Digital Social Hour - Arnold Sports, Mr. Olympia & Building a Business Empire | Tony Taveras DSH #351

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

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I grew up living in my parents' office building, and I quickly realized, like, it was a rogue business. The roofing space was really, really rogue. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. It truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Olympia in the building, Tony Tavares, my man. I love your energy.

Well, I'm not Mr. Olympia. I've competed at the Olympia, so I've got to check that right. Okay. Yeah, I was there at the Olympia a couple of years back with C-Bomb. That's still a big deal, man. Yeah, it was cool. I was about number 16 in the world. Damn.

And that's competitive. I mean, there's millions of people that want that title, you know? Yes, sir. So to be number 16, hats off to you. And you did it in such a short amount of time. Yep, yep. I was reading your stuff. It takes the average person, what, eight years to get into that level?

And you did it in two and a half years. Yeah, it was a pretty amazing run and experience. And it was all within about four or five years. Ended up getting into the sport, won my first show. And, you know, in my third show, I won the overall at Universe, which was in Jersey. And crazy story about that show, walking into that national show. I actually had a hernia open up six weeks before that show, I actually had a hernia open up six weeks before that show was about to commence. And so I had a decision to make walking into that show. Do I continue? And I ended up pushing through and winning the overall national title at Universe.

Doesn't that injury normally take years to recover? No. I mean, you typically can have a surgery and bounce back in a couple of months. But I ended up having surgery right after. I ended up going on and having three top three finishes. Won the Dallas Europa. Went to the Arnold, which was Arnold Schwarzenegger's show. There's 10 athletes invited to that.

And then the last show I did was the Olympia, and this was about two and a half years ago. Baller, man. Did you get to meet Arnold? Yeah, yeah. Arnold's a good dude. What did you say to him? Yeah. I didn't really say much to him. I just shook his hand and it was busy. Yeah. Yeah. I bet he was getting hounded out there. Yeah. Yeah, he was. I mean, he's the GOAT though,

right? That's the OG. That's probably why you started. Yeah. He's incredible. To see what he's done after bodybuilding has been incredible. Right. With the movies, with politics. I mean, he didn't just stop in bodybuilding. He took his mentality and he grew from there. Yeah. And that's, that's inspiring, right? Cause in bodybuilding, you peak at a certain age. You can't do that forever. So to see him transition must've been pretty inspirational for you. Did you have a plan of what you would do after that bodybuilding? You know, bodybuilding, you know, really wasn't the main thing, you know, bodybuilding, you know, really wasn't the main thing. You know, bodybuilding just ended up coming about. I was actually dating a girl years back, and it was on her bucket list.

So it wasn't even part of my plan. Oh, it was on her bucket list. It was on her bucket list. And it ended up becoming, you know, one of my big things of my life. I mean, I was an ex-football player. Yeah. You know, played ball at North Texas, ended up having a pretty bad injury and ended up getting to the fitness space. I was one of the top training

directors at LA Fitness for many years, ended up becoming their youngest vice president for LA Fitness and are helping scale that company. So bodybuilding ended up just happening. I had a love for fitness and a passion for lifting weights, but it just kind of came into the story about seven years ago. Nice. And at LA Fitness, you climbed the ranks. What do you think made for fitness and a passion for lifting weights, but it just kind of came into the story about seven years ago. Nice. And at LA Fitness, you climbed the ranks. What do you think made you stand out there? Because you had a lot of coworkers that were there for years prior to even you getting there and you just shot through the ranks. Yeah. So, you know, I started LA Fitness, I was 21 years old. I was a kid. I was a green bean. I didn't really know sales at the time. I was just going off of

energy and excitement and my love for lifting weights. And I was basically taking people through their initial workouts and assessments and basically uncovering what their goals were. And so I just had a passion for it and a love for helping people. But I think ultimately what allowed me to rise up the ranks was, you know, the belief in myself that I could. You know, I talk about something with my company now and my leaders, you know, and I ask people, I said, what do they think is more important? Is it ability? Is it knowledge or is it belief? And, you know, some people think, well, I need to know. I need to know what to do or I need this ability to execute. But really, in fact, when you believe that you can do it and you can become one of the best, you're going to figure it out.

