an antidote to help you when you overdose on an opiate like fentanyl okay uh just a small grain of fentanyl can kill you okay it touches your skin you inhale it dude it's the shit that the medical staff at any hospital numbs you with for surgery,

Speaker 1 for everything, for dental, all that stuff. So the fact that you came alive, dude,

Speaker 1 it's God's plan, bro.

Speaker 1 100%. Yeah.
It was your second chance. No, and I can, and we'll talk about how God ties into this, but...

Speaker 1 Like, looking back, I know every single time God is like, it's not your time. It's not your time.
It's not your time. It's not your time.
Like, all four times.

Speaker 1 Because even every single time that I went to the hospital on a stretcher, like, wait, you weren't narcaned

Speaker 1 and then this time with the pyramids like wait you didn't narcane did you have narcane he's like no it's like wait you brought him back just by giving him cpr that doesn't happen so they were confused and just seeing the look in their face i'm like whoa i'm like i'm thinking it's normal like yeah she just gave me cpr i'm like no you need to be narcaned yes and at this point they're like well we don't need to narcane you anymore you're fully awake yeah so then they just left And then later that day, I still went back to work.

Speaker 1 And then a few hours later, because I was high as a kite, when you wake up up from an overdose, you are obliterated. The best way that I can describe it, slurring my words.

Speaker 1 Sierra was working for a network marketing company at the time. And Sierra is a very strong woman.

Speaker 1 She had to put on a face to go to a network marketing event that she was hosting and shaking hands and meeting people, pretending like everything's okay. Oh, damn.
I have to deal with that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So Sierra is very, very strong-minded for that.

Speaker 1 And even later that night, I still went and picked up and used.

Speaker 1 Wow. I just said, I'm not going to shoot up because then I can die.
Let me just smoke it because at least I can control it. Man, that's wild.
I know.

Speaker 1 After just almost dying, it's just like, this is why, you know, addiction,

Speaker 1 it doesn't, it doesn't care.

Speaker 1 It doesn't care. If you're heavily addicted, my hearts go out to you.
I know it's not easy, but understand,

Speaker 1 I always tell people, and a lot of people reach out to me because they hear my story. And I post it all over my social media.

Speaker 1 And they ask me, Tommy, I want to change how you did. And I ask them, okay, number one, are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Yes.
Okay. Are you in a position right now?

Speaker 1 Do you want to be healed? Do you want to stop? Are you really ready for that now?

Speaker 1 I hadn't come to a point until I was ready until

Speaker 1 March of 20. So I stopped talking to Andy, right? And I'll explain this.
So I stopped talking to Andy.

Speaker 1 He finds out that something's going on. So he pushes back.
He knows it has to deal with drugs because you know it's battling that.

Speaker 1 And then me and Sierra, March of 2022, we're just like, we're just going to move. First of all, me and Sierra split.
She was living at her at this place in Hollandale.

Speaker 1 I went back to living with my sister at that time. I burnt through all my money.
I was broke, lost. And the thing is with loss, like I didn't know how lost I was.

Speaker 1 And that's the thing with lost people. When you're lost, you don't know how lost you are, right? But I was lost looking back like I can't believe that was my life at that point.

Speaker 1 I was weighing 145 pounds at the time Very scary looking individual. I have it on my Instagram pinned on the first photo if you guys want to see it and and I had this like crazy beard.

Speaker 1 It was just ridiculous. But at that time, I'm like, Sierra, I want to make this work with you.
Like give me another shot. Give me another shot.
We're going to move to Arizona.

Speaker 1 She's like, what do you mean? It's like, we're just going to move out there and figure it out.

Speaker 1 The pain of me staying the same and staying where I was at was far greater than the risk of moving across the country from the southeast to the southwest where maybe I might work for Andy Elliott.

Speaker 1 That right there was much better than my current situation. I was willing to take that risk.
Did Sierra already know about Andy? Yes.

Speaker 1 So, of course, when I got in the automotive industry, when I made all that money,

Speaker 1 she knew Andy would send me voice notes. This is like when Andy was building the company, right? Andy had just started building the company back in 2020.

Speaker 1 So at that time, he had a little bit more leisure, right? More available time where he was connecting with a lot of people. And then, of course, with people that wanted to work for him.
And

Speaker 1 she knew the plan was for me to work for him. But the thing is, I was destroying it with my own habits, right?

Speaker 1 So when I told her that, she's like, hey, if you're going to do this, I'll do it with you.

Speaker 1 It's it's like me and her had already been together for since 2018 so it's we've already been together for three years at this point you know we've gone through some crazy stuff together yeah and she's seen that my like i want to change like i'm willing to do this if if you do it with me like i'm in right so we just packed up all of her things

Speaker 1 to my corolla attached a five by eight trailer towed 1500 pounds with a dog two cats and a snake my my snake in a box. And we drove 55 hours.

Speaker 1 And it takes 33 hours to get there, but I couldn't drive past 60 because I was driving a Corolla.

Speaker 1 So 55 hours and moved to Arizona.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, we just made the move. I was working for an insurance company over the phone.
Wasn't making a lot of money. It was like $250 to $1,000 a week sometimes.

