🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

Lakota Tidd dropped out of college at 21, started Top Home Improvements in his mom's garage with two lawn chairs and no money, and built it to $20 million in seven years by knocking doors, including the day his pen froze solid in a Michigan blizzard with nothing on the board. No digital marketing, no bought leads: $14 million came from canvassing and events alone, and in March his events team did $1 million in revenue in one week. In this episode he breaks down how he recruits and pays canvassers, why he treats them like kings, the sword and shield mentality that got him through five years as a lone wolf, the scarcity paradigm that kept him stuck at $10 million, why he stopped tracking nothing and built a board, and what he would say to the owner who is spending $40,000 a month on leads that never come.

Top Home Improvements ⟶ https://www.tophomeimprove.com
Follow Top Home Improvements ⟶ https://www.facebook.com/Tophomeimprovements/

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
01:55 - Two Lawn Chairs And A Frozen Pen
04:26 - Lone Wolves Die Alone
06:26 - The Sword And Shield Mentality
08:50 - What You Focus On Grows
10:08 - Treat Your Canvassers Like Kings
11:18 - Fresh Blood Every Single Week
13:32 - Hiring Is Guessing, Firing Is Knowing
16:01 - Competing With The Summer Programs
18:05 - Spending $40K A Month And Waiting For Leads
19:46 - Does Door Knocking Hurt Your Reputation?
21:24 - How Canvassers And Event Reps Get Paid
24:57 - Why $100 Million Is Not The Goal
28:54 - Kids, Leftover Time, And Balance
31:15 - Showers For Soldiers
34:47 - Profit Matters More Than Revenue
35:59 - The Law Of The Lid
38:06 - Build The People, Not The Business
43:20 - The Barbaric Way To $20 Million
45:15 - Enjoy The Bottom While You Have It
48:56 - The Sickness Of Indecision
52:32 - Five Books, Read Many Times
56:31 - Real Confidence Vs Fake Confidence

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

Chau Nguyen sold two tech companies, bought a 1974 Bronco that kept breaking down, and turned that headache into Vintage Modern, a $60 million luxury vehicle company that hand builds classic inspired trucks for LeBron James, Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Lopez, and Tommy himself. He did it with no outside capital and no ad budget: he posted three times a day for seven years, built a following of millions, and made social media his number one sales channel. In this episode he breaks down why organic leads buy at three times the rate of paid leads, why rich customers are tighter with money than most contractors assume, how to market a home service company to the affluent, why the founder has to be the face of the brand now, and the hiring mistake that nearly held his company back.

Vintage Modern ⟶ https://vintagemodern.co
Follow Vintage Modern ⟶ https://www.instagram.com/vintagemodern/

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
01:37 - The Bronco That Made His Wife Smell Like Gas
03:33 - From Coupon Books To A Top 100 App To 40 Cars
06:14 - No Investors: Sales Paid For Everything
07:15 - How Do You Charge For 900 Hours Of Craftsmanship?
10:42 - His Kids Taught Him Instagram
14:23 - Organic Vs Paid: Why Organic Leads Buy 3X More
16:25 - Your Product Probably Has A Hole In It
20:46 - Scarcity, Exclusivity, And Selling To The Elite
26:30 - Why He Has Never Paid An Influencer
29:18 - How A Home Service Company Markets To The Affluent
35:13 - Rich Customers Are Tighter Than You Think
38:12 - The Mark Wahlberg DM And The Tyler Perry Referral
42:16 - Should The Founder Be The Brand?
47:36 - Competing With Ferrari At $60 Million
51:03 - Robotaxis, EVs, And Listening To Paying Customers
54:52 - Productive Paranoia: Why Winning Is The Dangerous Moment
59:07 - The One Piece Of Advice He Has Never Shared
1:03:03 - On His Hands And Knees Under The Car
1:07:36 - The Two Books He Has Listened To 50 Times
1:12:11 - Where To Find Chau
1:13:36 - Grinding From Zero To 5 Million Followers
1:18:00 - What Comes Next For Vintage Modern

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

Sara Nay is the CEO of Duct Tape Marketing and the author of Unchained. In this episode, Sara and Tommy break down why most contractors rent their marketing instead of owning it, which accounts your agency should never control, why referrals alone stall a home service company around $1 million, how to get found in AI search, and the two fixes to make this week if your marketing feels like chaos.