Right. So I ended up burning the boats when I went into L.A. Fitness. I actually dropped out of school. Yeah. You know, my parents were on me with discipline. I was recruited by Harvard and Princeton. Holy crap. Yeah.

Walking away from school was recruited by Harvard and Princeton. So holy crap. Yeah. Walking away from school was no joke to my dad. So, you know, I ended up burning the boats and I had this belief in myself that I could be one of the best in the organization. And I worked at it every single day and I had a passion behind it and I was able to separate myself very quickly. So when you say burning the boat, shout out to the hustle daily show guys part of the hub spot network which is the audio destination business builder the hustle daily show is your daily dose of business tech and news and they got original stories which keeps you in the loop on what's trending in the business world it's very important to stay up to date on what's trending guys right now obviously

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they recently did one on 3d printing houses which i thought was super interesting search for the hustle daily show in your favorite podcast app guys like the one you're using right now now here's the show you say burning the boats you're saying you cut off the relationship with your parents for a bit no no no burn burn the boats in terms of the path of school and that path that I was on. Got it. So basically, I couldn't drop out of school and then walk into this path and say, hey, dad, I'm going to go be a director at LA Fitness and then fail. So I had no plan B. I had no plan C.

And so I had to figure it out. And then I quickly rose up the ranks. I became the youngest VP in the company at 24 years old, became a regional. I was on the acquisition team. So I was in the fitness space for about eight, nine years at the highest level in the game. And so I was at the point where I was making 200, 250K a year. I was doing well. I was running the whole West coast of Florida for fitness. So Tampa all the way down to Naples, I ran all those sports clubs. Crazy. And I was 27 years old. So, you know, and then I ended up having an opportunity with my mentor,

the guy who actually interviewed me for my final interview at LA Fitness when I was 21 years old. I can't make up this story. He is the CEO of the company I'm with now. Wow. So, you know, we were in LA Fitness. He was a top executive VP for LA Fitness for over 20 years. And, you know, I was his prodigy growing up in that business and that organization. And then eight, nine years into LA Fitness, he shows me this model of the roofing game. Like the roofing game.

I knew nothing about roofing. And lo and behold, we ended up building this business, which I'm sure we're going to get into talking about today. Yeah, that's insane. So he left first and then he recruited you? No, I actually flew out to meet him for his birthday one year. I mean, I was a regional at the time, ended up coming out to Texas to visit him for his birthday. And he shows me that he started this company on the side, just this small roofing company, Linear Roofing. He had about three roofers on the side, and he shows me the model,

shows me how the insurance game worked, and my parents at the time owned one of the largest insurance licensing companies in America. So I grew up living in my parents' office building, watching them work with insurance carriers like Chubb, AIG, some of the biggest carriers in the world. And I quickly realized, like, it was a rogue business.

The roofing space was really, really rogue. I mean, you had guys that were just not following through with their word, you know, running away with checks from customers. I mean, it was like the wild, wild west. So when he showed me the model, I was like, man, there's an opportunity. If we come into this space and we bring a level of professionalism and salesmanship and the culture that we were able to build for our regions at LA Fitness at the time, and we can translate that into our own business, I said, the sky's the limit. So I ended up resigning from my regional VP role where I was making great money.

Yeah, 250 a year. 250 a year. I was 27, and I sold all my stuff. I moved out to Texas, and I started knocking doors in the roofing space. Wow. Yeah, this was about nine years ago. That's crazy. What were your parents' reaction to you taking that job?

Yeah, at that point, it was interesting because now my dad trusts my instincts at this point, right? So, and he knew Kurt. His name is Kurt Lenington, who's the CEO is one of my mentors. And, uh, you know, they said, man, if you're doing it with Kurt, I'm sure it's going to be great. I'm sure you're going to do great. So they trusted me. Uh, but everyone else around me thought I was, they thought I was crazy. It's a big shift. Yeah, it was a big shift. And it was an industry that, you know, typically it's, you know, thought of at the time, blue collar, you're knocking doors, it's not glamorous.