Speaker 1 So it was very, but it was enough to pay some bills. even though things were a little hard at the time.
But we did it.

Speaker 1 And then this is where God starts playing a big role. And

Speaker 1 what time and year is this? Like, what month and year? So March of 2022 is when we decided to move back to, when we decided to move to Arizona. Just leave everyone behind, right?

Speaker 1 Everything, you don't have a job opportunity yet. No.
You're just like, I'm banking on. Andy seeing a potential in me.
You know, I want to work with him.

Speaker 1 I'm going to do something to make my thought process, like, I got to get close to Andy. Okay.
I just got to get around him. If I can just get around this guy, my life is going to change.
Right.

Speaker 1 He just, he had everything I wanted. He was a leader, amazing shape, amazing husband, an amazing father,

Speaker 1 you know, building this company, making millions of dollars a year, like everything, the way that he spoke, his mindset. I'm like, it was just so infectious.
I'm like, I just have to get close.

Speaker 1 And I was willing to do whatever it took, which was leaving all my friends and family behind. It was just me and Sierra that left everyone behind.

Speaker 1 We didn't know anyone in Arizona besides me knowing the Elliott group, the twins, you know, a few people from the Elliott group, Andy and Jackie, and that's it.

Speaker 1 And she, Sierra, had never met any of them, but I met him at that one event in May of 2021. So those are the only people that I knew somewhat of.

Speaker 1 And the twins were my coaches at that time helping me through the programs too. And for everybody listening and watching right now, the twins, when Tommy's referring to them,

Speaker 1 they're two great entrepreneurs. They're the vice president of

Speaker 1 co-presidents of the Elliott group now with Andy Elliott.

Speaker 1 And they're great guys. You know,

Speaker 1 I always say what's up to them. You know, we chit-chat whenever we're at the events, but good guys.
You work side by side with them.

Speaker 1 And that's who the twins are, just for clarity purposes, guys. Okay, cool.
So

Speaker 1 you move out there. How long until you actually start working with Andy? Like,

Speaker 1 when was the actual transition? You didn't know we were there. Okay.
For over

Speaker 1 like actually about four weeks, three, three three and a half weeks or so. So it's like we moved there March of 2020 and we moved there like right on like March

Speaker 1 28th or something like that. And it wasn't until like April

Speaker 1 20th, April 21st, somewhere around like the third week of April. Sierra

Speaker 1 is flying back to Miami to do this job to make some more money because we're struggling.

Speaker 1 And Andy and Jackie only go to Florida once a year.

Speaker 1 The flight that she booked out of all the flights

Speaker 1 going, all the different airlines, out of all the seats, when she sits down the aisle seat, Andy and Jackie were sitting right next to her. Wow.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 she's like, she told me the story because, of course, I'm not there. And then Andy's like, Sierra, he knew who Sierra was because he was vetting me.
So he's seen her profile.

Speaker 1 So that's what they do, right? We're going to bring someone to her home. Let's find out who they're who are they with, this and that.
Like, who is this person?

Speaker 1 But of course, she's like, oh my God, Andy's right next to me. Jacqueline's right here.

Speaker 1 And they're like, whoa, Zira. It's like, Andy, it's like, what are you doing here in Arizona? It's like, where's Thomas?

Speaker 1 We moved here. He's like, wait, Thomas is living here now?

Speaker 1 And again, this is the story she told me. She said, yes.
He's like, tell Tommy to stop being scared of me.

Speaker 1 Were his exact words because he knew I didn't contact him. And I was contacting him a lot.
He's like, is he off drugs? He's like, he's off drugs. He's like, tell him to stop being scared of me.

Speaker 1 I want you guys to meet me me at this church called impact church

Speaker 1 and i don't know what else the conversations were like because i wasn't there but the point is we met him at this church that i started going to consistently we met him at the end of that month or in may

Speaker 1 which later that was the church that i found my faith in the lord jesus christ and got baptized at so it's like almost like god This is why you got to be so aware in life.

Speaker 1 Like if you're a believer or not a believer, listen, God is going to move in a specific way and use people to give you an an idea, give you a word,

Speaker 1 just give you a sense of feeling in order to move, in order for you to change. And he's going to be using people.

Speaker 1 And sometimes if you're not aware of these things, you're going to miss a huge blessing in your life.

Speaker 1 And God used Andy to get to me so I can have a relationship because I didn't have a relationship with God. I'm 31 years old now.
This is 2022. I didn't have a relationship for God with all my life.

Speaker 1 Like I tried, but I was raised Catholic and the way the church was,

Speaker 1 I couldn't lean into building a relationship with my creator. But then I met him at this church.
And then as we're talking to him, he's like, Tommy, number one, you're too skinny. I'm like, I know.

Speaker 1 I was weighing 145 pounds. Wow.
How much do you weigh right now? 205. 205.
Nice. So 145 pounds.
This is still 2022.

Speaker 1 He's like, Tommy, you're too skinny. I'm like, hey, I go to Andy.
I'm like, Andy, I want to work for you still.

