Tommy Mello - $1 Billion Company Founder (A1 Garage Doors) | Why Control Keeps You Small

➡️ Join 321,000 people who read my free weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.scottdclary.com   ➡️ Like The Podcast? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstory Tommy Mello is a billionaire entrepreneur and founder of A1 Garage Door Service, which he started in 2007 with $50,000 in debt and transformed into North America's largest independently-owned garage door company, now operating in 19 states with over 700 employees and generating over $200 million in revenue. He is also a bestselling author of books including "Elevate" and "Home Service Millionaire," host of "The Home Service Expert" podcast (ranked in the top 0.1% of podcasts), and an Inc. Magazine columnist who shares strategies for scaling home service businesses. Mello had his first major exit in 2022 with nearly $30 million in EBITDA, distributed $100 million to employees from the transaction, and continues to focus on creating millionaires among his workforce while building toward his goal of reaching multiple billions in company valuation.   ➡️ Show Links https://www.instagram.com/officialtommymello/  https://x.com/RealTommyMello/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommymello/    ➡️ Podcast Sponsors Hubspot - https://hubspot.com/   ShipStation - https://www.shipstation.com/ (Code: SuccessStory) Square - https://square.com/go/success  SurveyMonkey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/scott  Monarch Money - https://www.monarchmoney.com (Code: Success) Claude - https://claude.ai/success  Huel - https://huel.com/scott (Code: scott) Revenued - https://www.revenued.com/  NetSuite - https://netsuite.com/scottclary/  Indeed - https://indeed.com/clary   ➡️ Talking Points 00:00 – Intro 01:25 – Tommy Mello’s Origin Story 09:49 – Scaling From $20M to $500M 12:49 – You Can’t Out-Delegate Me 14:30 – A $100M Exit Gift 20:13 – Sponsor Break 22:57 – You’re Focused on the Wrong Things 25:27 – What Drives Him Now 29:54 – Fear After Winning Big 38:16 – Sponsor Break 40:46 – Taxes Every Founder Misses 45:40 – Why SaaS Is Chasing AI 48:48 – Hire Smarter Than Yourself 52:17 – Life vs Business 58:28 – When Business Becomes Identity 1:02:38 – The Lesson He’d Teach His Kids