And I just put my head down and started figuring it out and started knocking doors. And basically I had to look at it. I had no bad habits. I wasn't in the roofing space. I knew nothing about roofing. So I was able to come in with a blank canvas, so to speak, and basically create a process and try and understand if I was a homeowner on the other side, how would I like to be treated through this insurance claims process?

How would I like to be talked to? How would I like to be approached? How would I like to be, you know, signed up on the table? And we just started one by one by one, evolved it. And now, you know, we have a process where I could literally, I could bring in a pizza boy into our company and organization with our training and our boot camps. And we could get someone with no salesmanship, no ability, no experience. We can get them making, you know, over $200,000 a year very fast. Wow.

Very, very fast. So people really buy roofing door to door? Oh, I mean, well, it's the insurance. It's an insurance restoration space. So storm damage. I mean, there's 100,000 contractors across the U.S. I mean, the industry is massive. So all these storms that occur across the country, talk about hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms.

I mean, it's constant, and it seems like it's getting worse. There were some floods here last week, actually, in Vegas. Was it? Yeah. It was crazy. Flash floods. Yeah. So we don't deal as much with the flooding. Um, we more so deal with the roofing and things that can get damaged from, you know, uh, hail and wind and those kinds of things. But you know, the damage is significant because when hailstones come down, you're talking about two inch, three inch hailstones. These are like meteors coming down from the sky and they're,ising your roofing system. You don't really realize it. If you're driving around in your car and you're in a hailstorm, your windshield gets cracked, you act immediately because you see it. It's a pain point. But for us, basically we're teaching

those in our organization to be able to go out to these affected areas where sometimes an affected area has, you know, four or 500,000 homes that are affected. But most homeowners, 30% of them may file a claim when that storm happens, but there's another 70% of them that don't. They're just not aware. Wow. So our guys go out, they knock doors, they make them aware, they do an inspection, they walk them through the process. We call insurance and then we're able to replace the roof and do it the right way. So it's a big industry. And the key is it's such a great service, right? Because they're not paying you. You're getting paid from the insurance. Yes. So there's no risk on there. There you go. So all they simply have to do is pay a deductible.

Right. So customers paying a deductible, it's almost like if I was having open heart surgery, my life is on the line. Am I going to go with the surgeon with 30 years of experience with all the accreditations? Or am I going to go with someone that just got out of college, just got his degree and just is starting to figure it out? I'm going to go with the best of the best if insurance is paying it. And so, you know, all they have to pay is the deductible. And we we knock it out the park from start to finish. I love it. Talk to me about the transition the first year.

So from L.A. Fitness, you moved to Texas. That first year, how tough was that? Man, first year was, had nobody that taught me any scripts. You know, so you talk about knocking doors in Texas. I'm a big dude, right? I'm a big dude knocking people's door. I bet you're robbing them. You know, I mean, yeah. I mean, I've had a gun. Damn. I've had someone show up to the door with

a gun. You know, this is serious stuff, you know? So yeah, that first year was, it was tough. But I knew I had no, once again, I had no plan B, no plan C. So I had to figure it out. I remember nights in that first year where I was up till 1, 2 AM in the morning, just writing down scripts. How would I approach someone at a door? What do I need to say? Because most people in the roofing space, they're simply knocking a door and they're trying to give away something free. They don't have much value in themselves. So in my approach with how I teach our sales organization is you have to assume the sale. You have to go with confidence that they need us. We don't need them, right? So with everything that we do, we're assuming that sale. And for instance, most roofers get off that roof

and the first thing that they want to do is they want to throw the damage in someone's face. They want to show them all the damage that they have because they're looking to make a sale. But really, you should be trying to educate that person and overcoming the objections that you already know that you're going to face. And then you're able to show the damage. You're just educating them on the process. And then ultimately, when you've given them all this education, they understand that insurance would rather be proactive than reactive. They want to pay for this now. Like your roof is compromised. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when you're going to have leaks coming into your home. It's like they're at the point where they're asking you what to do. I'm the doctor, right? So it gets to the

point where you're just telling them, this is what we're going to do. This is how we're going to do it. And so that's the approach that my guys have. It's very different than many in the roofing space. Have that confidence. Yeah. When someone's confident, it definitely impacts the conversation. Yep. Yep. Yeah. What do you think of Andy Elliott and the way he trains? Oh, I think it's, I think it's fantastic. I don't, I don't, I'm not, I don't follow Andy as much. Um, you know, Eric Thomas is one of my good buddies. Yeah. I work with him often. Patrick Bet-David, I think, is fantastic. I don't study Andy's material much, but he has great content.