Speaker 1 What do I have to do? I'm here now. I'm ready to join.
He's like, hold on a second. And then when he said that, I I remember like,

Speaker 1 oh, I was let down. Like, I give him like, oh my god, what's he gonna say now?

Speaker 1 And he's like, you're too skinny. You need to gain 20 pounds.

Speaker 1 He's like, you want to come work for me? Gain 20 pounds a month. I'll give you one more year.
And I remember in my head, I'm like, oh, man, another year.

Speaker 1 Another year.

Speaker 1 It's like, shoot, I just did a whole year and a half of trying to create myself, move out here. since I met you.
Now you want me to do a whole nother year?

Speaker 1 But whatever. 20 pounds a muscle.
he said, I want you to join this company, become number one,

Speaker 1 and stay clean. If you do that, I'm going to hire you in my company.

Speaker 1 So I obeyed. I listened to him,

Speaker 1 got this job at this huge Toyota dealership in Arizona,

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 recreating, buying more programs, going to events and everything. When I got there, I didn't know how many salespeople there were.

Speaker 1 I'm thinking it's like back over here where I was in a store with 34 people, which I think it's a lot of people.

Speaker 1 When I got to this store, I'm like, hey, so hey, I trained with Andy Elliott. He told me to ask for this person that you guys can help me out.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, training with all right, can you start right now? I'm like, right now,

Speaker 1 because I'm like, because of course, Andy's car sales training, and he knows I was training in car sales. I'm like, well, I can start tomorrow.
He's like, okay, you got the job.

Speaker 1 I'm like, whoa, that was the most craziest hiring process, just name-dropping someone.

Speaker 1 And when I got started there,

Speaker 1 I'm like, hey, how many salespeople are here? Is there like 30, 40 people? It's like, no, there's 120.

Speaker 1 120 salespeople. And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, oh, this is a test.
So that's almost three to four X the amount of salespeople you had back in the other Toto dealership. That's insane.

Speaker 1 So then in my head, I'm like, oh, this is a test. I'm like, and then now all these lies start coming up.
You're not good enough. All the self-doubt, fear.
How am I going to do this?

Speaker 1 Like, am I even going to make it? I'm never going to work for Andy. I'm just like, all this negative self-talk started building up because I didn't have the right identity at the time, right?

Speaker 1 Which happens to a lot of people.

Speaker 1 The unknown, the fear of the unknown.

Speaker 1 I'm like, whatever. I'm going to listen to him.
He told me to do it. I have the programs and I'm going to go dark.

Speaker 1 I was training for an hour a day, role-playing for 20 minutes a day, do a 15-minute lot walk before the dealership even opened up. And Andy's like, when you go there, that is your dealership.

Speaker 1 You're going to own that place. You're going to be in service drive.

Speaker 1 You're going to be shaking everyone's hand pass by finance build relationships with everyone in there bring the service drive pizzas and freaking feed everyone let them know that you're there and thank them for taking care of your customers if they needed anything that you were their guy so i just started like becoming like as if i owned the spot i didn't know anyone there

Speaker 1 by my third month i was the number one salesman nice how much revenue were you bringing in

Speaker 1 that month i brought in like twenty seven thousand dollars nice in one month so i was averaging around twenty seven sometimes $20,000, sometimes $34. And this is your profit.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like how much you were making. Yeah, commission.
Okay.

Speaker 1 As far as revenue,

Speaker 1 yeah, it was a lot more because each car is like $30,000. I was selling about

Speaker 1 on the low end, 20, high-end, 34 cars a month. Yeah.
So it would range, but I did very well. Okay.

Speaker 1 So did that, gained 38 pounds of muscle that year.

Speaker 1 I was ranked like number three out of 33 locations in the company. And then I stayed clean for a year.
And this was in 2022? 2023, no. No, no, 2022.
So it was from 2022, July, till July of 2023.

Speaker 1 I was literally there for one year. Okay, so you were there for one year.
You're killing it. Obviously, you're making multiple six figures at that time.
Yes. What does Sierra say about all this?

Speaker 1 Your wife. Oh, she was blown away.
She was blown away.

Speaker 1 You could see that

Speaker 1 she was more bought in now. She's like, okay, she's seeing the person become it, right? And of course, since I started changing my physique and my identity, I was waking up early.
I was working out.

Speaker 1 I was putting in like 10, 12 hour days, right? Sometimes even up to 15 hour days. I was freaking grinding.

Speaker 1 We moved from this crappy spark, a part in Phoenix, Arizona, where there was a bunch of drug addicts there.

Speaker 1 Actually, and I didn't mention this, when I moved here, Even like right before I met with Andy, I had relapse when I was down in Arizona too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I had a small relapse, but then, you know, dusted off.

Speaker 1 And then that's what led me also to getting on that medication called Methadone, September 1st of 2022, where I finally broke the obsession. Was on that medication for two years, but joined Andy on,

Speaker 1 so I quit the job July of 2023.

Speaker 1 And then for two months, even though Jackie was messaging me, They were reaching out to me to get started months like in March of 2023.