Get Sara's free marketing audit for home service owners ⟶ https://dtm.world/hsep
Duct Tape Marketing ⟶ https://ducttapemarketing.com

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
02:59 - Tommy Spends $5 Million A Month On Marketing
04:34 - Do You Need More Leads Or A Better Journey?
05:58 - What's Broken About The Agency Model
07:47 - The Accounts You Should Own, Not Rent
08:32 - When The Agency Keeps Your Website
11:41 - Random Acts Of Marketing
13:00 - One Person Can't Run Six Marketing Roles
15:33 - Direct Response Or Brand?
16:38 - 87% Of Searches Now Touch AI
19:34 - Should Contractors Publish Prices?
20:38 - The $400 Steakhouse Problem
23:23 - Interview Your Best Clients
23:46 - Record Every Sales Call
28:49 - Nextdoor, Angi, Yelp: Pick Two And Own Them
33:19 - The A Team Sells You, The Interns Run You
34:38 - The Five Questions To Ask Your Best Customers
36:59 - A 91% Booking Rate And The Calls You Still Miss
38:11 - The Money Sitting In Your Old Customer List
39:33 - Why Competition Becomes Irrelevant
41:46 - Why Referrals Alone Are Dangerous
43:14 - The Sign: Pay More Per Lead, Always Win
44:53 - Marketing To The Affluent
47:38 - What Marketers Get Wrong With AI
50:40 - Your Home Page Is What AI Reads First
56:29 - The Founder's Brand Beats The Company's
1:00:06 - Use Your Voice To Pull Stories Out
1:06:30 - Buy Back Your Time
1:09:22 - Delegating Versus Dumping
1:10:24 - Two Fixes To Make This Week
1:13:33 - Sara's Final Advice

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

David Bach is a ten-time New York Times bestselling author and the man behind The Automatic Millionaire. In this episode, David and Tommy break down why $3,000 a year saved from age 15 to 19 beats saving from 27 to 65, the one hour a day rule for retiring a millionaire, why a tech making $250,000 can still be broke, why owners should buy the building their business is in, and David's idea for a flat tax on IRA accounts.

Get The Automatic Millionaire, 20th Anniversary Edition ⟶ https://davidbach.com

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
01:37 - The Number One Rule: Pay Yourself First
03:17 - Save One Hour Of Pay A Day
03:57 - How 565,000 People Became 401(k) Millionaires
06:46 - The Myth About Investing Aggressively When You're Young
07:32 - Tommy's Roth IRA At 16
08:56 - What $20 A Day Becomes
10:06 - The $27.40 A Day Leak
13:38 - The Corvette Ride That Started It
16:19 - Born To Spend Or Born To Budget
18:15 - A Lesson At McDonald's At Age Seven
24:10 - Homeowners Are Worth 40 Times More Than Renters
27:31 - Why A Garage Door Is Worth Financing
28:29 - Buy The Building Your Business Is In
30:04 - Wealthy But Not Free
31:49 - Why High Earners Start To Resent Their Jobs
32:49 - Making $250K With Nothing Saved
35:25 - The Chart: Start At 15, 19 Or 27
39:33 - Why David Holds Zero Private Equity
41:07 - The Advice He Wishes He Had At 20
45:01 - Batteries Included People
48:11 - $46 Trillion Sitting In Retirement Accounts
50:42 - The IRA Flat Tax Idea
58:37 - Social Security In 2033
1:00:48 - Why The Trades Aren't Going Away
1:01:40 - The Barber Who Saved 75% Of His Income
1:04:55 - What Money Taught David About Himself
1:08:10 - Discipline And Non-Negotiables
1:18:05 - What People Said At His Father's Funeral
1:25:00 - The 20th Anniversary Edition