Yeah, he's a little bit of a place these days, man. Yeah, he's phenomenal. A couple of your tweets and IG posts I want to talk about. You got pretty emotional on some of them. You said your mom wrote you a letter that changed your life. What happened there? That's right. I was in college. I mean, that's when I ended up having a bad injury in football. You know, my dream at

that time was to go to the NFL. That was in my dream. I was, you know, since I was eight years old, all I wanted to do was play ball in the NFL. And I remember I got cut on a kickoff, actually, my freshman redshirt year. Hip and pelvis came out of alignment. So that nerve was jacked up. Yeah, I couldn't even walk. Holy crap. Yeah, I was seeing a specialist for months. I had these sharp pains coming up my pelvis.

And I ended up having to leave the sport. And there was about a three to six month period there where I just went into darkness. I got into fraternities. I started doing the wrong things, hanging out with the wrong people. And I remember my mom ended up sending me this letter and said, I didn't raise my son to be this way. Wow. How'd she find out about it? When you get a letter like that from your mom, she saw what I was doing. She saw I was going down on the wrong path. I remember I had this crazy breakup in college and I end up calling him at three in the morning calling my dad.

And so I was in that zone. I was in a dark place. I was I was around the wrong people. And so she just needed to jolt me at the time. You know, my dad always said, son, when your light bulb switch turns on, you're going to be unstoppable. And thank God that it ended up turning on pretty quick after that. And I ended up, you know, taking the path that I've taken now. That's big, man. Cause a lot of people get in that phase, right? That dark phase

and they stay in it. Absolutely. You were able to get out of it quick. Yep. Yep. You know, cause I know, you know, that's a common thing with college people. And I had someone on last week, he said he lost 30 friends to overdoses in his fraternity. Damn. Yeah. It's a real problem, man. Yeah. That fraternity life. I mean, there's, there's pros to it with the networking and stuff. But sometimes with the parties, people get wrapped up in that stuff. Yeah. That's why I ended up leaving school. I ended up figuring out it wasn't for me.

It was a lie. It was fake. I was running around partying. I wasn't studying. I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do in school. And I said, I need to figure my life out here. And that's when I took the leap into LA. Same, man.

Yeah, I dropped out sophomore year. Did you? Just like you said, parties, just trying to hook up with girls. It wasn't productive, man, to be honest. When there's that many distractions around you as a young man who grew up in a disciplined life, especially yourself with strict parents,

temptations give in. Yeah. You know, it's hard to control sometimes. Yeah. You also read a book that changed your life called The Alchemist. with strict parents, temptations give in. It's hard to control sometimes. You also read a book that changed your life called The Alchemist. Man, that book right there. Read it about two years ago. Shifted everything.

Wow, so recently. Everything, yeah. And it's crazy because I ended up seeing this book on a Will Smith video, Secrets to Success by Will Smith. I was just studying people. I was coming up in the game and I'm constantly every morning trying to line my mind and my thoughts up with positive energy and frequency. That way I can go into my day and exude these positive things and new messages that I've received in the morning. So I ended up watching a Will Smith video and

he talked about that was one of his favorite books. So I ended up going and getting it. But that book talking about the fact that are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest? We'll click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life, click the application link below. And here's the episode, guys. You know, if you want something bad enough, the universe will actually conspire to help you go get it. And the more and more that I start to realize and I start to understand the internal and the source and being able to tap into God because it talks about in that book It talks about that. We are we are all one that we are all from the same source We are all from the same power right right and that we are creators Ourselves right and I and I truly believe that you know, I'm reading another book now