Speaker 1 I was, I didn't feel worthy I don't really tell I haven't really told a lot of people this but I didn't feel worthy there was two months that I quit the job and didn't pick up a job I was thinking about doing high ticket sales or something like phone closing

Speaker 1 there's all these high ticket closing companies that they'll train you and then you can do that too right right

Speaker 1 but then Sierra's like

Speaker 1 and this is why I love my wife because without

Speaker 1 Having her on my side and her pushing me, this is why having a good woman in your life or a good person in your life that believes in you is so freaking important.

Speaker 1 She's like, Thomas, she calls me Thomas.

Speaker 1 You're missing out your chance. The Elliott group is growing like freaking crazy.

Speaker 1 If you're going to join them, which they've already offered you the job, you've recreated, you've proved to them, you gained all this weight, you were the top person in this company.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, you're clean now.

Speaker 1 Like, you need to call them. And if not, you're going to regret it.
And you're never going to forgive yourself. I'm like, okay.
As soon as she said, I called Evan. Evan, bro, I'm ready.
Ready?

Speaker 1 And then Evan was trying to, I don't know, Tommy. You think you're really ready for this? And who's Evan? It's one of Macklin twins.
Yeah. There's Evan and Ian.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Just for the viewers and the listeners. Yeah, Evan and Macklin, Evan and Ian Macklin.
They're two incredible human beings. And they've been like, they're like brothers to me now.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, Evan, I'm ready. And I remember me and Sir were running sprints.
So So because I was doing very well, we moved to North Scottsdale, the Keirlin Commons, right?

Speaker 1 Completely different environment. Completely different environment.

Speaker 1 You went from the hood to the apartment. We went from an $1,800 apartment, now paying over almost $5,000 a month for an apartment.
I was doing decent. I was comfortable, really nice apartment.

Speaker 1 So the transformation was happening. Yes.
And let's dig into a little bit about your relationship with Sierra at the time.

Speaker 1 Do you feel, I mean, me and my wife, we started talking more about this we started doing a lot more content um around her her brand that she's building and whatnot but um

Speaker 1 with with the idea of a power couple right um i'm a true believer that as a man we have to be providers we have to go ahead and lead the relationship so what is your perspective like once you start once sierra starts seeing the transformation Do you feel like she fell in love with you even more, dude?

Speaker 1 Like she was just like,

Speaker 1 this is the man that like I always wanted. 100%.

Speaker 1 But there was

Speaker 1 during that period of time when I was recreating, there was like ups and downs of that because I was still battling an identity problem.

Speaker 1 I didn't completely change my identity until I got onto the Elliott group to where everything just, I just started becoming a completely different person. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, I don't even know who that person was in 2023 in the beginning when I was selling cars. Like, I'm a completely different person.

Speaker 1 So, every year, would you say that you've progressed as a person, as a man? Yes.

Speaker 1 Starting from 2022. Yeah.
Right? So, 2022, changed to 2023. And then once 2024 hit, or I would say

Speaker 1 once, so I joined Andy's company September 1st of 2023.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 every month, since September 1st of 2023, I've changed every single month.

Speaker 1 Hot.

Speaker 1 I believe more. My identity is different.

Speaker 1 There's a thing called perspective and vision. So let me say this.
And by the way, me and Sierra change, which is super important.

Speaker 1 A lot of people, they expect to grow in business, but then they don't grow in their personal life or in their home life or with their partners.

Speaker 1 What ends up happening, let's say we're both great in business, but you have a horrible home life, but I have an amazing home life, I will whoop your ass.

Speaker 1 i will whoop your ass in business i will whoop your ass in everything else right because how you do one thing is how you do everything let me ask you a question

Speaker 1 would you be with someone would you have a relationship with someone that consistently lie to you no no no however us as human beings

Speaker 1 we're not really good at making decisions or anything or trusting ourselves because you lie to yourself a lot A lot of people say, well, I'm going to become this person, babe. I'm going to do this.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be a better father. I'm going to get in better shape.
I'm going to wake up early. But then this is why why you can't excel or why your identity takes a dip because you lied to you.

Speaker 1 So if you won't be in a relationship with someone that's consistently lying to you, this is what happens. And this is what causes people to get stuck.

Speaker 1 Why the time keeps going by, they're getting older, but they're not growing and they stay the same. This is called identity, your mindset.
And we talk about it a lot.

Speaker 1 And the thing is with your identity, it's... When you're chasing a big life, greatness is found in the extremes, but you're going to have to fight like hell and you're going to have to change.

Speaker 1 You can't be the same person you are right now.

Speaker 1 I couldn't be the drug addict to reach seven figures or i couldn't be the drug addict to be the loving husband that i am right now i couldn't be the drug like i couldn't be that person to gain 60 pounds of muscle in three years like i couldn't do that or to change lives now i get messages every single day from people saying you changed my life dude hey oh my god i look up to you and it's crazy to hear those things because now i'm starting to see the ripple effect of of how hard I worked in the dark.

Speaker 1 And it all happens when no one's watching.