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

Dan Kuschell grew up on welfare in Detroit, built a direct mail company to $1 million in its first year at 22, and now helps home service companies grow through Breakthrough3X. In this episode, Dan and Tommy break down the one message method, why "know, like and trust" is the wrong model, the five pillars Dan found across 5,000 companies, how to ask for introductions instead of referrals, and the family photo mailer Tommy sent to 3,000 neighbors.
Get Dan's free gift package for home service owners

⟶ https://breakthrough3x.com/tommymello
Growth to Freedom Podcast ⟶ https://www.growthtofreedom.com/

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
03:23 - From Welfare In Detroit To A Million Dollar Mail Business
05:05 - The Coach Who Blackballed Him And The Mailer That Fixed It
10:04 - 34,000 Leads A Month And Why Recruiting Comes First
14:44 - A 1 In 500 Surgery Two Weeks After His Son Was Born
16:19 - The Questions That Rebuilt His Life
18:49 - Tommy's Grandmother And The Good Hours
24:18 - The Question That Took Six Weeks To Answer
27:33 - When Being A Man Of Your Word Holds You Back
31:20 - Could You Take 30 Days Off Your Business
34:17 - The One Message Method
39:06 - Five Pillars Found Across 5,000 Companies
42:36 - Why Know, Like And Trust Is Wrong
45:01 - One Post A Week And $5 A Day
46:00 - Agencies That Own Your Website And Ad Accounts
48:28 - Answer Every Lead In A Minute Or Less
52:39 - Why Hiring Ads Bring In Customers
55:35 - Be The Chairman, Not The Technician
1:00:14 - Is Branding A Waste Under $20 Million
1:02:34 - Partner Gifts That Create Referrals
1:08:44 - The Truck That Does Everything And Stands For Nothing
1:09:27 - Fix Your Pricing First
1:13:22 - Stop Asking For Referrals, Ask For This
1:17:28 - A Family Photo Mailed To 3,000 Neighbors
1:20:55 - Where To Find Dan
1:25:38 - Two Books That Shaped Dan
1:26:57 - Play A Bigger Game

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

Dr. Robert Cialdini wrote Influence, the book behind almost every sales training a home service tech has ever sat through. In his second visit with Tommy he goes past the seven principles into the smallest changes that move the biggest numbers: the two words a restaurant added to its booking call that cut no-shows 62%, the one question that took Boy Scout popcorn sales from 15% to 52%, why "967 reviewers" beats "967 reviews," the number one rule of sales every trainer teaches backwards, and the $75,000 envelope Charlie Munger mailed him for a single chapter. Then Tommy puts him on the spot with two live persuasion role-plays.
Learn more from Dr. Cialdini and the Cialdini Institute: https://cialdini.com
Influence Unleashed, December 5 and 6 in Tempe, 75 seats, $500 off with code A1GARAGE

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
00:53 - 75 seats in December
03:16 - Who Robert Cialdini is
04:29 - You already paid for this research
05:44 - What ethical influence actually is
07:17 - The seventh principle: unity
08:01 - The couples study and the word "we"
12:54 - Two words that cut no-shows 62%
14:20 - Chris Voss and getting to "no"
15:00 - The Boy Scout popcorn question
16:35 - Social proof and the McFlurry
18:54 - Say reviewers, not reviews
19:38 - Authority: who vouches for you
21:00 - The number one rule of sales
22:22 - A welcome line that lifts conversions
23:42 - Scarcity done honestly
24:52 - Advice to young Robert
26:40 - Put them in the boat with you
28:19 - Ask for advice, not opinions
29:43 - The $75,000 envelope from Charlie Munger
32:44 - Two mints and a 23% tip
34:16 - Give first, before they decide
37:41 - Why 89% beats 90%
40:06 - Warren Buffett's letters and honesty first
42:37 - "You're worth it"
45:12 - Pre-Suasion: the moment before the message
48:39 - Live role-play: talk me out of your book
50:17 - Building a following the ethical way
51:59 - Rapid fire
54:14 - Charlie Munger on why wealth matters
57:39 - Tommy makes it right with a customer
59:46 - What changed his mind, and what's next