Called conversations with God, but it's very much in alignment with The Alchemist, and it talks about a lot of the same things. It talks about three different laws in that book. The first law it talks about, it talks about thoughts are pure energy and thoughts are very creative. And whatever you think you can do, you can become, you can have anything you want. And I really believe that based on everything I've been able to do and manifest in my life over the last couple of years. The second law talks about, it talks about emotion and how that power attracts, emotion attracts, and it talks about how fear attracts like energy. The third one it talks about, it talks about love is all there is. Love is all there ever will be. And when you're in love and experiencing love,

you're at the highest truth of God. So when you align all that together, I truly believe that your thoughts can create a reality, whatever you deem to visualize. Like right now, for instance, you know, I'm getting ready for my next Olympia run, right? And just an example of this, whenever I'm in alignment, like the alchemist talks about, when you're in alignment with your personal legend, you're on the path of your personal legend. You are going to be hearing things from the universe. You're going to be seeing omens. You're going to be seeing things that confirm that you're on the right path of your destiny. Right. And so like right now, for instance, I'll be going to the gym. I wake up every day at five 30 in the morning. I head

to the gym and I'm in the vehicle and I'm visualizing in my head because I understand this power of being able to think what you want and be able to put emotion behind it because that emotion is going to attract. And I just find myself crying. Wow. I literally find myself going to the gym in tears, thinking about the moment, being on stage again, winning my next pro title. And that's how I know I'm in alignment. That's how I know I'm on the path. Like if, if people are not feeling that type of emotion towards whatever they're after, they have to really think about, am I on the path that I'm supposed to be internally for my soul? Yeah, dude, I love that. There's very few people that I meet that are really in alignment, to be honest. It's, it's, it's a lifelong mission for some people and some people never reach alignment. I've had my own

father. He never forgave his parents for certain things and his whole life he lived with that on his chest. You know what I mean? So to see you have that, and I could feel it, man. The first thing I said to you was, I love your energy. And that's the first thing I noticed about people when I meet them, their energy. Cause you could feel that if you're really in touch. Yeah. And I, and I remember years back when I've been my darkest moments, even when I had ton, the most money I ever had at that time up to that point, there was times that I was in the darkest place mentally that I had ever been. Wow. It's like living in all this material stuff. Like these are just suits on us right now. It's like living in all this material stuff. Like these are just suits on us right now. It's like there's so much more to the internal and to figuring out why are we really here?

And it also just understanding now even reading just a lot of these type of books talking about why are we really here? And for me now it's to truly create the person I want to be. I want to become someone that will inspire others to want to create their dream life for themselves. So it's just an ever ongoing process of becoming who you want to be. You got to decide, who do you want to be? Do you want to be someone that's known as being disciplined and loving and a great father and someone that is stepping up to the plate and positive for everyone around them? And you got to decide that for yourself and step into that every single day. Absolutely. And when you dive into that spiritual

journey, it's interesting because sometimes your friends aren't there to support it. Yeah. And I'm sure you've had to cut off some people that didn't share your vision. Absolutely. And I had to do the same. And it's, it's interesting because you realize they were holding you back in a way. 100%. But as I've met a lot of successful entrepreneurs and it's, it's part of the game because if you hang out with them, they're kind of holding you back. Absolutely. So I was going to drain you. Yeah. Was that a tough decision for you? Oh yeah. I cut off a lot of people over the last few years. I've made a lot of decisions that, you know, society around me may have looked at like, oh, that's wrong. There is no, there is no right and wrong in this thing. And this game of life,

there really is no right and wrong. So I don't look at people and think, oh, they're wrong for doing that because that's my perception. I'm judging. I don't need to judge anyone. So I really understand what this is all about. That's not real. Interesting. That's fraudulent. That's fake.

Wow, we're getting deep here. Yeah, we're getting deep. There's no right and wrong. It's whatever you make it, whatever you want this time on earth to be. I try my best because I used to be super judgmental, right? I grew up in a household where that was common and it rubbed off on me for a while. I try my best not to judge. And when I do find myself judging, it's usually due to an insecurity of mine.

100%. But it takes certain awareness to get to that stage. Because a lot of people have that victim mentality. A lot of people talk shit. They learned it in school, gossiping. And it's really toxic, honestly. It is. Because then you allow, once you, to your point, when you have that awareness, you stop giving a shit about what anyone thinks.