Speaker 1 It's when the real work work gets done where the real person gets built when no one is watching because that is the real you and the thing is with a lot of people out there they let themselves slide they say they want it but then if we could put a camera watching them let's play that back to your family if you say you're after a big life and you say that you want it if i show that to your family is that gonna

Speaker 1 Are they going to be like, oh yeah, yeah, it shows that they're working hard. Of course, they said that we're going to be going on all these vacations.
I can see all the work that they're putting in.

Speaker 1 They say they wanted to get in better shape. I can see them eating healthy, not having cheat meal.
I can see them going to the gym. I can see them doing all these things.

Speaker 1 Because look, we're watching the tapes now. That's my dad.
That's my mom. That's my relative.
Yep. Or are they going to be like, what the heck is this?

Speaker 1 Why have you been lying to us this whole time? And that's where a lot of people feel like they can get away with it because no one's watching.

Speaker 1 So if you want to really change, you're going to have to get stirred up or come from a place of

Speaker 1 just got to want it. And I talk to you about this a lot, right? In business or in sales.
It's like

Speaker 1 in our company, we hire underdogs, a lot of them. And a lot of them are killers, but they don't know it yet.
And a lot of the time that has to be developed, right?

Speaker 1 There's some people that develop it early and that's freaking amazing.

Speaker 1 But at the end of the day, if you want to develop, if you want a killer, that person needs to be developed to be a killer in life, business, sales, whatever, right?

Speaker 1 Like you, you had to put yourself through a lot of dark times.

Speaker 1 And you had to work when no one was watching.

Speaker 1 And you is like, I'm going to do it. That's it, period.
That's how winners talk. I'm going to either do it, I'm going to win, or I'm going to win.
For so long, I was fighting to survive.

Speaker 1 Now I fight to win. So there's a difference, right? When you, and there is going to come a point in life where you're going to have to fight to survive a little bit to get yourself from.

Speaker 1 You're going to have to start running away from a life you don't want. That's fighting to survive.
And then eventually you start fighting towards, you start running towards the life you want.

Speaker 1 Now you're just fighting to win, right? And that's the way I look at it as far as like changing your identity and becoming the person.

Speaker 1 And I love what Andy says because he's like, he's just been an incredible example. He's like, Tommy, I'm not hiring you because you were a drug addict.

Speaker 1 I'm hiring you because if you can stop giving your power away to these things and you start channeling it to the person you want to become, you're going to be the top person in my company.

Speaker 1 And he was right.

Speaker 1 He's just always been that example, always giving me the right things. And he just gives me the cold, hard truth.
We're very direct with each other. We're also very loving to each other.

Speaker 1 So that's a missing piece, too. You got to come from a place of love, which he did.

Speaker 1 But he's like, don't chase the dollar. For so long, you were chasing money.
Don't chase the dollar. Chase the man.
Or if you're a woman, chase the woman.

Speaker 1 Who you become is going to determine what you get. And for so long, I was just trying to chase money, money, money, money, money, destroying everything.
My path was really self-centered.

Speaker 1 I was making money, my God. Then I got baptized, found my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 Now I was looking to serve others and I was chasing myself on this person so I can can be a better husband, you know, be good to me, a better leader,

Speaker 1 be an example to others, be a standard center, be an overcomer, taking that initiative within myself to help others, right?

Speaker 1 But it all started when I stopped chasing the dollar, started chasing the man. And then when I started doing that, I started loving myself more.

Speaker 1 And when I started loving myself more, now I'm coming from a place of knowingness where things just start clicking. And now I have more confidence, more self-belief.

Speaker 1 Like the way I speak, I can speak with more authority, conviction, and it just helps me all around in life. I love that, dude.
I love that. So, what's your

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 I know you guys are fairly uh new to marriage. When did you guys get married? You and Sarah? So, we got married last year.
She's gonna kill me because I don't have my wedding ring right now. Oh, Stan?

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 1 We left it back in Arizona. I was putting on motion, took it off for a second, and she's like, Where's your wedding ring? Yeah, I'm like, Oops, sorry.
Um, so

Speaker 1 July 31st of last year, i mean i'm sorry july 21st of 2024 there you go we got married we decided we were going on a business trip we were actually gonna go to wealthcon

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 what's his name uh ryan pineda yeah ryan pineda no no no no disrespect no disrespect

Speaker 1 uh but yeah we were gonna go see ryan pineda andy was speaking there so we're going to wealthcon and we're like hey why don't we just get married you had told me you just got married yeah i just got married dude and then i'm like dude i think i'm gonna get married too fuck it and i'm just gonna We just did it, right?

Speaker 1 Success, love speed, man. Yeah, she saved your life, she changed your life, she's a good woman, and she's very productive, and she's smart, dude.
Why wouldn't you wipe her up, right?

Speaker 1 And I think we had that conversation, yeah, right? Because we were like, bro, how long have you done your life? A few months. Oh, and you're ready to get married?

Speaker 1 I was like, yeah, dude, when you know, you know, you know, sure. And that's what it is.
So, all right, dude, let's let's get deep for real quick, just because we're running out of time here.