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

Zac Garside spent eight years training CSRs before he noticed the most profitable channel in home service was the one nobody used: the customer list. Now his agency Send It runs email for some of the biggest contractors in the country, including A1. In this episode Zac and Tommy break down why contractors rebuy customers they already paid for, the one-email-a-week plan any company can run tomorrow, the Will/Won't research framework that tells you what homeowners are really afraid of, and why two CSRs with identical scripts book at completely different rates.

Get Zac's free swipe file of 20 top-performing campaigns: https://withsendit.com/expert

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
00:46 - From training CSRs to running email
01:58 - Booking jobs the week you need them
02:54 - How to stay out of the spam folder
04:45 - The subject line has one job
06:35 - The 6x in 60 days guarantee
07:40 - Open estimates first, then members
10:36 - Homeowners read email. Owners don't
13:03 - Email, SMS and direct mail
14:09 - It has to come from a friend
15:54 - Tommy's neighbor letter and $225,000
20:44 - What a good open rate looks like
24:49 - The next wave: personalization
29:31 - The two-year spring campaign
34:31 - Broadcasts, campaigns and automations
37:27 - "You're never talking to them again?"
44:20 - Starting from scratch
45:23 - One email a week, four segments
49:26 - The Will/Won't research framework
52:53 - Same script, 90% vs 50%
55:58 - Making customers feel something
1:00:41 - The easiest ROI in home service
1:03:40 - One piece of advice: trust
1:06:00 - Free swipe file and where to find Zac

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

Revenue is everywhere in home service right now. Profit is not. Tommy sits down with his mentor Al Levi, author of The 7-Power Contractor, and Jim Leslie, president of Home Service Freedom, to break down why: the hiring excuse every contractor uses ("nobody wants to work") and the answer Jim gives back, what a lost tech really costs, the five things of staffing, why you should triple your pricing, why the owner who is the best CSR, dispatcher and tech is the ceiling on his own company, the zero-or-two cranes rule for your org chart, and the listening tour every owner should take this week. Al is retiring at the end of the year. His last small-room session is at Freedom 2026: Monday, October 26, 6 PM, Mandalay Bay. Use code ALFREEDOM at freedomevent.com to unlock a seat in the room with Al and Jim.

Home Service Freedom: https://homeservicefreedom.com | The 7-Power Contractor: https://7powercontractor.com

-- 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐 --
00:00 - Introduction
00:50 - Al, Jim and Freedom 2026
02:03 - Revenue for vanity, profit for sanity
03:49 - Put your pricing online
05:50 - Three kinds of testimonials
06:38 - Lead times and the boom-bust cycle
11:19 - The five things of staffing
11:32 - What a lost tech really costs
12:35 - Al's last room at Freedom
15:00 - The empty truck in your yard
15:44 - Stand on the bridge
16:39 - Triple your pricing
17:51 - Fighting commoditization
22:15 - Would you send me to your mom's house
25:29 - They just don't want to work for you
27:22 - The best CSR, dispatcher and tech
28:15 - Zero cranes or two
30:09 - The five-year org chart trap
32:26 - Burning tokens on technology
35:33 - There is no silver bullet
40:40 - What your accountant should say
42:24 - $2.6 million to the bottom line
46:54 - The listening tour
50:04 - Al's three-month notice
55:57 - One thing to do this week
59:45 - The room at Freedom

🚀 FREEDOM 2026 Get your Tickets Today! https://freedomevent.com

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