Exactly. You do not care. Yeah. You just step into your truth. You know, and, you know, one of the other books I love is The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. The first agreement is being impeccable with your word, but being impeccable to your core for me and stepping into that truth. If you can live in your own truth, who cares what anybody else thinks as long as you're happy with yourself. Facts.

And you also realize people are innately selfish, right? So I was scared to post on social media for six years. And I didn't do any podcasts or anything, even though I had all these amazing guests that I could have on. And looking back, it was because I feared what people thought of me. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I think a lot of people have that fear, but when you start posting, people don't really give a shit, dude. Yeah. That's what I noticed. Fear. Fear is an interesting one because really when it comes down to it, the two things that encompass everything is fear and love. Fear and love.

Everything that we're doing, every communication that we have, it's all there is, then you're trying to figure out in every moment, how can I step into love rather than stepping from a place of fear? Wow. That's deep. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm trying to live it now. I'm not there fully yet, but I'm thinking about it. I'm aware of it. I'm like, how do I, even, even in a situation at work, you know, where I have, I have an employee or a contractor doing something that they maybe weren't supposed to be doing. How do I approach this person and correct this person and, and, and do it out of a place of love because I care about this person. I want to see them succeed. I want to see them win. So I start thinking about that, living out of that energy space always. I love that this year I'm working on my biggest fear

and trying to overcome it. So my biggest fear is conflict. So when I was a kid, if there was an argument, I would walk away. I was an avoided personality. So that's what I do now in business. When there's disagreements, I step away. And it's actually really bad

because you don't address the problem. So this year I'm really working on it and it's tough. Damn. You got to attack what you fear. You got to attack it so you can get better at it. But it's interesting you say that because when it comes to hitting things head on with conflict, something that was big for our sales organization this year when we started the year, I ended up having a meeting with everyone, all of my team leads. And an underlying tone that we're talking about often is, you know, there was a quote that I read the other day from Doc Rivers, you know, average players, they want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached.

The great players want to be told the truth. They want to be told the absolute truth. You think Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant didn't want Phil Jackson to dissect their game and tell them, how do you become the best in the world? So it's like, we're talking about those things to my leader. So now when we do have conflict, because there's very much, there's conflict all the time in business as you're scaling and growing an organization, there's always going to be stuff happening. But I'm letting them know that if you want to be great, you're going to want to be told the truth and discipline. And we're talking about discipline with our organization. The only way you really find discipline is if you allow yourself to tell

yourself the truth, because most people will lie to themselves and tell themselves that they're doing great when they really ain't doing it and they're underperforming or they're not being who they should be. And so they fool themselves and they don't find discipline. But if you tell yourself the truth, discipline will find you. So we're, we're talking about these things because when we do have conflict now, we're going to hit it head on. I'm going to tell you straight up exactly what I think. And I'm going to look at you in the eyes and I'm going to tell you the truth of what we need to do to correct this. Because once again, you want to be great, don't you?

Right. Absolutely. Do you find when you tell people directly head on that their ego gets in the way sometimes? Oh, absolutely. It does. And I think it, you know, I think it comes down to me being able to get them to understand that I do have the best intentions for them. Right. You know, I think, I think, you know, some, some leaders or some sales organizations, they feel like maybe the people at the top don't have their best interest or there's times where those leaders are missing half the

time and they're not really doing much themselves. So if you're a hypocrite and you're really not working or you're not really showing up to be your best for the organization or whatever your craft every single day, it's very hard for those that are following you to respect you and listen to you. But if you're doing that and you're leading from the front, hell, they know I'm up every day, five 30, I'm working out at six 30, I'm grinding, I'm doing everything I can to become the best version of myself. And I just want the same for you. So if that's an alignment and they know that, then they know I'm never going to tell them something to hurt them. Right. And so, so now our organization is just, our leadership is blossoming. Love that.

With understanding these concepts of truth and discipline. I love that because I've had minimal corporate experience. But the one job I did have, there was no respect for my boss because he didn't have that work ethic. So he would hop on calls once in a blue moon. I don't even know if he was working, honestly. And yeah, there's no respect there. You don't even want to listen to him. He can't coach you.