Speaker 1 So, let me ask you, man,

Speaker 1 you've gone through hell and back, bro. And I feel like with most successful entrepreneurs, you're already successful, but you have a vision for yourself.

Speaker 1 Where do you see yourself in the next year to two years, man? What is it that you want to do? Do you want to build within Andy Elliott? Do you want to build your own personal brand?

Speaker 1 Like, what is your goal? Because I know you and Sierra probably talk about this when you guys are alone. What is your vision for yourself?

Speaker 1 So, this is a very easy question to answer because Andy gives us so so much free range, right?

Speaker 1 We have the capabilities to do eight, nine figures ourselves, right? In the company, of course, that's going to take, that's called the build.

Speaker 1 So it's not something that you could just build right away. It takes a little bit of time, right?

Speaker 1 But as of right now, we're definitely this year, we're going hard on our personal brand, building ourselves up, being the example to others, right? My darkness is a light to others.

Speaker 1 It shows people what's capable of because you can become whatever it is that you want to become. All you got to do is change.

Speaker 1 Say, well, hey, man, some people are like, hey, man, I was thinking about moving to this place because this place is not really suitable. I'm like, okay, move.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but no, buts. Move

Speaker 1 quick.

Speaker 1 The secret to success is urgency. Being urgent.
Make quick decisions. Just take action, right? And that's why a lot of people deal with stress because...

Speaker 1 Stress comes from the decisions and the actions you are avoiding.

Speaker 1 And a lot of people just get stuck and they just allow themselves to get stressed.

Speaker 1 but the more action you take the less stress you have right so if you feel like moving or if something's not serving you leave change

Speaker 1 and then find out if that works but staying where you're at and then hoping and praying is not going to do anything that was me for a very long time what if i fail okay if you fail go to listen if left don't work go right some people are not willing to go left to figure out that right is the right way Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 But, and that's just how success is. That's how entrepreneurship is.
Like sometimes you're going to have to pick and choose different paths, see which one works.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'll take a little bit of this from this one, but this one serves me more. So I'm going to go over here, right? And it's just about making quick decisions.

Speaker 1 But yeah, that's basically it. When a lot of people reach out to me.
Now,

Speaker 1 if you want to design a new life, do exactly what I did. Find someone that you believe in.

Speaker 1 that you can model off of and just learn everything from them. Chew everything up, use some of it, get rid of the rest that works, and then apply it to your life.
And that's what I did.

Speaker 1 So that's basically what I'm doing right now. And that's what real entrepreneurs do in the personal development space.

Speaker 1 They find people who have done it, have a blueprint, they take what they want from it, leave the rest, and then apply it to their life.

Speaker 1 So then they can compress the time frame and then they can change. So that's what we're doing right now.
As right now, our vision for this year is we're building our brand.

Speaker 1 We're building ourselves as a power couple too. Sierra is building herself self-developing.
She's doing all these new programs.

Speaker 1 And, you know we're just looking to get better so the goal is to always get one percent better every single night when we go to sleep we ask ourselves did we get better today or are we still the same person am i still thinking the same was there something that moved me something that i can utilize that i can be a little bit different tomorrow and some of us go every single day

Speaker 1 60 70 000 thoughts a day don't take in any new information and they have the same thoughts they had yesterday same thoughts they they had last week same thoughts they had last month and then the ones like oh well I just want to change and I can't I don't understand it's like you're not doing anything and the only way that you're gonna get better is like you have to take in new information so

Speaker 1 studying like crazy where I'm training every single night reading and honestly I Don't like reading. I wasn't the best reader, but I forced myself.

Speaker 1 And I know eventually, subconsciously, I'll be like, okay, I can do this now. Yeah.
Right. But I'm still working through that.
I read like five, ten pages. so I'm not an avid reader.

Speaker 1 I'm not like Andy that can read a hundred pages in a day, right? He reads, he chews up like through one to two books a week, right? He's just reads a lot, but then that really helps.

Speaker 1 Tommy, what would you recommend as far as just like one or two books that you can recommend to the listeners and the viewers right now?

Speaker 1 One that I really like is Become Your Future Self Now,

Speaker 1 very, very powerful book.

Speaker 1 And then the other one is,

Speaker 1 man, I can't believe I'm having a blank right now. Become your future self now.

Speaker 1 And I think it's the

Speaker 1 power

Speaker 1 of

Speaker 1 positivity. No.

Speaker 1 By

Speaker 1 something Peel. Norman Peel.

Speaker 1 Okay. Power of positivity.
I think it's the power of something positivity. I'm sorry.
I don't remember the exact title. Okay.

Speaker 1 The guy's last name is Peel. P-E-E-L-E.
Okay. I know I'm having a blank right now.

Speaker 1 No, no. But those are really powerful because you want to make sure a lot of people have very negative self-talk.
A lot of people can't. So that's a really good book.

Speaker 1 Or The Power of Positive Thinking, I think it's called. There you go.
There we go.

Speaker 1 Very powerful book because a lot of us are really not good to ourselves. So if you can change and rewire the way you speak to yourself internally, it's not about changing yourself externally.

Speaker 1 It's about changing yourself internally. When you change the way you see things, the things that you see begin to change.
So it has to come from in here, from the heart, from the mind, from you.

Speaker 1 And then become your future self now allows you to start identifying with the person that you want to become. And so many people

Speaker 1 in life,

Speaker 1 they almost

Speaker 1 underestimate or they don't take enough action today

Speaker 1 because they are,

Speaker 1 they can't see themselves as becoming this person in the future in the next five years. So then they don't do the work or they're like, oh, well, I can never become that.

Speaker 1 And then they underestimate that, right?

Speaker 1 and the more you can identify with your future self the more that you're going to be able to so if i see myself as this person in the next five years the actions and the decisions i make today are going to feed that person to bringing it now right and a lot of people can't identify as their future self which then they don't keep they don't make those decisions that are going to move them forward and it's all about the long game like five years is not a lot of time when you're living for 60, 80, 90 years.

Speaker 1 That's just a little small point in your life. So So if you're focusing and identifying as this, so I start seeing myself as this person, I see myself as a worldwide speaker.

Speaker 1 I see myself with a massive brand in five years. I see myself doing, you know, easily like high eight figures, right, of profit.

Speaker 1 I see myself in, you know, still being a coach with Annie Elliott, but being a leader inside of this company, maybe managing a whole organization inside of his company, and also being an entrepreneur in other business, because I'm an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1 I love, I love that, right? The entrepreneurial mindset.

Speaker 1 So I see myself with different types of businesses, big brand changing lives, but the decisions that I'm making today now have to start feeding that person.

Speaker 1 And some of us just, we don't know what we want. And the two hardest questions we can ever ask ourselves is, who am I? And what do I want to do for the rest of my life?

Speaker 1 The moment you figure that out, it then becomes easy. But those are the two hardest questions a human being can answer.
No, absolutely, man.

Speaker 1 What would be three

Speaker 1 needle movers?

Speaker 1 For someone right now who, just like you said, they've been researching. They're like, dude, should I do sales?

Speaker 1 should i get into you know automotive sales should i get into e-comm should i get into these other industries and i'm just in a in in a state of analysis paralysis right so like many of us have been what three don't three needle movers would you tell the person right now that is listening or watching this that they can do today as soon as they're done with this podcast or youtube video that they can execute on to help them with the decision making to move forward that's simple number one

Speaker 1 and action right now that you can do you can change right now like right now apply something as soon as you're done watching this podcast is

Speaker 1 if you have a hard time making decisions and and the reason why you have a hard time making decisions because you don't trust you

Speaker 1 Again, you've been lying to yourself. Would you be in a relationship with someone that consistently lied to you? No.
So this is what happens to a lot of people.

Speaker 1 That's what when they get on the phone with me, I'm someone who makes quick decisions. I'm someone who's really good at that.
Who's going to get all the trust? I am.

Speaker 1 Because the person's not going to be able to because they don't know what to do because they can't even follow through on how to live a productive life. So first things first is

Speaker 1 start taking action with like working on you, focusing on you. Go to the gym, get in better shape.

Speaker 1 If you can master your food, your sleep, and your exercise, that automatically is going to allow you to become more accountable within yourself and you're going to grow very, very quickly because there's a lot of people that do a poor job eating, poor job exercising, and a poor job sleeping.

Speaker 1 And if you can master those three things, you're going to feel good. It's all about feeling good right now.
And so many of us don't feel good.

Speaker 1 We're tired, two o'clock hits, we're exhausted, we don't want to wake up early, we're getting our asses beat before we even get out of bed because we're snoozing.

Speaker 1 So if you go against someone that isn't snoozing, that's holding themselves accountable with their food, their sleep, and their exercise, they're going to beat you every single time.

Speaker 1 So that's what I would do first. Second would be

Speaker 1 someone that you resonate with. Dude, any bob down the street with a with a sales training program.

Speaker 1 A lot of people come to me, they're like, well, Tommy, hey, I think I want to think about this a little bit more, like in a sale. I'm like, okay,

Speaker 1 totally understand. Let me ask you a question.
How long has it been that you've been looking to make more money, get better at sales, and do this? Has it been on your mind the last week or so?

Speaker 1 Well, no, it's been on my mind the last two years. Okay.

Speaker 1 So do you think if you would have got started with something like this two years ago, your life would be in a much better position than you are right now? Well, yes.

Speaker 1 I'm like, hey, can you do me a favor? This is on a sales call. Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you get started with somebody? Dude, you've been thinking about this for two years.
Started.

Speaker 1 Why the heck are we going to repeat the past? Get started with someone. If we don't lock arms and we hop off this call right now, get started with someone because look at the way your life's been.

Speaker 1 And you've been thinking about this for two years. Go to Bob Down the Street.
Something is going to allow you to push that needle forward. But find someone that you like.