Period. When it comes to leadership styles, a lot of bosses rule by fear. You mess up, you're fired. That was a common thing growing up. Do you see a shift in that lately? A shift with what? Leadership styles, people being more open to, I don't know how to word it. Yeah, I do.

I think you're still going to have those leaders out there that are still going to operate off of that, right? I think there's many types, but I think more people are becoming aware of these concepts of coming from a place of love. Right. You know, and it's definitely helped our shift. I mean, in corporate America, back when I was in the L.A. fitness, you know, corporate, there were a lot of situations where, you know, people were managing based on that. And then eventually some people would get programmed where that was the only thing that they were used to. So we've had a lot of people come on board to our company now, which was Linear Roofing, which is now Stronghouse Solutions, which were used to that fear management. So sometimes it takes a little while to get them to be able to perform and adapt and be motivated and inspired from a place of love because they're looking for this fear type. They're looking for if I don't perform, I'm going to lose my job.

So I need that to move. So it is a shift, but I feel like it's the best thing to go on the side of love rather than fear. Yeah, absolutely. All the time. I agree. Some people try to like not mix business and personal lives. Do you have an opinion on whether the two should be integrated within a company? It's interesting because when we were smaller, when we were coming up, we had 10 guys, then it's 20 guys. It was very easy to stay connected and you're always hanging out together. But as the company is scaling and now we're national, we're all over it. You have to kind of separate it a little bit more. You have to protect yourself a little bit more. You know, I think I think there's a place you need to understand

what's going on in that person's personal life and be connected and understand their family and their why and their purpose and what's driving them and truly care about their success and their progress with their personal and with their family. But that doesn't mean that now when I have a thousand people in the organization that I could be in touch and a part of all of it, because then you're going to be spread too thin. Dan, you got a thousand? Oh, yeah. I mean, now in the organization, we have six roofing companies under one umbrella.

Jeez. You know, we transacted with private equity a year and a half ago. Linear Roofing did, which I was a part of. I was the executive vice president with linear roofing wow we transacted for the largest insurance residential roofing transaction ever damn in the history of the space can you say the amount or no no it's over 100 million holy but um that was just residential roofing right so now we're with a platform and now we have six roofing brands under one platform and now we're acquiring other roofing. So now we're with a platform and now we have six roofing brands under one platform. And

now we're acquiring other roofing brands across the space. So it's now, yeah, now we have a lot of, a lot. It's a machine. It's going to be a billion dollar company. So right now, I mean, in terms of revenue, we're going to be doing over this year, over $500 million in revenue. So, you know, our, our, our evaluation is going to be over $1.5 billion when we go back to market well over, well over. So hats off to you. Yeah. We should be going back to market. I'm sure by the beginning of next year. And the fact you're doing that with the bodybuilding, that's two full-time jobs in one. And you got the spiritual side of the line too. It's super impressive, dude. Yep.

It's been cool. I mean, those two, and then, you know, at one point as we were building this thing, I was able to get on HGTV. Wow. That was fun. That was cool.

So I was able to, ended up helping start a show called No Demo Reno with Jennifer Todrick. That was second on the show. So I ended up doing that. So that kind of put the name out there a little bit more. And that was a fun experience. Love that, man. Well, where can people find you and do you have anything to promote? Yeah. So you could find me Tony goat, Tony goat, underscore Tavares. Uh,

that's on IgE, Facebook, Tony Tavares and look up strong house solutions. The thing about strong house solutions now, I mean, when you think about it, storms are constant. We're going to be that national roofing company that's going to be able to be there for any storm that occurs across the country. That's what we're scaling to. We're scaling to the point where insurance carriers are going to want to partner with us directly. So when storms start to hit in those areas and in big cities, we'll be called out to help those carriers and get those roofs back to pre-storm conditions. So find us Stronghouse Solutions. I run directly linear roofing as well. Yeah. Love it, man. Thanks so much for coming on. Absolutely. Super inspirational. Thank you for having us. Thanks for watching as

always. See you tomorrow.