Speaker 1 Find someone you can resonate with and start chewing up their program and apply it because if that person has gotten results you can find how they've done it through a program and invest in yourself so you want to self-develop so first hold yourself accountable master your food sleep exercise start self-developing and another one have a relationship with your creator god because i give all glory to the lord the reason why i feel like i've grown so much In such a short period of time, I went from being a drug addict of 16 years, overdosing four times, weighing 145 pounds, being broke to becoming this person that i am right now and the way i wake up in the morning i'm waking up with a different identity a different mindset i get to see things i envision myself so i i play a game we're we were eating at this place called um casa nails

Speaker 1 i'm not sure bro it was a really cool spot it was a really cool spot on the water but then we see this yacht and we're like you know i'm always practicing my mind and being a multi multi-millionaire like okay so all right let's see about that yacht so we're all like okay so that probably yacht's like 80 80 foot like let's see what's that cost right so i start playing like if you want to become a millionaire, then think and act like a millionaire.

Speaker 1 If you're on a yacht and you see all these like palm trees and everything like that, be like, okay, well, I want to live in the house. Well, how much would a house cost? Right? Oh, palm trees.

Speaker 1 Okay, so if I'm going to be making decisions as a millionaire and I want to buy palm trees, I need to find out how much those palm trees are.

Speaker 1 This guy has like 20 palm trees and they're like, I don't know, $80,000 a palm tree. Then I'm like, holy crap, that's $1.6 million in palm trees.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 So it's like, you start to think like a million. Okay, so it's going to cost me 1.6 million in palm trees.
You know, I want a little deck.

Speaker 1 I want a yacht, which will probably cost me like five to ten million dollars for the yacht.

Speaker 1 And now you're starting to play a game because when you're making or you're at that caliber, you're going to start thinking as a different human being.

Speaker 1 So start bringing in that future self into the present moment as much as possible, even if you're not it.

Speaker 1 What did Patrick B. David said? Future truth.

Speaker 1 Future truth. Call things as

Speaker 1 as they're going to become in your life and talk to yourself this way. And that's what I would do as far as taking action.
Pitching.

Speaker 1 I love that. The future looks great, guys.
Future looks bright.

Speaker 1 Emilio, give B-roll on this portion for Tommy. All right.
Last question.

Speaker 1 All right, Tommy. I love everything that you said.
Do you smash this podcast? All right, the final, final question of the pod. All right.

Speaker 1 If you were to give someone right now a word of advice,

Speaker 1 they're going through some shit. They might

Speaker 1 need to find themselves.

Speaker 1 What is one motivational saying

Speaker 1 that is close to your heart that you can help somebody level up, brother? Hey, Rodriguez, are you speaking to me before you even finished? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do it now.

Speaker 1 Do it right now. Do it now.
Do it now. Do it now.
The moment that you feel like, ah, maybe I should do it. No, do it now.
You feel like procrastinating? Do it now.

Speaker 1 If you can just start doing things right now,

Speaker 1 you will begin to change. Anything that should be done today should not be put off for tomorrow.
Do it now. If there's a program and you're on the phone with someone, you know it can help you, do it.

Speaker 1 If you want to move, move. If you need to be a better person, be a better person.
If you're not being the hero to your kids, be the hero to your kids. Do it right now.
You can change right now.

Speaker 1 It's a split decision. They say, you know, you're only one decision away.
It's super true.

Speaker 1 If you can just do things right now and operate this way, the moment you feel like, ah, maybe I should stay in bed and you're like, the moment you feel procrastinating, the moment you feel complacency, the moment you just feel like you want to be in comfort, that voice should speak in your head and be like, do it now.

Speaker 1 All right, do it now. Maybe, you know, you finish eating.
You're like, I'll do the dishes like, do it now. Just do it now.
And start taking more action.

Speaker 1 And you're going to start to change very quickly. I love that, brother.
And where can they find you? They can find me at Thomas Proco T-H-O-M-A-S-P-R-O-C-O. Love it.
Love it. Guys, there you go.

Speaker 1 Tommy from the Elliott group. I mean, you guys need to connect with him on Instagram.
And where can they find Sierra? At Sierra Pro, C-I-E-R-A-P-R-O. Yeah.

Speaker 1 One of the best power couples I know since I've met them, since I've been a part of Andy Elliott's Brotherhood. Guys, I highly recommend that you guys work with them, network with them.

Speaker 1 They're great people, phenomenal network, and they'll also connect you with other multimillionaires. And if you're not a millionaire yet, that's okay.
You will be. All right.

Speaker 1 You just got to connect with the right people to have the proper mindset. With that being said, guys, that wraps it up.
Make sure to follow us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube.

Speaker 1 Okay, make sure to check out, like, subscribe, and make sure to share this with a friend, guys. It could really help change someone's life.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's go ahead and get number one on the business podcast in the U.S. We are currently tracking just top 10 only,

Speaker 1 but no, we want to get to number one, guys. So you guys can help us make us number one and we'll be able to create more value and bring better guests every single time, guys.
My name is Paul Alex.

Speaker 1 Take care. Thanks for listening up to the Level Up Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend, and everyone you know who's ready to level up.

Speaker 1 Leave a five-star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word.

Speaker 1 And don't forget to check out officialpawalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.